Thiem, Struff, Tsitsitpas: The best-ranked players who never ...
We are happy to dive into the depths of statistics again. And rummage around on tennisabstract.com.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: May 25, 2020, 07:10 pm
Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer - these two players were considered the best in their field until they retired, and they were never able to win a Grand Slam tournament. This may have felt like a well-founded assessment due to the respective position in the ATP world rankings.
If you set the scale lower, you will also find some interesting statistics about players who have never reached a specific goal. And so we want to use the tennisabstract.com website to look at the player with the best ATP ranking currently who ...
... has never won an ATP tournament ...
As of May 2020, this title goes to Félix Auger-Aliassime, currently number 20 in the ATP charts. The only 19-year-old Canadian has been in the final of an ATP tournament five times, this year on two occasions: in Rotterdam Félix lost to Gael Monfils, in Marseille to Stefanos Tsitsipas. In 2019 there were final bankruptcies in Stuttgart (against Matteo Berrettini), in Lyon (against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) and Rio de Janeiro (against Laslo Djere). The next candidates behind Auger-Aliassime are Daniel Evans (ATP number 28) and Filip Krajinovic (32) for their first triumph on the tour.
... has never been in a final of an ATP tournament ...
Jan-Lennard Struff is number 34 here; The currently second best German player did everything right at the tournament in Stuttgart in 2019, but failed in the last round due to Matteo Berrettini. It was more difficult for Struffi to digest the bankruptcy in the semi-final of Auckland against Cameron Norrie. No endgame for the Warsteiner so far, which also applies to Tommy Paul (number 57) and Mikael Ymer (number 68). On the other hand, remarkable: Of the top 67 players in the tennis world, 65 have been in a final of an ATP tournament at least once.
... has reached a grand slam final ...
Here the air is getting very thin. Stefanos Tsitsipas, currently in sixth place in the world rankings, is ahead of Alexander Zverev and Matteo Berrettini. Tsitsipas (2019) and Zverev (2020) sniffed the final in Australia, Berrettini 2019 at the US Open.
... has never won a Grand Slam tournament ...
Well, clearly the number three in the world, Dominic Thiem, is to be mentioned here. The Lower Austrian has made three attempts so far, Thiem has never been as close to victory as at the Australian Open against Novak Djokovic in the two Roland Garros finals against Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2019.