Borg '78 RG lost just 32 games. But it's easier to dominate clay to such an extent (majority of the highest slam GW% have been on clay). The highest from a non-clay slam is Agassi in the '03 AO with 48 games lost, but he did have a very weak draw. The best is probably Mac at '84 WB and USO or Lendl '85 USO considering the surface and level of the opponents.
Borg, although Nadal must've come close several times at RG
Borg lost 32 games at the 1978 French Open, Nadal lost 41 games at the 2008 French Open and 35 games at the 2017 French Open, although Nadal's quarter final at the 2017 French Open had him leading 6-2, 2-0 before Carreno Busta retired injured.
Borg's 79.9% (127/159) is indeed the highest Slam GW% of the OE:
He also boasts the 2nd highest of 76.83% (126/164) from '80 RG, barely edging out
Nadal's 76.82% (116/151) at '17 RG. '08 Bull just misses the podium with 75.7% (128/169).
Mind you, this is the same Borg that Fedovic groupies are so cocksure wasn't all that on clay. According to these geniuses their boy toys who have never put together a
season/run like
'86 Lendl,
'92 Courier or
'93 Bruguera would somehow beat or at least hang with the co-BCOAT at RG, because they had the misfortune of being stuck in the same era as the King of Dirt. Too bad
that's not how these hypotheticals work.
That said we need to grade on a curve cuz the higher the margin for error the easier to dominate (everything else equal), which is why the highest GW%s tend to come on clay. So what run rivals the dirt gods' best outings at RG? Dre's 71.6% (121/169) at the '03 AO and Ivan's 69.4% (134/193) at the '87 USO are the closest ones on paper, but most fans would agree Dre's AO debut in '95 with 67.9% (129-190) was more impressive - Sampras and Kafelnikov > Schuttler and Grosjean - and even Ivan had a decisive age advantage over Mac and Jimbo by '87 which leaves him with the 4-set final vs. Wilander as his sole quality W. What else, then?
The answer, of course, harkens back to
'84 SuperMac's annus mirabilis, when he became the only Wimbledon champ of the OE to flirt with a truly rarefied 70% (in fact '03 Dre is the only one to date to break the 70% ceiling on hard). Of course you could quibble and say 68.0% (134/197) isn't all that close to 70%, but that's more than offset by his justly celebrated masterclass in the final vs. Jimbo, the single most dominant performance of the OE where he posted only 2-3 UFEs (depending on the source - FYI 3 is the more plausible #). The only Wimbledon final I can think of where the victor achieved such otherworldly perfection is '95 Pistol's with only 7 DFs and zero UFEs off the ground, but as was his wont Pete started out a tad slow and gave up the 1st set. Ergo edge to Mac.
And Mac's outing becomes even more astonishing when you realize
Borg, Pistol and even
Fred with his
GW%-friendlier baseline game could average "only" 61.1%, 60.1% and 62.3% respectively in their own championship runs, topping out at 65.5% (133/203), 63.2% (134/212) and 66.3% (134/202) in '76, '94 and '06. Now another strong candidate is '84 Mac's own USO run where he posted 68.3% (136/199) despite
that GOOE 5-setter vs. Jimbo who probably delivered his last ATG performance, but in terms of dominance the next year's Lendl was arguably as impressive with 68.8% (132/192), dropping a single set to Yzaga in 4R and not one to Noah, Jimbo and Mac.
So '84 Mac's Wimby edges out his USO... and all other runs, really. Borg and Bull vie with each other at RG, Mac vs. Ivan at Flushing, and Dre vs. himself and Djoker Down Under, but '84 Mac has no equal at SW19. '06 Fraud would almost certainly suffer a slight drop vs. net rushers, and even '76 Borg can't quite compare cuz he mostly stayed back on 2nd serves. As usual
SuperMac stands alone.
