Who Are The Top Tennis Players Who NEVER Won A Slam? 

In Argentina there is an urban legend that says that at a party a fan approached Nalbandian and said: "David, you are the best player there is. Why aren't you the N1 in the world?"... The man looked at him and He replied... "Because it's twelve at night and Roger went to sleep at ten"

When Tsonga lost the Australian Open final in 2008, I thought for sure he would win at least one slam.

I remember loving Nikolay Davydenko after reading a quote of his. After reporters asked why he played so many tournaments he said; " I'm a professional tennis player. If I don't play, I don't get paid".

Ferrer and Davydenko were no underachievers. They maximized their potential. Nalbandian and Rios on the other hand ...

David Nalbandian was the type of player who literally SHOULD'VE Won 1 grand slam. He had everything to succeed with his forehead and backhand.

Ferrer was incredible. He managed to reach number 3 in midst of the Big 4 reign.

Ferrer is an odd one. He seemed really to maximize everything he had but just being in this era with these top players. Other than being in a different era, I really don't know what more he could have done. He was so consistent

In my opinion, I've never ever seen such a rare legend, like Marcelo Rios. A maestro in a harmony of aesthetics of tennis arena. Perhaps, the first and last in my life. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Tsonga has to be one of the most underrated tenis player of past 20 years and this list is another proof of that. He was more talented and succesful that some people in this video (and more fun to watch!). I would always put him before Berdych on the near slam winners list.

I felt desperately sorry for Tim Henman, he was in a tough era with Sampras and Federer. I can’t imagine the pressure he felt at Wimbledon.

Don’t forget Agnieszka Radwańska from Poland. One of the best and most talented players never to win a slam.

Marcelo Rios is a bedazzling talent....wish he had at least 1 slam.

In my mind, the biggest disappointment was Nalbandian. He could beat *anyone* and pretty much did at various points in his career. He just could never put it all together in one slam tournament. I think it was mostly because of his temper. A close second is Rios, though a lot of that was because of injury. Incidentally, Mecir is one of my favorite players ever. I just loved the way he moved around the court and how he could systematically dissect all of the great Swedish players of his era (except Edberg). I'm not sure, but I think he was the last player to use a wooden racquet on tour (the Prince Woodie).

Mecir was my favorite player in the 80s. He was so gifted with his angles, changes of pace, disguise, deceptive speed, and how he would move forward to put away volleys. If only he had a better serve and a more reliable body. I wish there were more videos of his matches. One thing the video forgot to mention is that he also faced prime Wilander and had a winning record against him.

Nalbandian é o melhor jogador da história tecnicamente que nunca venceu um slam....esquerda de duas mãos fantástica...devolução de saque espetacular...angulacoes incríveis tanto de esquerda como de direita...voleios sempre seguros e com muita técnica...grande variação de jogo com slices deixadas lobbys...muita inteligência pra jogar e capaz de vencer qualquer jogador em qualquer superfície....

I noticed the 'big 3' mentioned in closing the door on the likes of Ferrer and Berdych. But also Andy Murray closed the door on them too multiple times.

I'd also include Tsonga he was a Top 10 with Berdych for many years, but they were vitctims of the Big-3

Nishikori deserves a spot here. Maybe Milos Raonic and Kevin Anderson too.

I used to enjoy watching Mario Ancic play. He only won three titles and reached one GS semifinal. Injuries and illness brought him down at a very young age. Not sure how good he could have been, if healthy his prime would have been right when Nadal and Djokovic were heating up and Federer was still at the top with them. But Ancic could definitely play.

This was a terrific vid. Helena Sukova should be mentioned. All time great Doubles player, and got to 4 GS Singles Finals--just kept running into Martina and Steffi LOVE that you included players like Mercir, Leconte, Pioline, and Corretja. Tennis fans of the last 5-6 years, love to pretend tennis didn't exist before the Big 4 era

Guillermo Coria! Biggest choke of all time and never the same again after that

I believe it's the best of 5 format that keeps a lot of very good players from winning a slam. The Big 3 for years were masters at winning best of 5 matches. More vulnerable at best of 3.

Ferrer was a favorite of mine when watching matches. He grinded every point. Has great fitness for sure.

Tom Okker won over 50 tournaments in his career. He beat greats like Laver, Gonzalez, Rosewall, Ashe, Smith, Connors among others. He may be the best of the bunch that never won a major.

1) David Ferrer 2) Tom Okker 3) Alexander Zverev 4) Tony Roche 5) Tomas Berdych

I would add James Blake. Big flat forehand, pretty much hit it hard and harder lol. I loved watching his attacking style tennis. I think he played in a very tough era of men's tennis with the big 4

Jankovic could also be on the list she was a former world number 1 and a 2008 US Open finalist. For some players it's the era they are in for Dimentieva, Safina and Jankovic they were playing in the Williams sisters era. They all lost a lot of Grand Slam matches against Venus and Serena when they were at their peak 2000-2010.

Tsonga and Nishikori should be on the list too.

To me, Leconte should be the most important mention, along with Nalbandian. Just look at how prime Leconte *destroyed* Sampras in the 1991 Davis Cup. When he was on, he played outstanding tennis. Unfortunately, he was troubled by injuries, and sometimes lacked mental toughness.

Being short myself, I hate to say it but I am seeing it increasingly difficult for anyone under 6’ to win a slam. I think Ferrer was under 6’. These guys nowadays have a major advantage with court coverage and serve power with their height. Ferrer should’ve won the French Open, but he played Rafa in the finals

Another subject of amazement : that Stich only won one... Pio-line ? Seriously ? Pio-LEAN for ****'s sake !

Great list! Thanks for including the great Todd Martin. Perhaps in the tier below this, I'd place Aaron Krickstein.

David Nalbandian was a fantastic player, the equal of the big 3 if he could have stayed in shape and injury free.

Agnieszka Radwanska

Very nice video. I think everyone on your list who was mentioned deserves to be mentioned. I would choose Nalbandian. Saw him at the 2006 French Open beat Davydenko. I saw many of those players on the list. Rios one of the most naturally talented on the list.

How does this list not include sukova who reached 4 finals and 3 semis, MJ Fernandez who reached 3 finals, 6 semis, and has Olympic bronze, Turnbull who reached 3 finals and 4 semis, Casals who reached 2 finals and 3 semis, Jaeger that reached 2 finals and 5 semis, Jankovic that reached 1 final and 5 semis as well as being #1, or garrison with 1 final and 4 semis? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Tsonga ,Monfils ,Nishikori , Nalbandian,,Berdych,Raonic,Ferrer should have won at least one GS

Leconte was such an exciting and charismatic player. A character on and off the court. On his day he could beat anyone with his natural ability and shot making. He struggled with injury and had persistent back problems which affected his movement. A shame. Tsonga definitely should have won a slam. Richard Gasquet looked like a contender in the earlier years but he never improved his movement to compete for the top tournaments.

Marcelo Rios, hands down greatest talent to never win a major.

Conversely, you have a list of people that thankfully won at least one slam, like Roddick, Del Potro, Cilic, Gaudio

Todd Martin gave his ATP tournament wins as 8 or 9 in an interview sometime in the early Zeros. He was saying something to the effect that he'd been coming for X number of years and only never been stopped somewhere along the way in any given tournament in about 9 instances, so that he was quite familiar with the also-ran thing in the departure lounge.

Meçir was incredibly gifted and exciting to watch - he was a giant cat indeed. Retired too soon.

Ferrer Berdych are top choices in big 3 era

Tommy Haas deserves a mention. His career was derailed by a serious car accident to his parents where he quit the tour for 2 years and then blew his shoulder. He actually had winning records over Roddick, Federer, Safin and was 5-5 against Sampras.

There have been 152 male Slam winners so far. Well, I can say without any fear of being proven wrong that Henry Leconte, Miloslav Mecir, Marcelo Rios, David Nalbandian were better players than at least half of those

Recently I looked at the player's slam performance from the different angle. I wanted to analyze each year for each player using the metric of a worst performance. The better the worst performance - the better the player's year. As a limiting number I took reaching a 2nd week (R16). Turned out it is not that frequent that player reaches R16 at all 4 slams in a year. Overall 99 cases for the 56 years of Open Era (2020 is excluded because there was no Wimbledon). It is below two players per year. Not a lot of players who have multiple years with such result: Djokovic - 11 Federer - 10 Nadal - 8 Lendl - 6 Murray - 6 Agassi - 4 Edberg - 4 Ferrer - 3 Zverev - 3 Newcombe - 2 Courier - 2 Sampras - 2 Medvedev - 2 Sinner - 2 What is notable that JMac is not on this list (only managed it once). Alcaraz so far has zero (it did not help that he missed Australian in 2023). Surprised by low number for Sampras - it's not like he played in early years like Borg, when the trip to Australia was a rarity (in 1968 only two players PLAYED in all 4 slams). Djokovic is in the lead despite involuntarily missing Australian and US Open in 2022. Connors is punished for missing lots of French Opens. Overall this list is more interesting for modern players, when all slams are equally attended. There are two slamless players on this list - Ferrer and Zverev, reinforcing their status as the best players, who never won a slam.

Ferrer is easily no.1

Nalbandian was a different type of player playing for himself and for his national team, in one he was really good, but he took another step forward during a davis cup, a shame the title finally arrived for argentina after his retirement

Ever heard of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ? How can you make a video about best non GS winners without even mentioning him...

Sad to say Kyrgios will top this list when he’ll retire

I was rooting for soderling to win that french open or in any slam considering he was playing peak fedal and defeating them in slams and in their favorite surfaces. I also think haas could have won a couple of slams if it weren't for his injuries.

Tsonga is a big omission. Nalbandian and Coria underachieved, but imo Berdych and Ferrer overachieved.

Tsonga, Monfills and Mardy Fish to name some more here

As it stands, Soderling is going to be a pub quiz question as only he and Djocko have beaten Nadal at RG. Also, I feel like Ferrer is someone so worthy of admiration. If he was maybe even 5ft 11 (very small for a male tennis player) he could've won a slam even in THAT era.

My mistake. Gerulaitis won Aussie Open.

Mecir, Soderling, and Safina are my tops to never win a Slam with Berdych a consolation prize~

Oh God...this video is highly emotional... Lost is lost for lifetime!!!

In this order: Marcelo Rios, Ferrer, Nalbandian, Berdych, Davydenko, Phillippousis

Wow, didn’t know there were so good and interesting players out there

Other than Nalbandian, Coria, and ríos, none of these ever came, or would have ever come, close to even being conceivable to win a slam

Ferrer... My biggest idol and favorite tennisplayer

The fact that Ferrer never won a slam is mental 😂 Bro was an animal

Dementieva could have been the greatest girl of the era, on par with Serena, if she developed a non-terrible serve. Her groundstrokes were unbelievable for a girl, but her terrible serve meant she had to grind out every point with them and, at the end of the day, meant her game wasn't efficient enough to get to the top.

To answer your question...Nalbandian. Then maybe Marcelo Rios. Pretty soon, the answer to your question will be Nick Krygios.

How about a video showing the “luckiest” person who won the most unexpected grand slam.

Maybe Kevin Curren deserves a mention, or even Kevin Andersen. Both were very fine players who possibly had it in them to win a Slam, but Lady Luck conspired against them.

Phillipousis had an enormous amount of talent but like everyone else on this list they lacked the mental strength and determination to win a slam.

Tim Henman

I was going to leave a super smart and essential comment here, when Elena Dementieva came up - and I forgot what I wanted to say 🥰

Yvonne Goolagong Cawley was great!!!!!!! She won many; I just wanted to say she was my favorite.

Soderling for me. Maybe Tsonga.

Great video, I am sure you put a lot of hours in editing it. Great job, big like!

Robin soderling is the only player I'm aware of that won the last tournament he ever played. They may be others but he's the only one I know of.

Philippoussis would give Sampras a serious run for it in any head-to-head. It was just the way it was. You get that. If you had the insight you didn't take the illustrious star [ Sampras ] at the short odds in head-to-head versus Philippoussis. Good chance of getting done on it. Nor the other way, Philippoussis at good odds, coz he won't be doing Sampras in straight sets, either.

Marcelo Rios, Tommy Hass, Henri Leconte ...

top peak, nalbandian, top career david ferrer.

Tsong is missing in the list

David Ferrer should not be in the list. He achieved his maximum performance and played 100% of in his maximum ability level. It wasn’t enough to bring him the title. On the other hand, players like Rios, Nalbandian and Berdych were very skillful but suffered with lack of consistency and with injuries. It is a totally different story. They had the ability to beat the best of their time, but didn’t play well on grand slams. Ferrer was an easy target for Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He was completely owned by them because his game lacked innovation and danger.

Berdych is the best one. His natural body build and weaker mentality let him down.

Of the ones I saw, felt bad for Berdych and Ferrer

Mecir had the makings/talent/temperament of winning all the 4 , unfortunately 😕 bad luck followed by injuries spoilt it all.

Great vide, thanks. I think you could´ve mentioned Fernando Verdasco.

Rios should be awarded that Australian Open title.

Jankovic, Tsonga, Nishikori, Monfils, Gasquet, Robredo, Verdasco, Dimitrov, Raonic etc should've made it to the list as well. At least Tsonga and Jankovic since they retired.

The winners of all these matches can only feel so good because of how great the losers were

We might seriously see Sascha Zverev in here

Agnieszka Radwanska 💪 22 WtA wins / world number 2 ! No grand slam

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Jose-Luis Clerc. Andrea Jaegar.

tsonga? and what about magnus norman? if injuries hadent stop these guys i guess mecir, norman and soderling would all have won a slam.

Nalbandian's record is so wild. On a side note, I always thought Ivanisevic was pronounced "EE-vahn-EE-suh-vitch".

I don't know how many times in my life I am going to have to explain this to people...1 major tournament is NOT a "slam". A "grand slam" is when you win all 4 major tournaments in 1 calendar year. There is also what's known as the "career grand slam", when, over the course of your career you win all 4 majors. Those are the only 2 valid instances of using the word "slam" in tennis. The australian open, french open, wimbledon, and the us open are "major" tournaments. That is their only proper classification

Before I watch I hope I see Davydenko and Rios on this list.

How did we not include Jelena from Serbia?!

Very close between David Ferrer and Rios. Rios was actually no 1, and has more titles than slam winners like Pat Rafter but Ferrer had a longer career, more titles and was never able to reach no 1. I would probably say Rios on pure talent alone.

Infact most of these guys you can say.... if they were 6"2 they'd have a good serve and complete game.

For the last 20 years, it's gotta be Nalbandian and Soderling at the top of this list for me. Ferrer was very consistent, but his highs weren't as high.

David Ferrer I think

6:33 "16 slam titles?"

Most likely to Join the list will be Tiafoe , Felix, Fritz, Kyrgios , Rublev

You missed Jelena Jankovic