Unluckiest player of all time?

T

Type40

Semi-Pro
I nominate Bobby Riggs, becaus he came to his peak at the outbreak of world war 2, and tennis being what it is, a top players peak years typvcially are about 5 or six years, and so this poor guy had to sit out his greatest years through the war and sadly had to make it as a tennis hustlet the rest of his life.

I really feel for this guy.

RIP Bobby Riggs.
 
Monica Seles!!!!.... she would've won every slam she played if she wasn't attacked by that psycho. she was really playing well when that happened and she was just never the same again, that was really sad.
and of course my man Rios with his injuries was pretty unfortunated too.
 
Yeah Monica Seles, you definitely have a poiint here... She is for sure one of the unluckiest players of all time.
 
This is what I heard on the grape vine Bobby Riggs beat Margaret cout before the Billy Jean King Match. Bobby Riggs under a different name put a ton of money on Billy jean King to win.
 
Monica, actually had it easy. You could say she was very lucky. There are SO many more players who've truly had bad draws in life.

For example: Todd Witskin.
 
My vote goes to Hewitt. Unlucky enough to arrive on the scene during the inter-regnum of Sampras and Federer and was flattered into deceiving that he would get more from the game than is now likely. His bridesmaid record over the last couple of years must be really starting to irk. Given the level of board abuse out there at the moment I should qualify immediately that this is not an anti Hewitt post, who has a couple of slam titles to his name and done some good things in tennis, nor for that matter is it a pro Sampras / Federer post who have also done good things in tennis.
 
monica seles is up there, i agree that also todd martin is unlucky../ yeh..coria.. always is like so close wo winning a tournament...

but guys.. seriously..tim henman.. like.. how many semis has this guy lost in ?????

hes going to go down as a nobodywhen his carrers finished but he always gets so close..

last year..semi rg, semi us open..... quarters of wimbledon...

i just think hes cursed!!
 
newracketagain?? said:
but guys.. seriously..tim henman.. like.. how many semis has this guy lost in ?????

hes going to go down as a nobodywhen his carrers finished but he always gets so close..

last year..semi rg, semi us open..... quarters of wimbledon...

i just think hes cursed!!
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I like your choice, but not your reasoning. I don't think bad luck has had anything to do with why he's lost in so many semis. He's just never quite been the best player out there on those days.

BUT, I think there's something to be said for the bad luck of having been born an almost-(but-not-quite)-great, grass-court, BRITISH tennis player. Ouch.

Still, though, hard to give him the nod over Monica. And yeah, someone like Todd Witsken, too. Though I give Monica the nod there, too. Yeah, he lost his life, whereas she just lost her edge, but here we seem to be talking about tennis-specific unluckiness, and I think Monica's tragedy -- while minor in a life sense compared to Todd's -- probably ended up costing her a lot more on the tennis courts.
 
Baron Gottfried Von Cramm - German player who lost to Fred Perry in the Wimbledon finals, was subsequently persecuted by the Nazis and moved to front line action where he was killed (if I remember correctly).

The man was a perfect gentleman according to all accounts and a great guy.
 
jings said:
My vote goes to Hewitt. Unlucky enough to arrive on the scene during the inter-regnum of Sampras and Federer and was flattered into deceiving that he would get more from the game than is now likely.
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By the same reasoning you could say he is was lucky to grab that top spot in the transition period.
 
friedalo1 said:
This is what I heard on the grape vine Bobby Riggs beat Margaret cout before the Billy Jean King Match. Bobby Riggs under a different name put a ton of money on Billy jean King to win.
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i sorta doubt that. had he gotten caught he woulda been in serious trouble. but i do think he may have tanked, hoping to get a rematch, or just played the worst match of his life.

unluckiest? how bout thomas muster getting hit by a drunk driver hours before the lipton finals, breaking his leg.
 
Baron Gottfried Von Cramm - German player who lost to Fred Perry in the Wimbledon finals, was subsequently persecuted by the Nazis and moved to front line action where he was killed (if I remember correctly).

The man was a perfect gentleman according to all accounts and a great guy.
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Wow, if you're ever having a bad day, that should make you realize things can always get worse.
 
My nomination goes to the Unknown Tennis Player who have spent all the best years of his/her life on court trying to break through. And here he/she has been all those years - just on the verge of ATP/WTA tour. Just on the verge of money, successs, girls, more girls and fame. Working, travelling, loosing, working, seing only yellow all the time for peanuts. And as a result - no money, no profession (apart from a kids coach), no proper education and the "looser" lable for life - THIS is a sad picture. Show me his/her grave - I wanna put some yellow roses. This is like army - a bunch of generals and thousands of those soldiers biting the dust. Or the chalk. Todd and Monica are unbelievably lucky in comparison.
 
Shaolin said:
James Blake.
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He had a bad run there, for a while, but I just can't get behind this nomination. This is a guy who became obscenely wealthy and famous for being a mediocre tennis pro with a good marketing look. We should all be so unlucky.
 
I'll go with the Iraninan guy who was embargoed and prohibitted from getting out and playing on the tour. Can't remember his exact name but he has played some senior events. Mansour Bahrami or something close to that. Very entertaining and from the reports of his peers a very talented player that did not get to play at his peak.
 
Add to this all Soviet players like Metreveli or Morozova who could not keep their prize money and were given lousy Soviet cars insted.
 
Definitely Monica Seles. Who knows how many slams she might had it not been for that violent attack. In addition though, she lost out on the innocence and freedom she once felt for her life, according to her books anyway, and she lost some of the most sacred years of her life where she paralyzed by fear, often shielding herself indoors like a hermit.
 
I think it is either Goran or Agssi beause Goran took him A LONG TIME to win Wimbeldon adn Agassi for not winning ANYTHIng in a LONG TIME. :D
 
Definitely Tim Henman, he has reached 4 semis and a number of q-finals at Wimby but just does not have the cutting edge to win a slam.

Amelia Mauresmo on the womens side.
 
Things have turned around for Mansour Bharami mentioned above. He's now got a great career on the Senior.s tour, recently entertained at Halle propr to the final, and is the only tennis player who brings a chair to the court when he's playing doubles & has been known to sit down and let his partner do all the work for a while. Everone who watches him loves him, a senior Goran gone off the deep en. If he had played ATP, more than likely no one would remember him now. He's found himself a nice luctrative niche in the tennis world. Lucky guy.
 
Tennis Ball Hitter said:
By the same reasoning you could say he is was lucky to grab that top spot in the transition period.
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must say that Roddick was blessed with the same luck. if Federer matured just a bit earlier you can all be sure that Roddick and Ferrero would not be former #1's now.
- well, maybe Ferrero at his best is a #1 but Roddick should consider himself lucky cuz he won't see that spot again.
 
Federer got lucky after playing Hewitt in the Slams, Hamburg and Masters Cup.
Roddick was coached by Brad Gilbert, had injuries throughout 2003-5 and didn't care very much.
 
verdasco67 said:
guillermo coria!
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How is Coria unlucky? he had a two sets to love lead, up a break in the third and got tight, lost the third, did not know how to deal with it, cramped in the 4th (maybe- still not sure he wasn't looking for a way out or trying to conserve his energy for 5th?) and then ran around in the 5th like nothing was wrong (cramps don't suddenly dissappear) and could not pull out the match even with match points. after this display---he has become my least favorite player and the biggest head case in tennis. The only positive of a coria match is when they pan the crowd and find his wife:)
 
Coincidentally, I’m just finishing “The Last Sure Thing,” a bio of Riggs. Although the timing of WW2 was unkind to him, he still had quite a ride, including $1.5 mil from the Billy Jean match. He was one of the all-time great hustlers—“I’ll give you one alley, I’ll give you both alleys; I’ll give you x points a game; I’ll give you x points a set; I’ll carry a suitcase; I’ll wear an overcoat; I’ll hit only backhands….” Tennis was only a small part of it—he’d bet on anything when he thought he had an edge, and he usually found a way to get that, but if he couldn’t, he’d still bet.
 
jings said:
My vote goes to Hewitt. Unlucky enough to arrive on the scene during the inter-regnum of Sampras and Federer and was flattered into deceiving that he would get more from the game than is now likely.
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Hold on, is Hewitt a second or third generation tennis player?

I can remember Bob Hewitt, in Laver's day, but I don't know anything else.
 
Don't feel bad for Bobby Riggs. The guy was an unbelieveable player and hustler. The year he won Wimbledon(he really won it, singles, doubles, mixed doubles), he bet on himself to win it.

Seles is unlucky, so was Muster.
 
you guys are a bunch of idiots. Gulickson didn't lose a match, or hurt his neck, or get stabbed, HE DIED!!!! No pro can match that on the unlucky scale!
 
MARK ANDERS said:
you guys are a bunch of idiots. Gulickson didn't lose a match, or hurt his neck, or get stabbed, HE DIED!!!! No pro can match that on the unlucky scale!
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Lots of pros are dead. In fact, most people who ever lived are dead. It happens to everybody; it's not unlucky.

Not everyone has a maniac run into the workplace and stab them in the back just because they do their job too well, though. You wanna talk about defying the odds?
 
Grimjack and Pushmaster just proved my point. Most would say it's unlucky as hell to die IN YOUR 30's (young) from a disease at the top of your game coaching the GOAT!! A stabbing can't compare, shes walking around and shes rich. You guys are high!
 
MARK ANDERS said:
Grimjack and Pushmaster just proved my point. Most would say it's unlucky as hell to die IN YOUR 30's (young) from a disease at the top of your game coaching the GOAT!! A stabbing can't compare, shes walking around and shes rich. You guys are high!
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Well, it depends on where you go after you die...
 
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