Players who dominated the warmup season but didn't win the Slam

JennyS

JennyS

Hall of Fame
Can you think of any players who had dominant spring claycourt or summer hardcourt warmup seasons (winning at least 2 Masters tournaments or 1 Masters and 2 or more smaller tournaments) but failed to win the big one? Here are a few I came up with.....

Thomas Muster, 1996 claycourt season: won Estoril, Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Rome, lost in 4th round of French Open to Michael Stich.

Rafael Nadal, 2009 claycourt season: won Monte Carlo, Rome and Barcelona, lost in 4th round of French Open to Robin Soderling.

Gustavo Kuerten, 1999 claycourt season: won Monte Carlo and Rome, lost in quarterfinals of the French Open to Andrei Medvedev.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, 2001 claycourt season: won Estoril, Barcelona and Rome, lost in French Open semis to Gustavo Kuerten.

I'm sure there are plenty more....
 
JennyS said:
Can you think of any players who had dominant warmup seasons (winning at least 2 Masters tournaments or at least 1 Masters and 2 or more smaller tournaments) but failed to win the big one? Here are a few I came up with.....

Thomas Muster, 1996 claycourt season: won Estoril, Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Rome, lost in 4th round of French Open to Michael Stich.

Rafael Nadal, 2009 claycourt season: won Monte Carlo, Rome and Barcelona, lost in 4th round of French Open to Robin Soderling.

Gustavo Kuerten, 1999 claycourt season: won Monte Carlo and Rome, lost in quarterfinals of the French Open to Andrei Medvedev.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, 2001 claycourt season: won Estoril, Barcelona and Rome, lost in French Open semis to Gustavo Kuerten.

I'm sure there are plenty more....
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I see Murray winning in Cincy, and losing in QF or semis at the USO.
 
JennyS said:
Can you think of any players who had dominant spring claycourt or summer hardcourt warmup seasons (winning at least 2 Masters tournaments or 1 Masters and 2 or more smaller tournaments) but failed to win the big one? Here are a few I came up with.....

Thomas Muster, 1996 claycourt season: won Estoril, Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Rome, lost in 4th round of French Open to Michael Stich.

Rafael Nadal, 2009 claycourt season: won Monte Carlo, Rome and Barcelona, lost in 4th round of French Open to Robin Soderling.

Gustavo Kuerten, 1999 claycourt season: won Monte Carlo and Rome, lost in quarterfinals of the French Open to Andrei Medvedev.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, 2001 claycourt season: won Estoril, Barcelona and Rome, lost in French Open semis to Gustavo Kuerten.

I'm sure there are plenty more....
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Agassi 1995 -- won Washington, Montreal, Cincinnati, and New Haven -- lost US Open final to Sampras
 
TheMagicianOfPrecision said:
I see Murray winning in Cincy, and losing in QF or semis at the USO.
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VivalaVida said:
2qantlh.gif
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for real?????
 
Agassi in 95 where he won nearly all the warm-up HC tournaments leading to the US Open and lost in the final to Sampras.
 
GameSampras said:
hasnt that been the story of Murray's career thus far? LOL
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Btw, i saw a documentary about Sampras yesterday called the kings of Wimby, great stuff!! I admit i forgot how good Pete used to be on the fast grass, he even played and won Wimby in year 2000 with a foot-injury:shock: I never knew that.
 
GameSampras said:
hasnt that been the story of Murray's career thus far? LOL
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Yes actually. U.S. Open 2008 Series, SF in Toronto and W in Cincinnati, and loses in the F to Roger Federer who performed like crap at both tournaments and the Olympics.


Won a lead up tournament to the AO and lost in the 4th round.



Clay season, ok, he's not that good. He did well for his abilities.



Won Queens, lost in the SF to Roddick.







Yup, story of his career since last year.
 
TheMagicianOfPrecision said:
Btw, i saw a documentary about Sampras yesterday called the kings of Wimby, great stuff!! I admit i forgot how good Pete used to be on the fast grass, he even played and won Wimby in year 2000 with a foot-injury:shock: I never knew that.
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Yea thats a shame and it pisses me off. :(. As years continue to pass and memories fade, people will actually forget to realize just how pete was at wimbeldon.. Heck I think its leaving alot of them now. Youtube videos just dont do it justice. You would have needed to experiencing watching that at wimbeldon live. And you will realize, there is probably nobody better ever on the grounds of Wimbeldon.

*cry*
 
GameSampras said:
Yea thats a shame and it pisses me off. :(. As years continue to pass and memories fade, people will actually forget to realize just how pete was at wimbeldon.. Heck I think its leaving alot of them now. Youtube videos just dont do it justice. You would have needed to experiencing watching that at wimbeldon live. And you will realize, there is probably nobody better ever on the grounds of Wimbeldon.

*cry*
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I totally agree with this. He played some fantastic tennis, and beating Goran that many times at Wimby was huge, Goran was a monster (i got updated on that yeasterday while watching the documentary) I love Fed, will always do but Sampras was a hell of a player! And i love the mental toughness he showed. I had forgot about it all.
 
GameSampras said:
hasnt that been the story of Murray's career thus far? LOL
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Not really. He's never dominated a warmup season. The closest was last summer, where he won Cinci and got to, I believe, the semis in Toronto? Something like that? But Nadal had a better summer than him anyway. And the summer is the only time where there's really a lead-up *season*, not just a single minor warmup tournament.

He's been having a nice and steady rise up in the results and the rankings; hopefully it'll eventually translate to a GS win, even though breaking the Fed/Nadal dominance is going to be hard even with them being out of form.
 
Max G. said:
Not really. He's never dominated a warmup season. The closest was last summer, where he won Cinci and got to, I believe, the semis in Toronto? Something like that? But Nadal had a better summer than him anyway. And the summer is the only time where there's really a lead-up *season*, not just a single minor warmup tournament.

He's been having a nice and steady rise up in the results and the rankings; hopefully it'll eventually translate to a GS win, even though breaking the Fed/Nadal dominance is going to be hard even with them being out of form.
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He has been the favorite coming out of warm-up tournaments at both the AO and Wimbledon (and yes, a single tournament does qualify as the warmup season at Wimbledon, because there is only essentially one), and has failed to capitalize both times. If he wins Montreal and Cincinnati this year (which I think he will) and fails to win the USO (which I think will happen) then he failed a 3rd time. No excuses then for Andy Murray.
 
NamRanger said:
He has been the favorite coming out of warm-up tournaments at both the AO and Wimbledon (and yes, a single tournament does qualify as the warmup season at Wimbledon, because there is only essentially one), and has failed to capitalize both times. If he wins Montreal and Cincinnati this year (which I think he will) and fails to win the USO (which I think will happen) then he failed a 3rd time. No excuses then for Andy Murray.
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Agree with this, good post.
 
I take one exception to NamRanger's last post, that being that Murray was not really "the" favorite for Wimbledon- rather, Federer was- but the overall spirit of the post has some merit. Clearly Murray has been absolutely brilliant in best-of-three set tournaments and has more than once looked to be in potentially the best form of all the ATP going into a Slam, only to come up short when the chips were down. That said, he may yet gain the extra touch he needs to really step up in the Grand Slams. This US Open- and, come January, the Australian- should be telling.
 
Dementieva dominated the pre-Aussie Open 2009 season and was a favourite going into the AO. She then dropped out to Serena in the semis of the AO, despite being on a winning streak against Serena at the time.
 
In 1990, after winning Wimbledon, Stefan Edberg won Los Angeles (when the field was much better), Cincinnati, and Long Island (I think that was the old Hamlet Cup, another hardcourt warmup with a strong field; this was pre New Haven)

He was the hottest player going into the USO and he lost in the first round.

But, we won it the next two years.
 
Hewitt won two tournaments and made Cincy final in '04, then made the finals of US Open without dropping a set only for the infamous loss to Federer there.
 
Here are some for the women in recent years....

Martina Hingis
1999: Won Hilton Head and Berlin. Lost French Open final to Steffi Graf

Kim Clijsters...
2003: Won Sydney (defeating Henin and Davenport), lost in Australian Open semis to Serena.

also 2003: Won Los Angeles and San Diego, lost in US Open finals to Henin

Justine Henin
2002: Won Berlin (beating the Serena in her most dominant year), runner up in Rome and Amelia Island: lost in first round of French Open.
 
GameSampras said:
Yea thats a shame and it pisses me off. :(. As years continue to pass and memories fade, people will actually forget to realize just how pete was at wimbeldon.. Heck I think its leaving alot of them now. Youtube videos just dont do it justice. You would have needed to experiencing watching that at wimbeldon live. And you will realize, there is probably nobody better ever on the grounds of Wimbeldon.

*cry*
Click to expand...

That's what happens when you stiff-arm the media your whole career and hide behind your GS titles instead of helping others...once you're surpassed, you fade into oblivion (see: Lendl, Ivan as a prime example).

And yes, I watched Sampras at Wimbledon his entire career.

2000 Wimbledon was impressive only b/c Sampras did it on one leg -- not because of the competition -- one of the weakest draws ever for a grand slam winner, and far weaker than any that Federer, Nadal, or Agassi faced in winning a slam. When Gambill is your QF opponent, and Voltchkov is your SF opponent, that's a legendarily weak draw.
 
JennyS said:
Here are some for the women in recent years....

Martina Hingis
1999: Won Hilton Head and Berlin. Lost French Open final to Steffi Graf

Kim Clijsters...
2003: Won Sydney (defeating Henin and Davenport), lost in Australian Open semis to Serena.

also 2003: Won Los Angeles and San Diego, lost in US Open finals to Henin

Justine Henin
2002: Won Berlin (beating the Serena in her most dominant year), runner up in Rome and Amelia Island: lost in first round of French Open.
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In the 90s I remember that the big warmup for the Australian Open mens singles was an exhibition in Kooyong -- Chang won this at least twice (beating Sampras at least once), yet never won the Aus Open.
 
Breaker said:
Hewitt won two tournaments and made Cincy final in '04, then made the finals of US Open without dropping a set only for the infamous loss to Federer there.
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I thought he was on a 20 match winning streak or something going into that US Open final?
 
JennyS said:
Here are some for the women in recent years....

Martina Hingis
1999: Won Hilton Head and Berlin. Lost French Open final to Steffi Graf

Kim Clijsters...
2003: Won Sydney (defeating Henin and Davenport), lost in Australian Open semis to Serena.

also 2003: Won Los Angeles and San Diego, lost in US Open finals to Henin

Justine Henin
2002: Won Berlin (beating the Serena in her most dominant year), runner up in Rome and Amelia Island: lost in first round of French Open.
Click to expand...

I'll add a few more for the women

2006 clay court season: Nadia Petrova won 3 titles including Amelia Island, rose to a career high number 3 in the world, and was ousted in the first round of French, where many though she would be the big rival to Henin that year.

2004: Davenport won the US Open series, with back to back finals wins over the Williams sisters, and lost in the Semi's of the US Open to Kuznetsova after leading the final set 4-2. She was hurt in that match...but it does fit in here.

2008: Famously...Safina during the US Open series won a bunch of tournies, made the Finals of the Olympics...went out without much of a fight in the Semi's of the US Open.

2009: Dementieva won Sydney and Auckland but fell to Serena at the Aussie in a straight set beatdown despite having won her previous three matches with Serena including a 6-3 6-1 win in Syndey earlier in the year.
 
drwood said:
That's what happens when you stiff-arm the media your whole career and hide behind your GS titles instead of helping others...once you're surpassed, you fade into oblivion (see: Lendl, Ivan as a prime example).

And yes, I watched Sampras at Wimbledon his entire career.

2000 Wimbledon was impressive only b/c Sampras did it on one leg -- not because of the competition -- one of the weakest draws ever for a grand slam winner, and far weaker than any that Federer, Nadal, or Agassi faced in winning a slam. When Gambill is your QF opponent, and Voltchkov is your SF opponent, that's a legendarily weak draw.
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Thats a good point, ive seen Lendl in more outspoken interwiews the last 2 years then i saw him during his entire career.
 
There was a player, Alberto Mancini, who won the Monte Carlo-Rome double and ended up losing in the Quarters of the French in 1989.
 
Blinkism said:
There was a player, Alberto Mancini, who won the Monte Carlo-Rome double and ended up losing in the Quarters of the French in 1989.
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Yes, the Bull from Pampas, he only won 3 career-titles despite chrushing prime-Wilander on clay 2 times and 1 time on HC...amazing.
 
1-2 punch said:
that would be demorolizing though, to win every warm up event and fail at the big one.
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agassi was very demoralized after winning all the warmup tournaments and falling at the us open. he came into the open with a 20 something winning streak, only to lose to sampras, who he had beat a few times earlier in those warmup tournaments.
 
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