Worst Grand Slam Finals in history???

[ptennisb]

I'll start this off, but keep in mind, I haven't watch much tennis before 2000:
#10: Australian Open 2020. It wasn't necessarily a terrible match, but it was just so underwhelming based on what was expected by the way they moved through the draw.
#9: Australian Open 2003. This was just an obliteration. This whole match kind of sucked.
#8: French Open 2008. Sure this result may have been expected, but not in such a clinical fashion. This was just an obliteration, and an overall insult to the idea that 2 players out of 128 of the best players in the world are supposed to have a relatively even match.
#7: Australian Open 2019: See the explanation for #8, but taken to an even greater extent.
#6: Wimbledon 2016. I know that this was a relatively close final in terms of score, but overall, this was an incredibly boring match.
#5: Wimbledon 2002. Overall, one of the most boring finals, even considering it was at Wimbledon.
#4: Wimbledon 1996. I think it was after this match that they changed the Wimbledon grass little by little. This was very boring.
#3: French Open 2017. We could make this whole list be made up of Rafa's French Open Finals, but this one was just the idea that Wawrinka couldn't do anything about this final.
#2: French Open 2016. This was a clash of giants, and I remember watching it live, turning off the TV, and realizing that this four set final was just so underwhelming.
And the worst Final is:
#1: US Open 2004: The only US Open entry on my list, this was just textbook crushing. Hewitt was not himself, and overall, this was without a doubt the strangest final I had ever seen.

 

[TheAssassin]

Some impressive beatdowns listed while 2017 US Open final isn't mentioned, come on...

 

[ptennisb]

Some impressive beatdowns listed while 2017 US Open final isn't mentioned, come on...

Overall, the 2017 USO final wasn't necessarily a beatdown, it was more of ridiculous outplaying, while the rest were literal beatdowns. I watched the 2017 USO live, and generally considered it to be a decent match, with decent points, and decent overall competition. I sincerely feel if Rafa was slightly less in god mode, and Kevin was serving better, it would have gone to 5 based on the rest of the match.

 

[tennis_pro]

Strange picks.

For me worst = most dull/boring/zero drama/level comparable to 4.0 NTRP while hungover.

2011 AO
2013 FO
2014 USO
2017 Wimbledon too but didn't care as much as a Fed fan

 

[daggerman]

96 Wimbledon has to be up there. Krajicek was zoning and Mal Washington was in way over his head (though he still fought hard)

 

[ptennisb]

96 Wimbledon has to be up there. Krajicek was zoning and Mal Washington was in way over his head (though he still fought hard)

I know right.

 

[ptennisb]

Strange picks.

For me worst = most dull/boring/zero drama/level comparable to 4.0 NTRP while hungover

2013 FO final
2014 USO final

I do have slightly different categories, but overall, I do agree. The memorability of a grand slam final is what makes it great. To be honest, I had to look up the 2014 USO final since I could not remember it of the top of my head. The 2013 FO final may be considered a slightly dull match based on style, but overall, it was a very high quality match. Both of these could have been included in a list, but to me, they might be more of honorable mentions, instead of top 10 material.

 

[125downthemiddle]

What was wrong with AO 20 final? Lol 5 sets 6-4 loser was up 2 sets to 1.

I mean I understand if it's not your cup of tea but that's one of the top 10 worst/most boring slam finals? Lol.

If you don't like Djokovic style and find the finals he's in lame there would be better picks imo including Murrovic slam finals.

Different tastes tho so fair enough.

 

[TheAssassin]

Overall, the 2017 USO final wasn't necessarily a beatdown, it was more of ridiculous outplaying, while the rest were literal beatdowns. I watched the 2017 USO live, and generally considered it to be a decent match, with decent points, and decent overall competition. I sincerely feel if Rafa was slightly less in god mode, and Kevin was serving better, it would have gone to 5 based on the rest of the match.

Fair enough I guess. I prefer jaw dropping tennis from one guy over uninspiring yet never in doubt 6-4 routines, and Fedalovic produced the former in a few of the finals you listed. But neither are great from a point of a neutral who wants to see as much tennis as possible...

 

[ptennisb]

What was wrong with AO 20 final? Lol 5 sets 6-4 loser was up 2 sets to 1.

I mean I understand if it's not your cup of tea but that's one of the top 10 worst/most boring slam finals? Lol.

If you don't like Djokovic style and find the finals he's in lame there would be better picks imo including Murrovic slam finals.

Different tastes tho so fair enough.

It's not necessarily about level. I actually think this is one of the most intriguing match ups ever. Its just that the level throughout the tournament for these two players was so high, but then the final was more like five sets of pushing and of unforced errors. It just kind of underwhelmed me.

 

[ptennisb]

Fair enough I guess. I prefer jaw dropping tennis from one guy over uninspiring yet never in doubt 6-4 routines, and Fedalovic produced the former in a few of the finals you listed. But neither are great from a point of a neutral who wants to see as much tennis as possible...

Completely agree.

 

[ptennisb]

Strange picks.

For me worst = most dull/boring/zero drama/level comparable to 4.0 NTRP while hungover.

2011 AO
2013 FO
2014 USO
2017 Wimbledon too but didn't care as much as a Fed fan

Again, all of these were not necessarily great finals, but drama level is not necessarily my main factor. My main factor without a doubt is level of play compared to the rest of the tournament from one or both guys, and these were just average meh or absolutely amazing finals from one person, and a slightly below average meh from the other. There was nothing necessarily memorable in an awful way or a good way from these finals. They were kind of just placeholder finals. I felt like my list listed grand slam finals that were either memorable for being bad, or memorable for being especially below average for the tournament. But it is a subjective list, and your criteria is acceptable.

 

[FedeRadi]

2010 Wimbledon, 2013 Roland Garros, 2017 Roland Garros, 2017 US Open and 2018 Wimbledon probably the most boring and uninteresting ones in not particular order in recent times.

 

[ptennisb]

2010 Wimbledon, 2013 Roland Garros, 2017 Roland Garros, 2017 US Open and 2018 Wimbledon probably the most boring and uninteresting ones in not particular order in recent times.

Agreed, they were boring and uninteresting, but I would not necessarily call them all bad.

 

[The Blond Blur]

I’m going with the 1990 AO. It was the first time in almost 80 years that a schlem final ended with a retirement. Poor Edberg

 

[TnsGuru]

1988 French Open – Women's Singles. Steffi Graf was the defending champion, and she successfully defended her title by defeating Natalia Zvereva in the final, 6–0, 6–0 in 34 minutes.

 

[ptennisb]

French Open – Women's Singles. Steffi Graf was the defending champion, and she successfully defended her title by defeating Natalia Zvereva in the final, 6–0, 6–0 in 34 minutes.

Ok. Ill be honest, I was only looking at male finals.

 

[FedeRadi]

Agreed, they were boring and uninteresting, but I would not necessarily call them all bad.

There is a lot of way to be bad.
Give me every day of the week 2018 Wimbledon Final, with Nole crushing a poor tired Anderson, than an epic 5-setter like 2017 AO Final with good level of play and Federer beating Nadal.
But these are personal tastes.

 

[King No1e]

I'll start this off, but keep in mind, I haven't watch much tennis before 2000:
#10: Australian Open 2020. It wasn't necessarily a terrible match, but it was just so underwhelming based on what was expected by the way they moved through the draw.
#9: Australian Open 2003. This was just an obliteration. This whole match kind of sucked.
#8: French Open 2008. Sure this result may have been expected, but not in such a clinical fashion. This was just an obliteration, and an overall insult to the idea that 2 players out of 128 of the best players in the world are supposed to have a relatively even match.
#7: Australian Open 2019: See the explanation for #8, but taken to an even greater extent.
#6: Wimbledon 2016. I know that this was a relatively close final in terms of score, but overall, this was an incredibly boring match.
#5: Wimbledon 2002. Overall, one of the most boring finals, even considering it was at Wimbledon.
#4: Wimbledon 1996. I think it was after this match that they changed the Wimbledon grass little by little. This was very boring.
#3: French Open 2017. We could make this whole list be made up of Rafa's French Open Finals, but this one was just the idea that Wawrinka couldn't do anything about this final.
#2: French Open 2016. This was a clash of giants, and I remember watching it live, turning off the TV, and realizing that this four set final was just so underwhelming.
And the worst Final is:
#1: US Open 2004: The only US Open entry on my list, this was just textbook crushing. Hewitt was not himself, and overall, this was without a doubt the strangest final I had ever seen.

Thiem vs Djokovic 5-setter one of the worst finals of all time? I am disgust.
Also some of these beatdowns, like USO04, AO19, or RG17 were the result of one player playing at a ridiculously high level.

 

[King No1e]

The worst has to be the Wimbledon 1994 final. Where's that rally length graphic when you need it?

Either that or one of the matches where one player is hopelessly injured, like AO14 or W17.

 

[ptennisb]

I’m going with the 1990 AO. It was the first time in almost 80 years that a schlem final ended with a retirement. Poor Edberg

I have not seen that one.

 

[ptennisb]

Fair point.

 

[ptennisb]

Thiem vs Djokovic 5-setter one of the worst finals of all time? I am disgust.
Also some of these beatdowns, like USO04, AO19, or RG17 were the result of one player playing at a ridiculously high level.

Look at the rest of the thread for explanation.

 

[ptennisb]

The worst has to be the Wimbledon 1994 final. Where's that rally length graphic when you need it?

Either that or one of the matches where one player is hopelessly injured, like AO14 or W17.

Havent seen that final.

 

[The Blond Blur]

I have not seen that one.

It was shaping up to be a really good match until Edberg tore an abdominal muscle in the 3rd set. He won the 1st set 6-4, then Lendl took the 2nd in a TB. Stefan retired in the 3rd when down 5-2 which is a real shame considering he’s such a classy dude. It was the definition of a situation where it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

 

[stringertom]

2003 slam finals in total have to be the worst one-sided quartet in history. Schuettler and Verkerk, were both surprise finalists at AO/RG and managed to win 11 games between them. fedr then straight setted Scud at Wimby before Roddick closed the slam season in straight sets over RG champion JCF.

As to anticipated classics that fell flat, I nominate the 1984 Wimbledon final, a rematch of the 1982 classic when Connors in 5 really meant something. JMac in 1984 was having none of that and spanked Jimbo 1, 1, & 2.

Worst pair of finals beatdowns were Connors’ annihilation of aging Rosewall in the 1974 Wimbledon and USO finals. Connors lost six games at Wimby and then bettered that by going 1, 0 & 1 in the last USO match played on grass.

 

[mike danny]

I'll start this off, but keep in mind, I haven't watch much tennis before 2000:
#10: Australian Open 2020. It wasn't necessarily a terrible match, but it was just so underwhelming based on what was expected by the way they moved through the draw.
#9: Australian Open 2003. This was just an obliteration. This whole match kind of sucked.
#8: French Open 2008. Sure this result may have been expected, but not in such a clinical fashion. This was just an obliteration, and an overall insult to the idea that 2 players out of 128 of the best players in the world are supposed to have a relatively even match.
#7: Australian Open 2019: See the explanation for #8, but taken to an even greater extent.
#6: Wimbledon 2016. I know that this was a relatively close final in terms of score, but overall, this was an incredibly boring match.
#5: Wimbledon 2002. Overall, one of the most boring finals, even considering it was at Wimbledon.
#4: Wimbledon 1996. I think it was after this match that they changed the Wimbledon grass little by little. This was very boring.
#3: French Open 2017. We could make this whole list be made up of Rafa's French Open Finals, but this one was just the idea that Wawrinka couldn't do anything about this final.
#2: French Open 2016. This was a clash of giants, and I remember watching it live, turning off the TV, and realizing that this four set final was just so underwhelming.
And the worst Final is:
#1: US Open 2004: The only US Open entry on my list, this was just textbook crushing. Hewitt was not himself, and overall, this was without a doubt the strangest final I had ever seen.

So you have AO 2020, but not USO 2017?

Don't kid yourself. It was as much of a foregone conclusion as it could possibly be and it wasn't ever going 5.

 

[Hitman]

Strange list OP, been many worse than the ones shown there.

 

[CHillTennis]

Besides the ones that were already mentioned, I would also put the 2008 US Open final, 2009 French Open final, and 1990 US Open final on the list. They were too straight forward for me.

 

[BlueB]

Either that or one of the matches where one player is hopelessly injured, like AO14 or W17.

Take a guess which of the 2 actually didn't involve an injury.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

 

[Shaolin]

The worst has to be the Wimbledon 1994 final. Where's that rally length graphic when you need it?

Either that or one of the matches where one player is hopelessly injured, like AO14 or W17.

Good tennis isn't about long points.

I'd take a nice serve and crisp volley + overhead to a monotonous grinding 28 shot baseline rally ending in an error anyday.

 

[King No1e]

Good tennis isn't about long points.

I'd take a nice serve and crisp volley + overhead to a monotonous grinding 28 shot baseline rally ending in an error anyday.

Sure, but it's a bit much when literally 1 point all match goes more than 3 shots

 

[Federev]

Thiem vs Djokovic 5-setter one of the worst finals of all time? I am disgust.
Also some of these beatdowns, like USO04, AO19, or RG17 were the result of one player playing at a ridiculously high level.

Agreed!

 

[ptennisb]

The worst has to be the Wimbledon 1994 final. Where's that rally length graphic when you need it?

Either that or one of the matches where one player is hopelessly injured, like AO14 or W17.

I will say that the Djokovic vs Thiem match was by far the highest quality match here. I actually enjoyed watching some parts of it. It just is based on what was expected from the match, what the match delivered, and how the players played prior to the match, and in the tournaments leading up to the slam. 5 set matches can be low quality from both players. That wasn't necessarily the case, but it was just a worse match than myself and many others I know expected it to be one of the highest quality grand slam finals in history. Thiem played some god-like tennis against Rafa and Zverev, and then was understandably exhausted in the final. He gave it everything he had, but his overall play was one of his way less impressive matches that tournament I felt. Djokovic played absolutely classic Djoker-like remarkable tennis against Raonic and Fed, but I felt like in the final, he played even worse than Thiem. I'll be honest, this match was one of my least favorite Thiem matches based on play, and one of my least favorite Djoker matches based on play. They both played pretty bad, and Djokovic really kind of clutched it out in the end. The point I'm making is that they played much, much, much better in the rounds leading up to the finals, and they both usually play higher quality matches against each other(WTF 2019.)

 

[JaoSousa]

The worst has to be the Wimbledon 1994 final. Where's that rally length graphic when you need it?

Either that or one of the matches where one player is hopelessly injured, like AO14 or W17.

Only 4 rallies were beyond 5 shots, I think. Exactly the reason why I prefer 2000 to 2010 grass, which was faster and allowed for some cool rallies. The grass courts now are basically just fast hard courts.

 

[Deleted member 768841]

#3: French Open 2017. We could make this whole list be made up of Rafa's French Open Finals

 

[King No1e]

I will say that the Djokovic vs Thiem match was by far the highest quality match here. I actually enjoyed watching some parts of it. It just is based on what was expected from the match, what the match delivered, and how the players played prior to the match, and in the tournaments leading up to the slam. 5 set matches can be low quality from both players. That wasn't necessarily the case, but it was just a worse match than myself and many others I know expected it to be one of the highest quality grand slam finals in history. Thiem played some god-like tennis against Rafa and Zverev, and then was understandably exhausted in the final. He gave it everything he had, but his overall play was one of his way less impressive matches that tournament I felt. Djokovic played absolutely classic Djoker-like remarkable tennis against Raonic and Fed, but I felt like in the final, he played even worse than Thiem. I'll be honest, this match was one of my least favorite Thiem matches based on play, and one of my least favorite Djoker matches based on play. They both played pretty bad, and Djokovic really kind of clutched it out in the end. The point I'm making is that they played much, much, much better in the rounds leading up to the finals, and they both usually play higher quality matches against each other(WTF 2019.)

That's not what I saw. I was actually quite impressed by Djokovic's level near the end of the match. He was showing some vintage form, mixing up play, staying solid from the back of the court. Might just be biased because I haven't rewatched it since, but I thought Novak was starting to get back into his flow a little in the 4th and 5th, especially after playing terrible in the first 3 sets.

It wasn't very high-quality as far as 5-setters go, but it was still a match to remember. (Especially because it might be the last ever Slam match with a crowd)

 

[Subway Tennis]

USO 2017 must be somewhere near the top of the list.

The first of Kevin Anderson's duet of lame duck major finals appearances.

Anderson's extended and energetic celebrations after winning the semi final were more akin with someone winning a major title.

It really gave the impression that making the final in itself was enough for him and he would just be "happy to be there" come the final and that's very much how it played out.

 

[ptennisb]

That's not what I saw. I was actually quite impressed by Djokovic's level near the end of the match. He was showing some vintage form, mixing up play, staying solid from the back of the court. Might just be biased because I haven't rewatched it since, but I thought Novak was starting to get back into his flow a little in the 4th and 5th, especially after playing terrible in the first 3 sets.

It wasn't very high-quality as far as 5-setters go, but it was still a match to remember. (Especially because it might be the last ever Slam match with a crowd)

Lol. If it ends up being the last slam match with a crowd, I will definitely remove it from this list. Until then, I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and this was just mine. Your opinion is logical and has evidence, so just go with it.

 

[ptennisb]

USO 2017 must be somewhere near the top of the list.

The first of Kevin Anderson's duet of lame duck major finals appearances.

Anderson's extended and energetic celebrations after winning the semi final were more akin with someone winning a major title.

It really gave the impression that making the final in itself was enough for him and he would just be "happy to be there" come the final and that's very much how it played out.

Honestly, it just didn't have the memorability of being as bad as the other finals. To me, it could have been a lot closer if their had been slightly different conditions. I think you definitely have a point about his attitude during the match, but I really thought it would go 5 before the match. It was really just a formality from the beginning, with solid, not close set wins for Rafa. There was nothing really particularly special or awful about the match. Just a formal win with outcomes that a lot of people expected. That's why it might only be in the honorable mentions for this list if I make one.

 

[Breakpointerer]

Strange picks. How is Wimbledon 2017 not here? Also AO20 wasn't great but it wasn't bad enough to warrant an inclusion on this list..

 

[ptennisb]

Lol. It's hard to make a list that has variety when Nadal's french open finals are pretty much all one-sided.

 

[Deleted member 768841]

Lol. It's hard to make a list that has variety when Nadal's french open finals are pretty much all one-sided.

I think 2016 could have been the tenth, it looked like he was ready. But either way we have found a good timeline.

 

[ptennisb]

I think 2016 could have been the tenth, it looked like he was ready. But either way we have found a good timeline.

Yup. Lol.

 

[King No1e]

Bamos

 

[ptennisb]

I think 2016 could have been the tenth, it looked like he was ready. But either way we have found a good timeline.

He really doesn't need any more at this point. I love watching him on clay, but c'mon.

 

[Deleted member 768841]

He really doesn't need any more at this point. I love watching him on clay, but c'mon.

Nadal has the chance to surpass Fed with his pet slam, I’ll happily watch a slug fest 3 more times if it means he comes out on top.

 

[ptennisb]

Nadal has the chance to surpass Fed with his pet slam, I’ll happily watch a slug fest 3 more times if it means he comes out on top.

I honestly think that even if Nadal surpasses Fed, he's only the second greatest player of all time. Djoker has just refined tennis to a whole nother level. Not being particularly a fan of any of the big 3, I feel like I have a pretty unbiased opinion here.

 

[Enceladus]

It is interesting that AO 2020 is included in the list of OP, but AO 2018 is not

 

[Fedinkum]

Pretty sure this 1988 French Open 6-0, 6-0 beat down by Graf over Zvereva was pretty bad. I felt really bad for Natascha during the match.