Hardest slam draws conquered?

[nowhereman]

What do you think are some of the hardest draws a player has overcome to win a slam? Some that come off the top of my mind:
Guga 1997 RG
R1 - Dosedel
R2 - Bjorkman
R3 - Muster
R4 - Medvedev
QF - Kafelnikov
SF - Dewulf
F - Brugera
Took out the 3 players who had won the last 4 RG titles, as well as a good clay courter in Medvedev.
Edberg 1992 USO
R1 - Mattar
R2 - Hlasek
R3 - Svensson
R4 - Krajicek
QF - Lendl
SF - Chang
F - Sampras
Brutal barrage of great players from R4 on. So many different styles of play put up against him too.
Goran 2001 Wimbledon
R1 - Jonsonn
R2 - Moya
R3 - Roddick
R4 - Rusedski
QF - Safin
SF - Henman
F - Rafter
Big servers Roddick and Rusedksi were never going to be easy to deal with; Henman the British hope was great on grass and had the crowd behind him; and Rafter of course was also a great grass courter and sublime S&Ver.

Feel free to add any others.

 

[90's Clay]

Pete didn't conquer the 2001 USO but he had arguably the toughest slam draw ever. 3 former USO champs back to back to back (With Andre playing peak Tennis) and then peaking Hewitt in the finals.

Even if he didn't win, thats a draw from HELL!!!! Especially at 30 years old

 

[The_18th_Slam]

Pete didn't conquer the 2001 USO but he had arguably the toughest slam draw ever. 3 former USO champs back to back to back (With Andre playing peak Tennis) and then peaking Hewitt in the finals.

Even if he didn't win, thats a draw from HELL!!!! Especially at 30 years old

But, wait, I thought Safin and Hewitt were weak era mugs?

 

[metsman]

Hewitt 05 AO was brutal...blake, nalbandian, nadal, roddick, GOATing Safin. All in pretty good form. Not conqured, although he was close to doing it before Safin unleashed the god mode.

01 USO is a great one too and had he won it would have been amazing but only Andre (and Hewitt obviously) were in great form.

 

[90's Clay]

But, wait, I thought Safin and Hewitt were weak era mugs?

Safin was the defending champ (Most projected him to be the next dominant player at the time), and Hewitt obviously wasn't a mug during his peak years.

 

[The_18th_Slam]

Safin was the defending champ (Most projected him to be the next dominant player at the time), and Hewitt obviously wasn't a mug during his peak years.

So I guess Federer's era wasn't so weak after all, if it was players from his era that presented Sampras with his toughest draw at a Slam!

 

[GabeT]

This question would probably benefit from using ELO, no? The highest average ELO faced would be a good proxy for how strong a field the ultimate winner had to deal with.

 

[tennis_pro]

Nadal beat Del Potro, Hewitt, Moya, Djokovic, Federer at the 2007 FO.

 

[NatF]

I think Nadal's 2013 FO draw is up there for modern times;

Brands , Kližan, Fognini, Nishikori , Wawrinka, Djokovic, Ferrer that's a deep draw on clay.

 

[Noelan]

lost 5 sets on his way to title

 

[Phoenix1983]

Probably not the hardest draw overall, but the hardest QF-SF-F ever was probably what McEnroe faced in the 1980 US Open:

Lendl (beat in 4 sets)
Connors (beat in 5 sets)
Borg (beat in 5 sets)

 

[TheMuzziah]

Not a slam obviously but I think Murrays road to the Olympics gold medal deserves a mention.

Wawrinka, Nieminen, Baghdatis, Almagro, Djokovic, Federer

Dropped just one set.

 

[metsman]

I think Nadal's 2013 FO draw is up there for modern times;

Brands , Kližan, Fognini, Nishikori , Wawrinka, Djokovic, Ferrer that's a deep draw on clay.

form-wise....eh. Hewitt's 05 AO is clearly tougher with Blake in ok form, Nalbandian in good form, Nadal and Roddick both in good form, Safin playing absolute Jesus tennis after the first set. Probably the toughest of the last 15-20 years.

the last 2 sets of the 2005 AO final (and the last 2 sets of the semi before it) to this day is probably the best all around pure power tennis I've seen anyone play. I can't recall anything particularly close either. Hewitt was up 4-2 30-0 in the third set. From there he lost 6 straight games, making just 6 UFE. Out of those really the only bad one he had was a DF to give Safin the break at 4-4 in the third. Hewitt hit 19 winners to 10 errors in the third and fourth sets and ending up losing both. Why? Because Safin hit 41 winners to 20 errors with 16 aces and serving near 75% in 2 freakin sets. His normally shaky FH was smacking winners all over the place, he was moving like a gazelle...I remember he nailed a pass DTL literally almost from the stands after running across the court.

Absolutely brutal for Hewitt...he really did deserve to win that slam in front of the Aussies.

 

[70sHollywood]

Are there any examples of a player beating a 9-16 seed in R4, 5-8 seed in QF, 3-4 seed in SF and 1-2 seed in F?

e.g Lendl at the 1985 USO and Djokovic at the 2012 AO both managed 3/4 but missed out on R4.

Regarding the main question I think a couple of popular choices in this debate are Wilander RG 82 and Courier RG 92.

 

[mightyrick]

I think Del Potro's draw for the US Open in 2009 was ridiculously hard. Not so much for the early rounds, but his QF, SF, and F were ridiculous.

QF - Cilic (who beat Murray in 4R and was having a great HC year)
SF - Nadal (peak Nadal who won the AO that year)
F - Federer (prime Federer who won both the FO and Wimbledon that year)

All three of those guys had huge momentum. Del Potro was having an OK year, but kept getting beat in the SF and F of almost everything he entered. Nobody expected the guy to get close to winning at the US Open.

I thought his feat was monumental.

 

[abmk]

Apart from the ones already mentioned :

Federer AO 04 :

Hewitt
Nalbandian
Ferrero
Safin

Sampras Wim 93 :

Agassi
Becker
Courier

Nadal AO 09:

Verdasco
Federer

Stan AO 14:

Djokovic
Berdych
Nadal

Djokovic AO 12 :

Murray
Nadal

 

[Noleberic123]

Apart from the ones already mentioned :

Wilander RG 82 :

Lendl
Gerulaitis
Clerc
Vilas

Federer AO 04 :

Hewitt
Nalbandian
Ferrero
Safin

Sampras Wim 93 :

Agassi
Becker
Courier

Nadal AO 09:

Verdasco
Federer

Stan AO 14:

Djokovic
Berdych
Nadal

Djokovic AO 12 :

Murray
Nadal

If your going to have AO 12 then you should have USO 11 for Djokovic.

 

[abmk]

If your going to have AO 12 then you should have USO 11 for Djokovic.

yeah, there are more, I'll just list out the others later.

 

[ibbi]

For me Rafa's 2013 Roland Garros is always the one that comes first to mind. Lowest ranked opponent was 59th. Faced 5 seeds from a possible 5, 3 top ten players, and they were all comfortable clay courters. Fognini was a Monte Carlo semi finalist that year, Nishikori a Madrid quarter finalist, Wawrinka quarter finalist in Monte Carlo, and finalist in Madrid, Ferrer quarter finalist in Madrid and Rome, breathes clay, and the great net rusher who ended Nadal's unstoppable run in Monte Carlo. Brands and Klizan are hardly world beaters, but they're both the sort of big serving, big hitters who rob Rafa of his much loved rhythm, and they'd both won multiple titles on clay. However minor

 

[nowhereman]

But, wait, I thought Safin and Hewitt were weak era mugs?

LOL, that was the first thing that came to mind. Obviously he'll prop up those guys when it comes to Sampras. Complete hypocrite however when it's Fed.

 

[Djokovic2011]

What do you guys think about Federer's 07 USO draw? Beating Isner, Lopez, Roddick, Davydenko and Djokovic looks pretty tough to me.

 

[nowhereman]

Hewitt 05 AO was brutal...blake, nalbandian, nadal, roddick, GOATing Safin. All in pretty good form. Not conqured, although he was close to doing it before Safin unleashed the god mode.

01 USO is a great one too and had he won it would have been amazing but only Andre (and Hewitt obviously) were in great form.

Safin's draw was pretty hard too. Ancic, Rochus, Hrbaty, Fed, Hewitt in his last five rounds.

 

[nowhereman]

Nadal beat Del Potro, Hewitt, Moya, Djokovic, Federer at the 2007 FO.

Five slam champions beaten in one tournament. Although, Hewitt did have a ton of surgeries and was past prime at that point. As was Moya, but still, that is no easy ask.

 

[mike danny]

Federer AO 2004: Hewitt, Nalbandian, Ferrero, Safin. All former slam finalists at least. At that time for just his 2nd slam it was a very difficult draw.

USO 2007: Roddick, Davydenko, Djokovic. All great HC players even at that time. He also had to beat 3 consecutive top 5 players to win it.

 

[nowhereman]

Probably not the hardest draw overall, but the hardest QF-SF-F ever was probably what McEnroe faced in the 1980 US Open:

Lendl (beat in 4 sets)
Connors (beat in 5 sets)
Borg (beat in 5 sets)

His 3 main rivals all in succession, all beaten. That is insane.

 

[mike danny]

What do you guys think about Federer's 07 USO draw? Beating Isner, Lopez, Roddick, Davydenko and Djokovic looks pretty tough to me.

Definetely one of his toughest. And he did not drop a set against 3 straight top 5 players.

 

[nowhereman]

What do you guys think about Federer's 07 USO draw? Beating Isner, Lopez, Roddick, Davydenko and Djokovic looks pretty tough to me.

Federer AO 2004: Hewitt, Nalbandian, Ferrero, Safin. All former slam finalists at least. At that time for just his 2nd slam it was a very difficult draw.

USO 2007: Roddick, Davydenko, Djokovic. All great HC players even at that time. He also had to beat 3 consecutive top 5 players to win it.

I was going to list these as well. Probably the two hardest slam draw Fed's had to face, along with his 2009 RG draw IMO. Haas, Monfils, zoning Delpo, and red hot Soderling. Just made the victory that much sweeter after overcoming a draw like this.

 

[NatF]

form-wise....eh. Hewitt's 05 AO is clearly tougher with Blake in ok form, Nalbandian in good form, Nadal and Roddick both in good form, Safin playing absolute Jesus tennis after the first set. Probably the toughest of the last 15-20 years.

the last 2 sets of the 2005 AO final (and the last 2 sets of the semi before it) to this day is probably the best all around pure power tennis I've seen anyone play. I can't recall anything particularly close either. Hewitt was up 4-2 30-0 in the third set. From there he lost 6 straight games, making just 6 UFE. Out of those really the only bad one he had was a DF to give Safin the break at 4-4 in the third. Hewitt hit 19 winners to 10 errors in the third and fourth sets and ending up losing both. Why? Because Safin hit 41 winners to 20 errors with 16 aces and serving near 75% in 2 freakin sets. His normally shaky FH was smacking winners all over the place, he was moving like a gazelle...I remember he nailed a pass DTL literally almost from the stands after running across the court.

Absolutely brutal for Hewitt...he really did deserve to win that slam in front of the Aussies.

Hewitt didn't win though, if he did it would be top choice. Really showed what he could do at his best that tournament, great run from him.

Wish Hewitt won that after that draw, never made another slam final either

 

[nowhereman]

Connors' '76 USO draw: Gerulaitis, Kodes, Vilas, and Borg in the last 4 rounds.

 

[nowhereman]

As @70sHollywood already said, Wilander's '82 RG and Courier's '92 RG were also some brutal ones.
Wilander: Lendl, Gerulaitis, Clerc, Vilas

Courier: Muster, Medvedev, Goran, Agassi, Korda

 

[macattack]

Edberg 1992 USO
R1 - Mattar
R2 - Hlasek
R3 - Svensson
R4 - Krajicek
QF - Lendl
SF - Chang
F - Sampras
Brutal barrage of great players from R4 on. So many different styles of play put up against him too.

I think Del Potro's draw for the US Open in 2009 was ridiculously hard. Not so much for the early rounds, but his QF, SF, and F were ridiculous.

QF - Cilic (who beat Murray in 4R and was having a great HC year)
SF - Nadal (peak Nadal who won the AO that year)
F - Federer (prime Federer who won both the FO and Wimbledon that year)

All three of those guys had huge momentum. Del Potro was having an OK year, but kept getting beat in the SF and F of almost everything he entered. Nobody expected the guy to get close to winning at the US Open.

I thought his feat was monumental.

These are the two that immediately came to mind. Some other great ones in here too. Cool thread.

 

[Noleberic123]

Definetely one of his toughest. And he did not drop a set against 3 straight top 5 players.

He should have though

 

[metsman]

Hewitt didn't win though, if he did it would be top choice. Really showed what he could do at his best that tournament, great run from him.

Wish Hewitt won that after that draw, never made another slam final either

Hewitt just got mentally and physically broken after 05...facing GOAT-level tennis at 7 of the 8 slams you play in a two year span will do that to you.

 

[metsman]

Hewitt didn't win though, if he did it would be top choice. Really showed what he could do at his best that tournament, great run from him.

Wish Hewitt won that after that draw, never made another slam final either

and honestly I can't think of many players who would have made it through that draw either. I could see the vast majority of even ATG succumbing.

 

[nowhereman]

Last 3 rounds of Agassi's Wimbledon title run were pretty tough. Becker, Mac, Goran.

Goran himself also had a very tough draw, even though he didn't win. Lendl, Edberg, Sampras, Agassi.

 

[noobforehand20]

I think Nadal's 2013 FO draw is up there for modern times;

Brands , Kližan, Fognini, Nishikori , Wawrinka, Djokovic, Ferrer that's a deep draw on clay.

and lets not forget that at the time klizan gave nadal big trouble, had not forgotten that he was really close to take rafa to a 5th set, also brands took a set as well i think

 

[Murray Is A Pusher]

McEnroe 1980 USO hands down.

QF - Lendl
SF - Connors
F - Borg

 

[metsman]

and lets not forget that at the time klizan gave nadal big trouble, had not forgotten that he was really close to take rafa to a 5th set, also brands took a set as well i think

brands nearly went up 2-0

 

[metsman]

What do you guys think about Federer's 07 USO draw? Beating Isner, Lopez, Roddick, Davydenko and Djokovic looks pretty tough to me.

yeah those guys in general were playing pretty well. Not a bad one but there wasn't that 1 guy playing just incredible tennis although Lopez the first 2 sets and Roddick the first 2 sets were hitting and serving the lights out

 

[metsman]

Hewitt just got mentally and physically broken after 05...facing GOAT-level tennis at 7 of the 8 slams you play in a two year span will do that to you.

I think it gets underrated the impact this has...Murray has had to face the trio but not in quick succession in such great form when he himself was in slam winning form but was just stopped by beast mode tennis. And he got lesser versions of Djokovic twice. It's been more spread out. The injuries were the main reason for his demise, but I think he was also mentally broken after 05 because he tried everything and just kept running straight into a brick wall. After his baby was born he kinda lost focus...what's the point I guess he thought. Now there's this guy nadal to worry about too!

In two years he faced peak Fed 5 times, God mode Safin once, also Gaudio in 04 RG...not like he rolled over either (ahem Murray)...he nearly took Federer 5 on two seperate occasions at USO and wimby...played Fed tough for 3 sets in the 04 Ao and won 1, 05 AO I already detailed,

 

[metsman]

Safin's draw was pretty hard too. Ancic, Rochus, Hrbaty, Fed, Hewitt in his last five rounds.

Also peak Noel in the first round

But not too hard till the quarters. But of course the tennis he played in the semis and finals is up there with anything in AO history. Just amazing. I did the stats on the 05 semi recently, he was something like 46/26 winners/UFE in the last 2 sets of the semi and the final I already went over.

I really do think he was turning the corner. That run of form he had and particularly the focus and mental strength he showed was just unprecedented for him. Lundgren was really helping him, the injuries came at the worst possible time.

 

[Meles]

This question would probably benefit from using ELO, no? The highest average ELO faced would be a good proxy for how strong a field the ultimate winner had to deal with.

Hmmm. I just did ELO on 3 of the 4 slams. Let me look.....

 

[Meles]

What do you think are some of the hardest draws a player has overcome to win a slam? Some that come off the top of my mind:
Guga 1997 RG
R1 - Dosedel
R2 - Bjorkman
R3 - Muster
R4 - Medvedev
QF - Kafelnikov
SF - Dewulf
F - Brugera
Took out the 3 players who had won the last 4 RG titles, as well as a good clay courter in Medvedev.
Edberg 1992 USO
R1 - Mattar
R2 - Hlasek
R3 - Svensson
R4 - Krajicek
QF - Lendl
SF - Chang
F - Sampras
Brutal barrage of great players from R4 on. So many different styles of play put up against him too.
Goran 2001 Wimbledon
R1 - Jonsonn
R2 - Moya
R3 - Roddick
R4 - Rusedski
QF - Safin
SF - Henman
F - Rafter
Big servers Roddick and Rusedksi were never going to be easy to deal with; Henman the British hope was great on grass and had the crowd behind him; and Rafter of course was also a great grass courter and sublime S&Ver.

Feel free to add any others.

ELO on these three:
Goran 2001 is very respectable - the ELO of the field is up there with any Wimby save the heart of the Big 4 era. http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/inde...-ranks-the-wimbledon-fields-from-1978.569259/
Not Goran's peak grass ELO (back in 1995), but had to be close.

Edberg 1992 - even more respectable - peak draw of the period and very close to peak Big 4 ELO hard court field strength. http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/inde...lo-ranks-the-us-open-fields-from-1978.569296/
Edberg's peak ELO on hard courts was shortly after the 1992 US Open (all that means is he knocked of one or two more highly ranked players on hard courts.)

The first two picks are superlative based on the field at the time, but the last fails:
Guga 1997 - Guga was the first on Poly strings and ELO ranks the field poorly. http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/inde...garros-fields-from-1978.570024/#post-10539957
Guga's peak ELO was after 2001 French, but that only means he conquered harder oppostion over the clay season as a whole.

Surely we can do better on clay?

 

[Meles]

Last 3 rounds of Agassi's Wimbledon title run were pretty tough. Becker, Mac, Goran.

Goran himself also had a very tough draw, even though he didn't win. Lendl, Edberg, Sampras, Agassi.

Wimby 1992 and 1993 are peak ELO fields on grass. So the Sampras and Agassi wins stand out at Wimbledon.

 

[Meles]

Noah made mincemeat of a strong field at the 1983 French Open:
Finals -
Mats Wilander
W 62 75 76
Semi-Finals -
Christophe Roger-Vasselin
W 63 60 60
Quarter-Finals -
Ivan Lendl
W 76 62 57 60

Yannick could have opened up a bakery with those three bagels and Wilander also had last set bagles in QF and SF. Knocked off strong veteran Pecci earlier in the tournament. ELO rates this a very fine field. Many speak highly of peak Noah.

 

[Meles]

Kuerten went through hell for that 2000 French Open:
Finals 3
Magnus Norman
W 62 63 26 766
Semi-Finals 16
Juan Carlos Ferrero
W 75 46 26 64 63
Quarter-Finals 4
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
W 63 36 46 64 62
Round of 16 11
Nicolas Lapentti
W 63 64 764
Round of 32 33
Michael Chang
W 63 679 61 64

Won the final after back to back 5 setters and Magnus Norman was on fire that year.

 

[Tennisanity]

Wimby2012

SF Djoko
F Murray

 

[Russeljones]

Nalbandian's 2005 TMC draw trumps almost all mentioned. His 2007 Paris Masters win trumps all.

Am I allowed to throw in a 3rd Nalbandian tourney in this?

2007 Madrid
A. Clement
T. Berdych
JM del Potro
R. Nadal
N. Djokovic
R. Federer

 

[ABCD]

Nalbandian's 2005 TMC draw trumps almost all mentioned. His 2007 Paris Masters win trumps all.

Am I allowed to throw in a 3rd Nalbandian tourney in this?

2007 Madrid
A. Clement
T. Berdych
JM del Potro
R. Nadal
N. Djokovic
R. Federer

Now you remained me by mentioning Masters. This is legendary Djokovic's draw when he won Rogers Cup in Montreal 2007:

Kiefer
Nalbandian
Roddick
Nadal
Federer

 

[DreddyTennis45]

Pete didn't conquer the 2001 USO but he had arguably the toughest slam draw ever. 3 former USO champs back to back to back (With Andre playing peak Tennis) and then peaking Hewitt in the finals.

Even if he didn't win, thats a draw from HELL!!!! Especially at 30 years old

You know what else was a draw from hell? Wimby 2000.