* !Picby Pete Bodo*
Novak Djokovic, the French Open runner-up, would probably be the first to tell you that Roger Federer's triumph at Roland Garros in 2009 was not just remarkable, but danged lucky. The all-time Grand Slam singles champ got to win the title without having to go through Rafael Nadal.
Nadal put paid to the debate about the clay-court GOAT (Greatest of All Time) with his four-set triumph over Djokovic in today's French Open final—the unprecedented seventh title Rafa has earned at Roland Garros. One side effect of that historic accomplishment is that it leaves Djokovic (for now) on that fairly long list of elite players, including many fellow if former No. 1s, who never did figure out the terre battue.
Djokovic's failure put Federer's 2009 accomplishment (with an assist from Robin Soderling) into even starker perspective that it was before. It was probably the pivotal moment in Federer's career. At a French Open stripped of Nadal, Federer equaled Pete Sampras' Grand Slam singles title record (14), and completed his career Grand Slam.
The win also put Federer in that rare class of Wimbledon champions and former No. 1s who actually won the French Open. And we all know how many contenders there are for "best player to never win the French Open." With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to actually rank the Open-era players who attained the No. 1 singles ranking but never won in Paris. I'll put them in order, starting with the weakest and ending with the strongest.
11. Andy Roddick was 9-9 at Roland Garros before this year. He started well in Paris, reaching the third round in 2001 with a victory over Michael Chang (Roddick had to retire during his next match, after splitting sets with Lleyton Hewitt). He briefly rekindled hope in 2009, when he reached the fourth-round for the first—and only—time (l. to Monfils). But he was just 2-6 in the years in between, and lost in the first round again just a few days ago.
10. Marcelo Rios had a short-lived, injury-plagued career. He was 17-9 at Roland Garros (65.3 winning percentage). Although he was most proficient on hard courts, Rios moved so easily and had such clean strokes that big things were expected of him on clay as well. But that never panned out. Between 1995 and and 1999, Rios reached the fourth round twice and the quarterfinals on the other two occasions. But only one of those losses was to a French Open champion (l. to Carlos Moya, 1998).
9. Pete Sampras is unquestionably the best player never to have won the French, and boy did he struggle. His record was 24-13 (64.8 WP). He survived the second round on just five occasions—all of them bunched up between 1992 and and 1997, years during which he failed to make the third round just once. He had his best shot in 1996, when he beat two French Open champions (Sergi Bruguera and Jim Courier) but inexplicably ran out of gas when he met Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who would go on to win the title. Sampras thinks his utter lack of energy was due to a shortage of salt in his diet. Sampras lost in the first round three times, and in the second round on five occasions.
8. Marat Safin was 26-11 (70.2 WP) in Paris; he was a consistent performer, but only in the first half of his career. Between 1998 and 2005 he made at least the fourth round on every occasion but one (in 2001, he lost to Fabrice Santoro in five sets in the third round). His best result was a semi in 2002 (l. to Juan Carlos Ferrero). In the last five years Safin played, he never survived the second round.
!Pic7. Patrick Rafter was 12-8 at Roland Garros (60 percent WP). He made the fourth round on just one occasion, but his highlight was a semifinal in 1997. Given his relentless serve-and-volley style, the tennis cognoscenti was riveted by that charmed run, which was ended by two-time Roland Garros champ Bruguera, who was in the throes of a late-career renewal. Rafter had the misfortune to run into him three times in the first four years he played in Paris. In the other year in that period (1996), Rafter lost to yet another man destined to win in Paris, Moya.
6. Lleyton Hewitt, 28-11 (71.7 WP), lost in the first round in Paris just once before this year, and that was in his very first year on the tour, 1999. In fact, he never fell in the second round, either. But the quintessential "Aussie battler" never made it out of the quarters, and got to that stage just twice. It's hardly surprising, given the quality of the opposition.
In his two quarterfinals, Hewitt lost to two French Open champions (Ferrero, 2001; Gaston Gaudio, 2004). He also lost to Albert Costa, another Roland Garros champ, in just his second year (2000). And in the past six years, Hewitt had to play Rafael Nadal four times. If nothing else, he gets the "tough draw" award.
5. Boris Becker accumulated a 26-9 record in Paris (74.2 WP) and had a sniff of the title on three occasions, losing in semifinals to Mats Wilander (1987), Stefan Edberg (1989), and Andre Agassi (1991). He was a quarterfinalist in 1986, just his weeks before he shocked the world with his victory at Wimbledon. And he made the fourth round in 1988. Between 1985 and 1991, his first seven years on the tour, Becker's Roland Garros record was outstanding—he lost early only in 1990, when that other Wimbledon legend, Goran Ivanisevic, took him out.
Presumably, Boris decided to quit while he was ahead; after that third semi in 1991, he played Roland Garros just twice in his last eight years on the tour. He made the second round in 1993 and the third round in 1995. Thus, he lost in the first round just once in his entire career in Paris.
4. Stefan Edberg was 30-13 at Roland Garros (69.7 WP), and unlike some of his fellow Wimbledon icons, he turned up to play, year-in, year-out, despite the obstacles the tournament presented to his preferred serve-and-volley game. His record is very well balanced, with a runner-up finish in 1989, when he lost in five sets to Michael Chang. It was the only Grand Slam title for Chang, while Edberg finished his career with six, and only lacks a French Open crown.
Edberg made his first quarterfinal in just the second year he played at Roland Garros (it takes a while to convince quality players that they're hexed there), and added two more. Edberg also had two fourth-round finishes, one of which came in his last year on the tour (1996). Edberg lost in the first round just twice—and on one of those occasions it was to two-time titlist Bruguera.
3. John McEnroe finished his career with a 25-10 Roland Garros record (71.4 WP) but is best known for having blown a two-sets-to-one and 4-2 in-the-fourth lead in the 1984 final to Ivan Lendl. Given some of the similarities he shares with Federer, you could almost say that McEnroe was a cautionary tale for the Swiss in 2009—although Lendl in Paris was more like a Nadal than a Soderling.
In any event, McEnroe also had two quarterfinals over the years and a semi in 1985—one of his underrated performances in Paris despite the lopsided nature of his loss to Wilander that year (6-1, 7-5, 7-5). Mac played in Paris only four times in the last seven years of his career and never again got past the fourth round.
!Pic22. Jimmy Connors was 40-13 (75.4 WP) at Roland Garros, and at his most dangerous between 1978 and 1985, when he was a quarterfinalist three times and a semifinalist three times. He skipped the tournament in 1986, and his best result the four other times he entered was a quarterfinal.
I give Connors so high a spot on this list because only a silly political squabble resulted in him being banned from Roland Garros, which besmirched his otherwise perfect record that year at the majors. Having spent a lot of time watching Connors on every surface, I feel that he would have won the French in 1974 (and perhaps gone on to complete a calendar year Grand Slam), mainly because Bjorn Borg had not yet appeared on the scene to torment him.
1. Novak Djokovic is still a work in progress, but his 31-8 record (79.4 WP) is the best, percentage-wise, among all the men under consideration. In eight French Opens, Djokovic lost to Federer once and four times to Nadal, including three in a row spanning 2006-08. In his first adventure in Paris, he retired while at a set apeice with a former finalist, Guillermo Coria. His other two losses were to crafty Philipp Kohlschreiber (2009, third round) and clay-court expert Jurgen Melzer (2010, quarterfinals). Given that two of his three previous (before Sunday) losses to Nadal were in semifinals, you can only guess that Djokovic might have won—might yet do—in Paris were it not for Nadal.
* !Picby Pete Bodo*
Roger Federer's triumph at Roland Garros in 2009 was remarkable in a number of ways, given that he's played so much of his career, and certainly the meat of his career, with Rafael Nadal looming over the clay-court major. While I often suggest that Nadal's fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling that year was the most memorable aspect of that tournament (after the simple fact that Federer won), I've also said more than once that Federer's greatest feat that year was that he had the poise and nerve to win once Nadal had been taken out of the equation.
Federer's drive for the title began in the same round as Nadal's loss. He barely scraped by Tommy Haas to win in five sets, after having lost the first two. That's what knowing the contours of an opportunity can do to you. After Haas, Federer dispatched Gael Monfils and Juan Martin del Potro. That last one was another brutal five-setter, and del Potro would avenge himself a few months later with a win over Federer in the U.S. Open title match.
But never mind about that. The pressure on Federer through those final four matches was extraordinary, given the circumstances and the stakes—mainly Federer's career Grand Slam. He was like the soccer superstar who could secure the World Cup by nudging a simple little penalty kick into the corner of the net, only Federer's moment of potential glory—or failure—was extended over a full week, and hours of play, against a dangerous and varied group of opponents. Everyone knew Roger could do it. But that is very different from actually doing it. It may even make it harder to do it. I still believe it was an incredible effort to win, and you can say all you want about how nice it was to have Nadal cleared out of the way, or how The Mighty Fed has been the second-best player on clay anyway, yadda-yadda-yadda.
Among other things, that win put Federer into that rare class of Wimbledon champions and former No. 1s who actually won the French Open. And we all know how many contenders there are for "best player to never win the French Open." With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to actually rank the players who attained the No. 1 ranking but never won in Paris. I'll put them in order, starting with the weakest and ending with the strongest.
10. Andy Roddick was 9-9 at Roland Garros before this year. He started well in Paris, reaching the third round in 2001 with a victory over Michael Chang (Roddick had to retire during his next match, after splitting sets with Lleyton Hewitt). He briefly rekindled hope in 2009, when he reached the fourth-round for the first—and only—time (l. to Monfils). But he was just 2-6 in the years in between, and lost in the first round again just a few days ago.
9. Marcelo Rios had a short-lived, injury-plagued career. He was 17-9 at Roland Garros (65.3 winning percentage). Although he was most proficient on hard courts, Rios moved so easily and had such clean strokes that big things were expected of him on clay as well. But that never panned out. Between 1995 and and 1999, Rios reached the fourth round twice and the quarterfinals on the other two occasions. But only one of those losses was to a French Open champion (l. to Carlos Moya, 1998).
8. Pete Sampras is unquestionably the best player never to have won the French, and boy did he struggle. His record was 24-13 (64.8 WP). He survived the second round on just five occasions—all of them bunched up between 1992 and and 1997, years during which he failed to make the third round just once. He had his best shot in 1996, when he beat two French Open champions (Sergi Bruguera and Jim Courier) but inexplicably ran out of gas when he met Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who would go on to win the title. Sampras thinks his utter lack of energy was due to a shortage of salt in his diet. Sampras lost in the first round three times, and in the second round on five occasions.
7. Marat Safin was 26-11 (70.2 WP) in Paris; he was a consistent performer, but only in the first half of his career. Between 1998 and 2005 he made at least the fourth round on every occasion but one (in 2001, he lost to Fabrice Santoro in five sets in the third round). His best result was a semi in 2002 (l. to Juan Carlos Ferrero). In the last five years Safin played, he never survived the second round.
!Pic6. Patrick Rafter was 12-8 at Roland Garros (60 percent WP). He made the fourth round on just one occasion, but his highlight was a semifinal in 1997. Given his relentless serve-and-volley style, the tennis cognoscenti was riveted by that charmed run, which was ended by two-time Roland Garros champ Bruguera, who was in the throes of a late-career renewal. Rafter had the misfortune to run into him three times in the first four years he played in Paris. In the other year in that period (1996), Rafter lost to yet another man destined to win in Paris, Moya.
5. Lleyton Hewitt, 28-11 (71.7 WP), lost in the first round in Paris just once before this year, and that was in his very first year on the tour, 1999. In fact, he never fell in the second round, either. But the quintessential "Aussie battler" never made it out of the quarters, and got to that stage just twice. It's hardly surprising, given the quality of the opposition.
In his two quarterfinals, Hewitt lost to two French Open champions (Ferrero, 2001; Gaston Gaudio, 2004). He also lost to Albert Costa, another Roland Garros champ, in just his second year (2000). And in the past six years, Hewitt had to play Rafael Nadal four times. If nothing else, he gets the "tough draw" award.
4. Boris Becker accumulated a 26-9 record in Paris (74.2 WP) and had a sniff of the title on three occasions, losing in semifinals to Mats Wilander (1987), Stefan Edberg (1989), and Andre Agassi (1991). He was a quarterfinalist in 1986, just his weeks before he shocked the world with his victory at Wimbledon. And he made the fourth round in 1988. Between 1985 and 1991, his first seven years on the tour, Becker's Roland Garros record was outstanding—he lost early only in 1990, when that other Wimbledon legend, Goran Ivanisevic, took him out.
Presumably, Boris decided to quit while he was ahead; after that third semi in 1991, he played Roland Garros just twice in his last eight years on the tour. He made the second round in 1993 and the third round in 1995. Thus, he lost in the first round just once in his entire career in Paris.
3. Stefan Edberg was 30-13 at Roland Garros (69.7 WP), and unlike some of his fellow Wimbledon icons, he turned up to play, year-in, year-out, despite the obstacles the tournament presented to his preferred serve-and-volley game. His record is very well balanced, with a runner-up finish in 1989, when he lost in five sets to Michael Chang. It was the only Grand Slam title for Chang, while Edberg finished his career with six, and only lacks a French Open title.
Edberg made his first quarterfinal in just the second year he played at Roland Garros (it takes a while to convince quality players that they're hexed at Roland Garros), and added two more well spaced out over the years. Edberg also had two fourth-round finishes, one of which came in his last year on the tour (1996). Edberg lost in the first round just twice - and on one of those occasions (1990) it was to Sergei Bruguera, who won two titles in Paris.
John McEnroe finished his career with a 25-10 Roland Garros record (71.4 WP) but is best known for having blown a two-sets-to-one and 4-2 in-the-fourth lead in the 1984 final with Ivan Lendl. Given some of the similarities he shares with Federer, you could almost say that McEnroe was a cautionary tale for the Swiss in 2009 - although Lendl in Paris was more like a Nadal than a Soderling.
In any event, McEnroe also had two quarterfinals over the years and a semi in 1985 - one of his underrated performances in Paris despite the lopsided nature of his loss 6-1, 7-5, 7-5 loss to Wilander that year. Mac played in Paris only four times in the last seven years of his career and never again got past the fourth round.
Jimmy Connors was 40-13 (75.4 WP) at Roland Garros, and at his most dangerous between 1978 and 1985, when he was a quarterfinalist three times and a semifinalists three times. He skipped the tournament in 1986, and his best result the four other times he entered was a quarterfinal.
The striking thing about the statistics is how closely bunched the players are in terms of winning percentage. The five men who had a 70 percent or better winning percentage were all within five percentage points of each other, and another (Edberg) just missed that 70 percent club by a fraction of a percentage point.
I ultimately gave the top spot to Connors not just because he had the best winning percentage, but because only a silly political squabble that resulted in Connors being banned from Roland Garros besmirched his otherwise perfect record that year at the majors. Having spent a lot of time watching Connors on every surface, I feel that he would have won the French in 1974 (and perhaps gone on to complete a calendar year Grand Slam), mainly because Bjorn Borg had not yet appeared on the scene to torment him.
Of course, we'll never know. But that's part of the fun.