Favorite non slam winner?

8

80s New Wave

Semi-Pro
As title states who is your favorite player who never won a slam (subjective, not necessarily the best player with no slams)?

Lots of possibilities but I always liked Fernando Gonzalez due to his incredible forehand.

Interested to see who others like, too many options for a poll but there are a few players I suspect will be mentioned frequently.
 
dking68 said:
Tomas Berdych and Alexander Zverev
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I think zverev still has an outside chance to win one if everything breaks right for him one time. Berdych may have been a little unlucky not only with the big 3 to contend with but slower courts probably exposed his weaknesses a bit also.
 
80s New Wave said:
I think zverev still has an outside chance to win one if everything breaks right for him one time. Berdych may have been a little unlucky not only with the big 3 to contend with but slower courts probably exposed his weaknesses a bit also.
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I think his time has passed, Zverev that is. Sinner will be peaking next year, Alcaraz will be crushing everyone next year, I think that ankle injury really costed him
 
Most of my favourite male players over the years didn't win grand slam titles (at least in singles). My favourite non-slam winner is the 5th set warrior and match point saving expert Lapentti, though the likes of Clerc, Mecir, El Aynaoui and Cuevas are very close behind.

On the women's side, my favourite non-slam winner, if we're strictly talking about singles, would probably be Sugiyama, closely followed Paola Suarez.
 
dking68 said:
I think his time has passed, Zverev that is. Sinner will be peaking next year, Alcaraz will be crushing everyone next year, I think that ankle injury really costed him
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I saw Zverev at the Laver Cup and that backhand really is a thing of beauty.

He does seem to have an unlikeable personality in some respects but it still seems a shame tht we didn't see him develop into a really great player.
 
Fedforever said:
I saw Zverev at the Laver Cup and that backhand really is a thing of beauty.

He does seem to have an unlikeable personality in some respects but it still seems a shame tht we didn't see him develop into a really great player.
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He’s just a best of three player. I just don’t see him getting over the line in bo5. Similar to Murray pre-2012, winning a bag of masters but never crossing the line in a bo5
 
80s New Wave said:
As title states who is your favorite player who never won a slam (subjective, not necessarily the best player with no slams)?

Lots of possibilities but I always liked Fernando Gonzalez due to his incredible forehand.

Interested to see who others like, too many options for a poll but there are a few players I suspect will be mentioned frequently.
Click to expand...
There are several but the first four are all imaginative artists with a racket. Henri Leconte, Mecir, Rios, and Febrice Santoro. Kent Carlson was not an artist, but the man put so much heart into every point. Rosie Casals, Zina Garrison, Natalie Zvereva and Anna Kournikova among the women.
 
Saw them for myself:
Men --- Vijay Amritraj, Davydenko, Gasquet, Henman, Feli Lopez, Tsonga.
Women --- Gigi Fernandez, Petkovic, Sukova, Zvereva

Before my time:
Men --- Gardnar Mulloy, Charlie Pasarell, Hans Redl
Women --- Gussie Moran, Bunny Ryan


[ All lists are alphabetical ]
 
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goerges for women, for men dunno hmm.. maybe verkerk (kiddin)
 
Always liked the Swedes growing up: Norman, Enqvist, Soderling, Pim Pim
Coria, Nieminen, Grosjean, Malisse... others will prob come to mind later

Womens side, Dementieva, Sugiyama, Hantuchova were probably the main ones
 
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Retired: Krickstein, Ferrer, Gigi (Singles-she won many slams in doubles), Isner (retired recently), Blake.

Active: Zverev (only when he brings his "A" level game not for the off-court issues), Jabeur, Ruud (250 Maestro), Sakkari.
 
Players who probably should have won a major but did not.

Jack Wright
J. Gilbert Hall (won 39 tournaments but no major)
Rex Hartwig (twice runner-up in majors)
Bob Bedard
Butch Buchholz (almost beat Laver at Wimbledon)
Barry MacKay
Whitney Reed
Ron Holmberg
 
Sam Querrey, just seems like a really nice guy and had a tremendous serve and forehand. Beating Djokovic at Wimbledon is no small feat.

Also James Blake, I have watched his 05 US Open quarter against Agassi all the way through several times. Top tier match. There’s also a 43 minute highlight of the match. And there’s zero filler in that 43 minutes.

And how could I forget Marcos ‘Baggy’ Baghdatis. I can’t narrow down all the reasons I rooted for him over the years. He was just great is all. Definitely one of the most ‘lovable losers’ type guys out there, hope that’s not too harsh. Him and Marcus Willis are the co-captains of that classification.
 
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Gizo said:
Most of my favourite male players over the years didn't win grand slam titles (at least in singles). My favourite non-slam winner is the 5th set warrior and match point saving expert Lapentti, though the likes of Clerc, Mecir, El Aynaoui and Cuevas are very close behind.

On the women's side, my favourite non-slam winner, if we're strictly talking about singles, would probably be Sugiyama, closely followed Paola Suarez.
Click to expand...

Love the Cuevas game.
 
Dan Lobb said:
Players who probably should have won a major but did not.

Jack Wright
J. Gilbert Hall (won 39 tournaments but no major)
Rex Hartwig (twice runner-up in majors)
Bob Bedard
Butch Buchholz (almost beat Laver at Wimbledon)
Barry MacKay
Whitney Reed
Ron Holmberg
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Nice list. But Buchholz won a major.
 
Rios not mentioned as often as I would expect. Disagreeable fellow, apparently, but such playmaking!


Gardnar Mulloy
Frank Kovacs
Frank Shields
Manuel Alonso
Charlie Hollis
Tom Okker
Brian Gottfried and Raul Ramirez
James Blake
Gael Monfils
Franjo Puncec
Sebastian Grosjean
Nishikori
Jose Higueras
Pablo Cuevas
Christian Boussus
Antonio Palafox
Zenzo Shimidzu
Jiro Satoh
Henry "Bunny" Austin
Mecir
Guy Forget
Dennis Ralston
Major Ritchie (or is Olympic Gold a major?)
Maxime Cressy
 
Drob said:
Rios not mentioned as often as I would expect. Disagreeable fellow, apparently, but such playmaking!


Gardnar Mulloy
Frank Kovacs
Frank Shields
Manuel Alonso
Charlie Hollis
Tom Okker
Brian Gottfried and Raul Ramirez
James Blake
Gael Monfils
Franjo Puncec
Sebastian Grosjean
Nishikori
Jose Higueras
Pablo Cuevas
Christian Boussus
Antonio Palafox
Zenzo Shimidzu
Jiro Satoh
Henry "Bunny" Austin
Mecir
Guy Forget
Dennis Ralston
Major Ritchie (or is Olympic Gold a major?)
Maxime Cressy
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I give Frank Kovacs one major for winning the US Pro in 1951. (There were two authorized US Pro events in 1951, Forest Hills and Cleveland..)
 
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Drob said:
Rios not mentioned as often as I would expect. Disagreeable fellow, apparently, but such playmaking!


Gardnar Mulloy
Frank Kovacs
Frank Shields
Manuel Alonso
Charlie Hollis
Tom Okker
Brian Gottfried and Raul Ramirez
James Blake
Gael Monfils
Franjo Puncec
Sebastian Grosjean
Nishikori
Jose Higueras
Pablo Cuevas
Christian Boussus
Antonio Palafox
Zenzo Shimidzu
Jiro Satoh
Henry "Bunny" Austin
Mecir
Guy Forget
Dennis Ralston
Major Ritchie (or is Olympic Gold a major?)
Maxime Cressy
Click to expand...
Gardnar Mulloy a great one. Still holds the record for biggest age difference in a professional tennis match when he entered 1977 Miami on a wildcard and lost to John Whitlinger (41 years his junior). Married for the second time at age of 95. Incredibly fit until an old age.
 
BorgTheGOAT said:
Gardnar Mulloy a great one. Still holds the record for biggest age difference in a professional tennis match when he entered 1977 Miami on a wildcard and lost to John Whitlinger (41 years his junior). Married for the second time at age of 95. Incredibly fit until an old age.
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Gardnar Mulloy seemed a freak of nature. He was still playing and winning tennis matches well into his 90s. When he died in 2016 at age 102, just short of his 103rd birthday, it was from complications resulting from a sudden stroke. His death wasn't after a long, slow decline like a lot of people who die really old.
 
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