Who are some of your favorite players who never won a slam?

Entername

Entername

Professional
In Big 3 Era I'd say Berdych, Tsonga, and Monfils were all great players who couldn't break through at a slam. In the era prior I'd say Nalbandian and Rios were two of the most talented players to never win a major.
 
G

Gizo

Legend
Most of my favourite players over the years haven’t won grand slam titles at least in singles, and many of them haven’t even come close to doing so.

Men:
Clerc
Mecir
Stoltenberg
Meligeni
El Aynaoui
Arazi
Lapentti
Calleri
Florian Mayer
Cuevas

Mancini and Horna narrowly miss out on a place in this list of 10

Women:
Sugiyama
Suarez
Loit
Dulko
Hsieh
Chakvetadze
Pironkova
Bacsinszky
Caroline Garcia
Muchova

I’ve also started to like Kasatkina a lot more in recent times.
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
I've confined my list to players who got into a position to win a Slam but couldn't do so ie. unsuccessful Slam finalists.

Some favourites:

Men: Martin, Philippoussis, Enqvist, Norman, Pioline, Leconte, Ferrer, Berdych, Anderson, Ruud.

Women: Turnbull, Sukova, Fernandez, Dementieva, Radwanska, Jabeur.
 
Hood_Man

Hood_Man

G.O.A.T.
nolefam_2024 said:
Raonic, Isner. I love how these two maximized their talents. Raonic was also injured when he had the chance but that's probably the case for most non slam winners. Raonic at Wimbledon was a treat to watch.
Click to expand...
If you want a true example of a great player blighted by injuries it's Raonic.

That serve of his was enough to win tournaments and teach the second week of major tournaments, but as the years progressed and he added more skills every time he seemed to get any momentum he suffered an injury.
 
Hood_Man

Hood_Man

G.O.A.T.
Mainad said:
I've confined my list to players who got into a position to win a Slam but couldn't do so ie. unsuccessful Slam finalists.

Some favourites:

Men: Martin, Philippoussis, Enqvist, Norman, Pioline, Leconte, Ferrer, Berdych, Anderson, Ruud.

Women: Turnbull, Sukova, Fernandez, Dementieva, Radwanska, Jabeur.
Click to expand...
No Henman? Shame on you.

Never mind, misread your post.
 
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M

merwy

G.O.A.T.
Too many to name, but:
Berdych
Soderling
Monfils
Davydenko
Nalbandian

On the women’s side I would’ve liked Kiki Bertens to have won a slam.
 
Subway Tennis

Subway Tennis

G.O.A.T.
Nicholas Escude - such a cool customer with a great aggessive and highly technical game. He caused me a lot of anguish when he came out and absolutely torched Australia in a home Davis Cup tie one year - but what a player.

Also Tiger Tim Henman…. One of those annoying people who probably could have been a pro in three different sports he was such a talented athlete. Luckily for us he picked tennis because he was great to watch. Used to love seeing him put the whole of England on his shoulders and push through to all those Wimbledon Semis and Quarters over and over again with that ultra aggressive playing style. Some weird quirks of circumstance stopped him from ever winning a grass court title unfortunately.
 
nolefam_2024

nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
ATP was just mere months from damming Dominic Thiem from ever winning a grand slam. Sadly the pandemic happened. Otherwise 0 for him too.
 
ghostofMecir

ghostofMecir

Legend
RacquetAbuse101 said:
Miloslav Mecir

And Henri Leconte (fastest hands I´ve ever seen)
Click to expand...
How could I forget Leconte and his flair and creativity on the court? You‘re right about those lightning quick reflexes. He was unique and unpredictable, but there was a lack of stability in a volatile era of tennis that hampered his winning among other things. I think someone with his talent playing today where analytics outline how to consistently go after points would have led to much greater success for him.

At 1:35, you see a beautiful one-handed BH DTL top spin lob.

vive le beau jeu ! said:
baghdatis
srichaphan
gulbis
shapovalov
philippoussis
arazi
gonzalez
goellner
dimitrov
gasquet
blake
musetti
etc.
Click to expand...
Man, the Poo had such a fluid, monster game—it‘s a damn shame about his injuries. I remember watching him at the USO in 1995, and his serve made an explosive sound i had not heard before. Baggy and Srichaphan would have also benefitted greatly from more stable, analytics informed strategies to maximize winning because both possessed all court talent. Baggy, for example, would try to hit 130 mph on first serve when he was 5’11.5 at best and never had the angles and therefore a terrible first serve %. It’s a shame about his injuries.
 
Last edited:
ghostofMecir

ghostofMecir

Legend
RacquetAbuse101 said:
Miloslav Mecir

And Henri Leconte (fastest hands I´ve ever seen)
Click to expand...
How could I forget Leconte and his flair and creativity on the court? You‘re right about those lightning quick reflexes. He was unique and unpredictable, but there was a lack of stability in a volatile era of tennis that hampered his winning among other things. I think someone with his talent playing today where analytics outline how to consistently go after points would have led to much greater success for him.

At 1:35, you see a beautiful one-handed BH DTL top spin lob.


vive le beau jeu ! said:
baghdatis
srichaphan
gulbis
shapovalov
philippoussis
arazi
gonzalez
goellner
dimitrov
gasquet
blake
musetti
etc.
Click to expand...
Man, the Poo had such a fluid, monster game—it‘s a damn shame about his injuries. I remember watching him at the USO in 1995, and his serve made an explosive sound i had not heard before. Baggy and Srichaphan would have also benefitted greatly from more stable, analytics informed strategies to maximize winning because both possessed all court talent. Baggy, for example, would try to hit 130 mph on first serve when he was 5’11.5 at best and never had the angles and therefore a terrible first serve %. It’s a shame about his injuries.
 
Last edited:
mavsman149

mavsman149

Hall of Fame
Subway Tennis said:
Nicholas Escude - such a cool customer with a great aggessive and highly technical game. He caused me a lot of anguish when he came out and absolutely torched Australia in a home Davis Cup tie one year - but what a player.

Also Tiger Tim Henman…. One of those annoying people who probably could have been a pro in three different sports he was such a talented athlete. Luckily for us he picked tennis because he was great to watch. Used to love seeing him put the whole of England on his shoulders and push through to all those Wimbledon Semis and Quarters over and over again with that ultra aggressive playing style. Some weird quirks of circumstance stopped him from ever winning a grass court title unfortunately.
Click to expand...

What a fun callback with Escude! One of the first matches that really got me into tennis was a match at Wimbledon against Agassi in 2001 I believe, Escude won the first set and gave Agassi a tough time, it was an incredible match though. Was always a fan after that.
 
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