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Best player never to win a slam

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Larry the Liquidator

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Not sure if this has been done before, but who is the best player never to win a slam. Exclude current players.

Based on what I've seen in my lifetime, the top 10 candidates would be:

1) Mecir - made a couple of slam finals, had real flare, great stroke play. The great Lendl stopped him a couple of times from memory. Did win an Olympic Gold in the singles.

2) Rios - great ground strokes but played like he never gave a stuff half the time. Made an AO final.

3) Philipousis - big serve, but attitude let him down. Played some great Davis Cup matches though. Lost a USO final to Rafter.

4) Todd Martin - a very good player, but lacked big weapons. Made 2 slam finals, losing to Sampras and Agassi.

5) Leconte - is to tennis what Pakistan is to cricket. Hot or cold. Wilander made a mockery of him in the FO final. But dangerous when he wanted to be.

6) Brad Gilbert - top tenner, didn't have the biggest game but he loved a scrap.

7) Tim Mayotte - a sound player from the USA in the 80s. SF at Wimbledon and an Olympic silver in the singles.

8) Guy Forget - good French player without ever really making his mark. Never made it to the final of a slam. Captained the French Davis Cup team.

9) Chris Lewis - notable mention because he made the Wimbledon final in 1983, albeit McEnroe embarrassed him in straight sets.

10) Darren Cahill - good tennis brain, reinvented Agassi's career as his coach. Injury plagued his career so we never saw the best of him, but he did score a win against Becker at the USO. He makes my top 10 because he is the son of Port Adelaide legend Jack Cahill lol.

Feel free to add to it or give your own top 10.
 

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Apart from Phillipousis' two GS final appearences, he never made it past the 4th round of a GS. Serious waste, and seriously delusional bloke it seems.

Is Davydenko still playing? Did well at numerous GS's, but always stopped by Federer I think. Also IIRC, didn't have a clothing sponsor despite him being 5 in the world or something.
 
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So there's probably no argument that Mecir and Rios would make the top 10 list of players to never win a slam. Mecir in particular, he used to just glide around the court, hardly looked like he was trying but his shot making was sublime. I don't know about Fromberg though, his serve was good but I would put Mecir, Rios and the Poo before him.

Another one that just came to mind, Pernfors, made a FO final and led Cash 2 sets to 0 in a Davis Cup rubber at Kooyong which most likely would have have won Sweden the Cup, Cash won in 5.
 
Larry the Liquidator said:
Not sure if this has been done before, but who is the best player never to win a slam. Exclude current players.

Based on what I've seen in my lifetime, the top 10 candidates would be:

1) Mecir - made a couple of slam finals, had real flare, great stroke play. The great Lendl stopped him a couple of times from memory. Did win an Olympic Gold in the singles.

2) Rios - great ground strokes but played like he never gave a stuff half the time. Made an AO final.

3) Philipousis - big serve, but attitude let him down. Played some great Davis Cup matches though. Lost a USO final to Rafter.

4) Todd Martin - a very good player, but lacked big weapons. Made 2 slam finals, losing to Sampras and Agassi.

5) Leconte - is to tennis what Pakistan is to cricket. Hot or cold. Wilander made a mockery of him in the FO final. But dangerous when he wanted to be.

6) Brad Gilbert - top tenner, didn't have the biggest game but he loved a scrap.

7) Tim Mayotte - a sound player from the USA in the 80s. SF at Wimbledon and an Olympic silver in the singles.

8) Guy Forget - good French player without ever really making his mark. Never made it to the final of a slam. Captained the French Davis Cup team.

9) Chris Lewis - notable mention because he made the Wimbledon final in 1983, albeit McEnroe embarrassed him in straight sets.

10) Darren Cahill - good tennis brain, reinvented Agassi's career as his coach. Injury plagued his career so we never saw the best of him, but he did score a win against Becker at the USO. He makes my top 10 because he is the son of Port Adelaide legend Jack Cahill lol.

Feel free to add to it or give your own top 10.
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Only ever saw Rios, Philippoussis and Todd Martin play of your ten. Too young to have seen the rest play.

Todd Martin was my favorite player when I first started following tennis. I still remember him leading Agassi 5-2 in the 5th set at Wimbledon in 2000 at losing 9-7. Heartbreaking.

Some names I'd add as well (former & current):

Former:

- Andriy Medvedev
- Guillermo Coria
- Magnus Norman
- Greg Rusedski
- Tim Henman
- Thomas Enqvist
- Alex Corretja
- Nicolas Kiefer

Current:

- Andy Murray
- David Nalbandian
- Tommy Haas
- Fernando Gonzalez
- Nikolay Davydenko
 
bombermick said:
Norman was a very good player. If my memory is any good, he was no.1 in the world for a short time.
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nope. got to number 2.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/No/M/Magnus-Norman.aspx

marcelo rios is the only number one to have never won a slam... unlike's the chicks tour.

would it be fair to see if not for a late career wildcard and improbable win at wimbledon Ivanesivic would have had this title easily sown up??

If including current players you've probably got to say Murray is top three at least.
 

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How about for the woman?

IMO it would be;

1:- Elena Dementieva (Rus)
2:- Wendy Turnball (Aus)
3:- Helena Sukova (Cze)
4:- Mary Joe Fernandez (USA)
5:- Dinara Safina (Rus)
6:- Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere (Bul)
7:- Zina Garrison Jackson (USA)
8:- Nadia Petrova (RUS)
9:- Anke Huber (Ger)
10:- Natasha Zvereva (BLR)
 
hirdy_is_champ said:
Apart from Phillipousis' two GS final appearences, he never made it past the 4th round of a GS. Serious waste, and seriously delusional bloke it seems.

Is Davydenko still playing? Did well at numerous GS's, but always stopped by Federer I think. Also IIRC, didn't have a clothing sponsor despite him being 5 in the world or something.
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Incorrect. He made the QF of Wimdledon on several occassions, including in 99 when he was kicking Sampras' arse and did his knee.

Hands down the best player never to win a slam and frankly if he hadn't of done his knee in 99 I believe he would have dominated tennis until Federer's arrival in 03.
 
Rios is the best from what I've seen. Great ground strokes.

Never saw him but Guy Forget was apparently incredibly stiff not to win one.
 
here is a list of best winning % in grand slams. andy murray si the best highest without a grand slam.

http://www.tennis28.com/slams/winpct_slam.html

interestingly jo-wilfred is just outside the top 20. definately wouldn't have picked that.

had never heard of him but Tom Okker would have to be up there - 71.6% winner at grand slams (looking at his wiki page it's actually 70.1%), world number 3, 7 consecutive years in the top 10, and made the semi finals at every grand slam.

Aaron Krickstein is another that ranks pretty high on that list and was a world number 6.
 

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