I got to thinking about it, and thought I would write my list of the 10 best male tennis players never to win a grand slam, and the 10 biggest one Slam wonders
In certain quarters, Tim Henman’s Career will always be defined firstly by the fact that he didn’t win Wimbledon, but also because he didn’t win a grand slam full stop
There are always great players in any generation, but Tim was unfortunate perhaps to play in the era of both Sampras and Federer, arguably the two greatest players ever, and to meet Goran Ivsanisvic in a semi final moment of absolute destiny. The French Open loss to Coria was perhaps really the one that slipped away, and was maybe his greatest chance (especially without the home crowd pressure of wimbledon). But in 6 of his 7 semi finals, he lost to the eventual slam winner, no disgrace to my mind, and although Federer will (probably) surpass it, Tim’s record at Wimbledon is second only to Pete Sampras at the time of writing
Top 10 Tennis Players Who Didn’t Win a Grand Slam
1) Tim Henman – say no more, one of the greatest serve volleyers of all time, sublime touch, reached number four in the world, and 7 Grand slam Semi finals, (plus 4 wimbledon quarters) was in the top ten in the World for years
2) Marcelo Rios the only player to have held the No. 1 ranking despite never winning a Grand Slam singles title
3)Guillermo Coria – unbelievable clay courter, reached the final of the French and choked big time
4) Mark Philippoussis – massive serve, great grass court game, faced a lot of pressure at the aussie open, certainly Wimbledon was in his grasp when at the top of his game
5) Cedric Pioline – reached two slam finals, but like Tim, was unlikely to meet Sampras at these two critical events, great player to watch
6) David Nalbandian – a dangerous player on any surface, reached number 8 in the World and the wimbledon final losing to Leyton Hewitt in straight sets in 2002
7)Tomas Berdych – many agree has never reached his potential, still a bit of time yet maybe?
8) Alex Corretja – reached number 2 in the world, was twice a runner up at the French, lost to Carlos Moya and the simply wonderful Gustavo Kuerten
9) Fernando Gonzalez – still a bit of time, but it’s running out, wonderful forehand, great to watch, reached the Australian Open final losing to Federer
10) Todd Martin – deserves a mention, an impressive 7 grand slam semi finals, and one of the most consistent players on the men’s tour, for sure a player nobody wanted to meet
Top 10 One Grand Slam Wonders
1) Mark Edmondson won the aussie open in 1976 when ranked 212 in the World, an excellent doubles player, but not exactly world class singles
2) Gaston Gaudio – won the French because Coria choked, say no more!
3) Andy Roddick – now don’t get me wrong, I love Andy, and you have to admire that serve, but come on, his game is a little one dimensional is it not?
4) Brian Teacher won the Aussie open in 1980, very little else you can say about his career
5) Thomas Johansson – won the Aussie open “unexpectedly”, a decent player, reached 7 in the World, but not many titles to his name, and not exactly consistent, or indeed exciting
6) Albert Costa – beat some classy players to win the French, but does anyone really remember him?
7) Richard Krajicek – won wimbledon in 1996, I remember being bored silly by that one, although in fairness he also reached semis at the French and Aussie. Utterly irrelevant to this list of one slam wonders, but quoted as saying "Eighty percent of the top 100 women are fat pigs who don't deserve equal pay." Apparently he later apologised, but grrrrrrrrr
Well, actually, 7 in the list then not 10, because the others that won just one had good careers that mean they cant really be fairly referred to as being a “one slam wonder”
Now you cant tell me any of these guys are “better” than Tim in real tennis terms ;0))