Great years with no major victory-women

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
Thought this would be fun.

What are some players and years where you look back and go "it's a shame she didn't win a major that year"

A few to start

Davenport in 2005
Dementieva in 2004
Clijsters in 2003
Hingis in 2000
Vicario in 95-96
Martinez in 95
 

BTURNER

Legend
LOL, this is not a thread where Evert will be discussed at length. But she was within a game or so of going 14 years consecutively but for Maggie's tenacity in Paris in '73. I don't think a lot of the pros of her era feel tears welling up though.
 
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Gizo

Hall of Fame
Clijsters had 90 match wins in 2003. She entered 21 tournaments that year, and reached the semi-finals or better in 20 of them. Her only early round exit was in Toronto which was her 4th consecutive week of tournament play (or 5th if you include the Fed Cup). She won titles on all surfaces in pretty much every part of the season.

Each of her 4 defeats at the majors was frustrating for different reasons. In Melbourne she choked away a 5-1 final set lead and a match point on her serve against Serena in the semis, although of course you have pay tribute to Serena's amazing fighting spirit. At RG she froze like a deer in the headlights and never turned up against Henin in the final. At Wimbledon she lost in the semis to Venus who had a big stomach injury and was in all sorts of pain, and simply wasn't ruthless enough. And at the US Open, she was well beaten in the final by Henin who had needed an IV drip after her gruelling semi-final and late finish the day before.
 
Clijsters had 90 match wins in 2003. She entered 21 tournaments that year, and reached the semi-finals or better in 20 of them. Her only early round exit was in Toronto which was her 4th consecutive week of tournament play (or 5th if you include the Fed Cup). She won titles on all surfaces in pretty much every part of the season.

Each of her 4 defeats at the majors was frustrating for different reasons. In Melbourne she choked away a 5-1 final set lead and a match point on her serve against Serena in the semis, although of course you have pay tribute to Serena's amazing fighting spirit. At RG she froze like a deer in the headlights and never turned up against Henin in the final. At Wimbledon she lost in the semis to Venus who had a big stomach injury and was in all sorts of pain, and simply wasn't ruthless enough. And at the US Open, she was well beaten in the final by Henin who had needed an IV drip after her gruelling semi-final and late finish the day before.

While your assessment is right on it could also be said:

Australian Open- even if she had closed out Serena as she clearly should have (although some credit must be given to Serena for her legendary fight and raising her game considerably too), she might well have lost the final to Venus. Venus was playing extremely well, probably better than Serena at this event but had the mental block, and at this point did well in the match up with Kim. I actually believe Venus would have won.

French Open- Even if she played well she would probably lose to Henin on clay.

Wimbledon- Even if she had beaten Venus, which she should given the state Venus was in, she would almost certainly lose to Serena on grass in the final.

U.S Open- OK this is the most obvious one. The other 3 though I cant really say she would have won necessarily though. Even here she would be lucky with both Williams not playing, and Capriati-Henin killing themselves in the other semi with the one physically wounded by it (Capriati wasn't from what I know) being the survivor.
 

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
Clijsters in 2003 was flat out amazing but was in the shadow of Serena, Venus and Henin. She made 15 tournament finals and won 9 of them, including Indian Wells and the YEC. It was also the only year of her career she made the SF or better at all 4 majors.
 

pc1

G.O.A.T.
I thought Kim was tremendous. Despite her great career I felt she should have done so much more. I remember her US Open semi against Serena a few years ago. Serena was just playing super tennis but Clijsters was flat out better. It was one of the finest women's matches I've seen.

 

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
To elaborate on a few others

Martinez in 95- I'm not a huge Martinez lover but 1995 was maybe her best year form wise. I know she won a major in 94 but the draw was a gift, she got no gifts in 95 and if she had she would have won then and probably more convincingly. She made all 4 major semifinals, had a 22 match clay court win streak that was snapped at the French by Graf herself. She won 6 singles titles. Reached #2 in the world. Vicario and Graf were just to much for her.

Davenport in 2005- only player to reach the QF or better at all 4 majors and one of only 2 to reach 2 major finals (the other being Pierce who also didn't win one). Played the longest ever Wimbledon final against Venus (I believe it is the longest?). Won 6 titles and made a further 4 finals.

Dementieva in 2004- reached 2 major finals, losing both to fellow Russians. One due to her own choking at the idea of winning a major/being in her first final/being first Russian woman to win a major. The other was due in part to injury. Sadly she only won 1 title, lost the Miami final to Serena.

Vicario in 95-96- pretty Self explanatory...Graf was just always in the way much.
 
Martinez should have won the 95 French. She was in better form than Graf and Sanchez Vicario at the time, and had utterly dominated the clay court season. She played a horrendous match in the French Open semis with Graf, her worst of the season by far, and Graf played her best match on clay yet that year. It still went 3 sets and Martinez blew a chance at 3-3, 0-40 on Graf's serve. Her best chance ever to win RG although their were others.

She even had a real shot at Wimbledon, and probably should have beaten Sanchez Vicario on grass in the semis, but like all the slams that year her form began to dip starting with the quarterfinals. Although I think she probably still loses to Graf in the final, especialy after Graf had just beaten her on clay when Martinez was favored.

Her 2 hard court slam semis were sucky performances, but she cant deal with big hitters like Pierce and Seles in top form on those true bouncing courts anyway.
 

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
LOL, this is not a thread where Evert will be discussed at length. But she was within a game or so of going 14 years consecutively but for Maggie's tenacity in Paris in '73. I don't think a lot of the pros of her era feel tears welling up though.

Well.....there was that one year where she made 2 Slam finals, won 12 titles but had no major win.... 1972 heh heh. That year could actually be debated here quite confidently against any of the others I mentioned.
 
Chris also had a really great year in 1973 without a slam title. So she has 2 years that could fit in here, to go along with her 13 year streak of winning atleast 1 major.
 

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
Chris also had a really great year in 1973 without a slam title. So she has 2 years that could fit in here, to go along with her 13 year streak of winning atleast 1 major.

Ya I meant 1973 LOL. I mistyped. But Evert was a decent player in 1972-73 and still playing well in 1987-88 all years she didn't win a major. Although the year I would include in this thread is 1973.

And im glad someone mentioned hart in 1953. Doris was an excellent player who rivaled Evert in consistency for her time. She entered I believe 35 majors and made the QFs or better at 33 of them, my numbers may be off but I believe she only lost before the QFS twice. 1953 only Connolly was superior to her.
 
Hart played her best ever tennis while Maureen Connolly was so dominant. That really hurt her career. She would stand clearly above even Brought and Du Pont otherwise, whereas now she is generally seen as inferior to them, despite having 6 slams like them and the Career Slam which they don't.
 

BTURNER

Legend
Ya I meant 1973 LOL. I mistyped. But Evert was a decent player in 1972-73 and still playing well in 1987-88 all years she didn't win a major. Although the year I would include in this thread is 1973.

And im glad someone mentioned hart in 1953. Doris was an excellent player who rivaled Evert in consistency for her time. She entered I believe 35 majors and made the QFs or better at 33 of them, my numbers may be off but I believe she only lost before the QFS twice. 1953 only Connolly was superior to her.

I think we are all on the same year because it so much more likely I 1973 than in 1987 with both Graf and Martina at the helm. I pick RG because she was literally points away of doing it. Evert really should feel fortunate to have even gotten into the final of a grass major with so green a grass court game, and so deep and experienced a top tier of great grass courters. Evert had no serious hope of taking down King in the final, and there was still a sense of inevitability to Young Chrissie losing to one of the top five grass courters in the course of a deep draw.

Yet on second thought, Evert was so solid at Kooyoung, and had she entered in 1987, I see her as having a good chance of beating either Hana or Martina. That grass was kinder to her game, and she was still devastating against any S/ver on grass. However tough she played Martina at Wimbledon, she had near parity in results in the Aussie circuit when she was having real problems with Martina elsewhere.

Except for one really bad final set, against Goolagong in her 1974 final, her very first trip, nobody ever took her down bad. I will research for bad results though
 
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I agree Evert would have had a good shot at winning the 87 Aussie on the Kooyoung grass, especialy with Hana pulling the big upset over Martina in the final. Then again she probably would have been fortunate for Graf to not play, and I only mention that since I always feel if you speculate on so and so willingly not playing sans injury, it only makes sense if you do it for everyone.

In 87 she showed some good form at times but it was very patchy, I don't recall her winning many tournaments, she played pretty meekly in her losses at the French and U.S Open but surprisingly well at Wimbledon, and I cant say that is one of the best years to not win a major at all. It was the point in Evert's career you were impressed at her arguably best ever athleticsm, fitness, and power at age 33 (albeit aided by upgraded technology) but also lacked her old consistency, focus, and the UEs went up, and she had really good days and not so good ones.
 
As for 1973 she had a decent enough shot at both the French and U.S Opens. Her semi final with Court at Forest hills was extremely close, and we all know she matches up quite well with Court. She would have had a decent shot vs Goolagong in the final, even though it was on grass, since Evonne is spooked in U.S Open finals it seems. No she was never beating Court and King (or Goolagong) back to back to win Wimbledon, she did well beating Court which at Wimbledon is actually the easier part (relative to King).
 

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
A couple of others (for the totally slam less crew)

Sukova in 1986 (honorable mention to 1984, the Australian was a disappointment)
Casals in 1969-1970
Shriver in 1987
 
7

70sHollywood

Guest
Speaking of 1972/73, what about Goolagong?

1973 - pretty good year on the wta...
 
I don't know about the details of Evonne's overall year in 72. However losing in straight sets to Wade who she generally badly owned, on her home turf, wasn't so great. Although saying a 7 slam winner losing to a 3 slam winner on their mutual best surface is a bad loss is a stretch, but reports are she was pretty bad in that match.

Losing to King on clay, in straight sets no less, is in fact quite bad. Goolagong should be expected to comfortably beat King on clay if anything. King had lost 0 and 1 to Evert on clay just a couple months earlier.

The U.S Open loss to Teegarden goes without saying.

So I wouldn't say her slam performance is that impressive. Wimbledon was a decent effort but she was down a set and double break to Evert before an amazing comeback, and she wouldn't lose to Chris on grass for another 4 years. She was beaten up pretty easily by King in the final. So I wouldn't say even there she was that I impressive. Evonne herself calls her 72 form disappointing and sluggish.

73 is a better example proably.
 

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
Goolagong in 1973 is the more arguable choice. While she won 9 titles in both years, in 1973 I think her titles were more impressive in nature (the Italian open, Canadian Open and US Indoor Championships among them). While she made 3 finals in 1972 vs 2 in 1973, she made all 4 slam semifinals in 1973. This would be the only time she would do this...however after 1973 she avoided the French like the plague.
 
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