Biggest upsets of alltime?

[Moose Malloy]

I was looking around the atp website to see what some of the biggest upsets are in terms of ranking difference. Here are some I came up with. The guy Goran lost to in '91 Wimby retired a week later.

'91 Wimbledon 2nd Round 591 Nick Brown(GBR) def 10 Ivanisevic
'97 Australian 1st round 488 Braasch def 12 Gustafsson
'95 US Open 2nd round 392 Sargsian def 16 Medvedev
'89 Australian 2nd round 300 Ivanisevic def 15 Fitzgerald
’93 French 1st Round 297 Huet(FRA) def 7 Lendl
’96 Wimbledon 1st round 281 Flach def 3 Agassi
’04 French 1st round 271 Haehnel(FRA) def 6 Agassi
’95 French 2nd round 256 Ilie def 15 Krajicek
'92 Australian 2nd round 256 Wahlgren def 12 Rostagno
'91 Australian 1st round 250 Wahlgren def 15 Rosset
'98 Australian 1st Round 243 Apell def 8 Muster
’92 French Open 3rd round 239 Diego Perez def 13 Krajicek
'00 Wimbledon 2nd Round 237 Voltchkov def 6 Pioline
’02 Australia 2nd round 234 Alex Kim def 4 Kafelnikov
’94 French 3rd round 226 Tillstrom def 16 Krajicek
’98 Wimbledon 1st round 218 Voltchkov def 15 Kucera
'97 Wimbledon 1st Round 218 Wilkinson(GBR) def 17 Bjorkman
'96 US Open 1st round 215 Nainkin def 8 Ferreira
’98 French 1st round 213 Zabaleta def 2 Korda
’03 French 2nd round 208 Coutelot(FRA) def 8 Nalbandian
'03 Wimbledon 1st round 203 Karlovic def 1 Hewitt
’04 French 2nd round 202 Storace def 10 Grosjean
'92 French 3rd round 200 Leconte(FRA) def 4 Stich
’99 Wimbledon 3rd round 196 Lorenzo Manta def 5 Krajicek
'05 US Open 1st round 195 Baker def 9 Gaudio
’92 Wimbledon 3rd round 193 Olhovskiy def 1 Courier

 

[chiru]

id put the 02 wimbledon upset of sampras by george bastl up there. i think that was the single most shocking result ive ever heard in my life.

 

[ACE of Hearts]

Haehnel beating Agassi in the french in 2004 is one of the biggest ones.

I would also put Michael Chang's victory over Lendl in the 1989 french open as well even thought Chang went on too win it over Edberg.Does anyone have that match on dvd?

 

[J-man]

Thanks for that. Great way for Nick Brown to go out

 

[arosen]

id put the 02 wimbledon upset of sampras by george bastl up there. i think that was the single most shocking result ive ever heard in my life.

Yeah, that was something. I wonder if that loss will spoil the memories of his Wimby wins for Pete. Some way to go out of Wimby, that one. Hewitt loss to Karlovic was also quite a shock, especially H being a defending champ or some such.

 

[ximian]

I've got the Chang / Lendl epic on DVD. Certainly deserves to be on the "Top 20 matches of all time" list.

 

[Nuke]

Maybe not an enormous difference in ranking, but Arthur Ashe beating Jimmy Connors at the 1975 Wimbledon was a shocker.

 

[federerhoogenbandfan]

Krajicek losing at the French while only seeded(or ranked)between 12-16 to anybody, even somebody ranked outside the top 100, should not qualify as a major surprise. The fact it happened 3 times that way should be telling enough.

Also I dont care where they were ranked, a young Zabaleta beating Korda in the first round of the French does not shock me at all, even if Korda had 1-finals appearance at the French he is no clay court guru, and Zabaleta is an extremely dangerous clay court player always.

 

[superman1]

How about Federer losing to Berdych in the Olympics? No one saw that coming, and I remember Federer being rattled in the interview afterwards.

 

[Shaolin]

Corretja d. Sampras on Grass (Davis Cup 2002)

 

[roundiesee]

For me it was when Boris Becker lost to Peter Doohan of Australia, 2nd round Wimby; can't remember the year though but it must have been when he was a hot favourite to "retain" his crown (1987?). Later he gave that famous "nobody died...it was just a tennis match..." speech......

 

[galain]

Jelena Dokic sending a coachless Martina Hingis home in the first round at Wimby came as a surprise.

 

[superman1]

Muller d. Roddick in the first round of the '05 US Open.

 

[sandiegotennisboy]

Muller d. Roddick in the first round of the '05 US Open.

i dunno if its necessarily a big upset when youre on a downward spiral already. poor roddick.

 

[hoosierbr]

Maybe not a huge upset but Venus winning Wimbledon last year isn't something a lot of us expected. And saving a match point no less!

 

[superman1]

That was more like the beginning of his downward spiral. He got to the Wimbledon and Cincinatti finals before the US Open, losing only to Federer. And he got to the Aussie Open semis that year and lost to Hewitt. That's pretty damn good.

 

[devila]

Roddick showed up for the money and off court, he needed to impress his mother, who put a guilt trip on him because she felt envious and needed to replace
her older son's failed career with her younger son's more successful career.
She told the press, "Important to give back to the community."
Obviously, the manipulative wench has no life except the unsubstantive,
pathetic, spoiled, smug life she leads. She won't let her son improve his game or find a job he wants. She got what she wanted when her son John pretended to coach Roddick. She even promoted Brad Gilbert, the ass
and then told ESPN classic that Roddick should've been ******** and could've died at birth. She tried to be dramatic because the umbilical cord wrapped around his
neck 3 times. Pat McEnroe and Cliff Drysdale told the biography that
Roddick was a bad sportsman and had no backhand.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

makes me think about a "double upset" ... at RG 90 :
stefan edberg and boris becker, seeded n° 1 & 2 (lendl WO), ousted respectively by sergi bruguera and goran ivanisevic, both in the 1st round !

PS: funny to see what these young players have done later...

 

[baseliner]

I'll go with Arther Ashe over Connors in '75 Wimby final. No one in their right mind gave Ashe a chance. May not have been a huge gap in their rankings, but a shocker of a result.

 

[WayneCM]

Roddick showed up for the money and off court, he needed to impress his mother, who put a guilt trip on him because she felt envious and needed to replace
her older son's failed career with her younger son's more successful career.
She told the press, "Important to give back to the community."
Obviously, the manipulative wench has no life except the unsubstantive,
pathetic, spoiled, smug life she leads. She won't let her son improve his game or find a job he wants. She got what she wanted when her son John pretended to coach Roddick. She even promoted Brad Gilbert, the ass
and then told ESPN classic that Roddick should've been ******** and could've died at birth. She tried to be dramatic because the umbilical cord wrapped around his
neck 3 times. Pat McEnroe and Cliff Drysdale told the biography that
Roddick was a bad sportsman and had no backhand.

Wow devila this is highly original... U bashing Roddick thats not like u.... And u've told us the story of their disappointment in john give it a rest...

 

[theace21]

Maybe not an enormous difference in ranking, but Arthur Ashe beating Jimmy Connors at the 1975 Wimbledon was a shocker.

That was just what I was thinking about. Everyone thought it was going to be a blow out. Ashe changed his game, gave Conners less pace, spun his serve wide, it was amazing. I don't know what the england bookies had the match at, but nobody thought Ashe had a chance...

 

[Grant Morgan]

I got one. Luke Jensin over AA in Memphis in 96, first rond. AA was 1 or 2 and Luke was in the 400's

 

[Eviscerator]

She even promoted Brad Gilbert, the ass

Most of your post was rambling and hard to understand (other than your distain for Roddicks mother), but hiring Brad Gilbert was the best thing for his career. One never knows, but I think he would be a better player today had he stuck with him.

 

[Moose Malloy]

at RG 90 :
stefan edberg and boris becker, seeded n° 1 & 2 (lendl WO), ousted respectively by sergi bruguera and goran ivanisevic, both in the 1st round !

Only slam in history that 1 & 2 lost 1st round.

For me it was when Boris Becker lost to Peter Doohan of Australia, 2nd round Wimby; can't remember the year though but it must have been when he was a hot favourite to "retain" his crown (1987?).

It was '87. Doohan was ranked 70, Becker was #1 seed & 2 time defending champ.

Krajicek losing at the French while only seeded(or ranked)between 12-16 to anybody, even somebody ranked outside the top 100, should not qualify as a major surprise. The fact it happened 3 times that way should be telling enough.

Krajicek did win Barcelona in '94, reached the French semis in '93, Italian Open final in '96.
Clay certainly wasn't his best surface, but losing 3 times to players outside the top 200 is inexcusable. And he also lost to #196 at Wimbledon!
I always thought he could've been a great player if he wasn't injured so much, but now I'm not so sure.