World Tennis Magazine

Unique Tennis Perspectives

woman player

THE GREATEST MEN’S TENNIS PLAYER WHO DIDN’T WIN A SINGLES MAJOR? TRY BRIAN GOTTFRIED

by

By Charles Bricker

Now that I’ve given you Elena Dementieva as the finest woman player never to win a Grand Slam singles title, it’s only right that we place a similar dubious distinction on the best man never to win a major.

Only this isn’t going to be as easy. It’s a difficult call.

Nikolay Davydenko is going to be an obvious choice of many because (a) as an active player he’s on your mind and (b) he’s been so consistently good over the last three years. It also hasn’t hurt his chances for this “honor” that he’s beaten Roger Federer twice in the last several months.

But is he really a better tennis player than Brian Gottfried or Jose-Luis Clerc, a couple of names out of the earlier days of the Open Era?

Brian Gottfried on the left
Brian Gottfried on the left

Certainly someone is going to mention Andy Murray, but I don’t want to consider him here because the whole idea behind this analysis is to find a player who has had a long and successful career — EXCEPT that he didn’t win a Slam. Murray is just 22 years old and, while he has hoisted the runner-up trophy twice (2008 U.S. Open, 2010 Australian), he’s only played 13 majors. Let’s let him simmer a few more years.

I’m going to throw my top five out there, in order, and if you don’t see Miloslav Mecir, Kevin Curren or Aaron Krickstein, it’s not because I didn’t give them consideration.

1. Brian Gottfried: 677-321 (68%) overall W-L record, 25-26 in finals, 0-1 in Grand Slam finals (1977 French Open) and a high rank of No. 3 in 1977. Great player. Great guy. Great post-career teacher of the game. And he’s barely out of the all-time top-10 for most career wins.

2. Nikolay Davydenko: 387-232 (63%) career, 12-2 this season, 20-5 in finals, never played a major final and a high rank of No. 3 in 2006. The Stroke Machine who, as you may have noted, plays his best tennis when he reaches championship matches. But he’s never been past the semis of a major with a 0-4 mark when he hits the final four.

3. Jose-Luis Clerc: 375-148 (72%) overall with a 26-10 record in finals, never reached a Slam final and a high rank of No. 4 (1981). Stylish and great on clay, twice reaching the semis of the French (1981-82). Won more titles than anyone on this list.

4. Harold Solomon: 567-321 (64%) overall and a 22-16 record in finals, 0-1 in Slam finals and a high rank of No. 5 in 1980. Had a long career and, at 5-foot-8, his chief weapons were his legs and his brain. Lost to Adriana Panatta in the 1976 French final.

5. Marcelo Rios: 391-192 (67%) overall and 18-13 in finals, 0-1 in Slam finals and a high rank of No. 1 in 1998. Lost the 1998 Aussie Open final to Petr Korda. Why don’t I have him higher, since he reached No. 1 (for four weeks)? Here was a phenomenal talent who retired or gave walkovers, by my count, in 22 matches, and no one who came to know Rios believes he was injured in many of those tank jobs. What a waste.

As with the women, there are men who won a single Slam but who, on balance, couldn’t match the overall talent of the players mentioned in this piece — Korda, Al Costa and Jan Kodes, to name three.

As always, if you disagree, email your own greatest player never to win a major.

Charles Bricker is a guest columnist for WorldTennisMagazine.com. He can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

WHO IS THE GREATEST WOMAN TO NEVER WIN A GRAND SLAM? TRY ELENA DEMENTIEVA

by

By Charlie Bricker

It’s not the sort of statistical minutia that one aspires to, but, in Paris on Sunday afternoon, Elena Dementieva won her 16th career WTA title and not only edge to within five of Pam Shriver’s 21 but further solidify her dubious credentials as the best woman player never to win a Grand Slam singles.

Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva

You could hoist a pretty good argument on this issue. Does that negative “honor” indeed belong to Dementieva, whose prodigious ground strokes have been twice betrayed in her efforts to win The Big One by her dicey serving. Or is it Shriver, who won 70 percent of her matches over a long career and reached one major final, losing a competitive straight-setter to Chris Evert at the 1978 U.S. Open.

Or, if I can offer up a few more candidates, is it Amanda Coetzer. Or Helena Sukova. Mary Joe Fernandez perhaps. Or Dementieva’s fellow Russian contemporary, Dinara Safina.

I’m going with Dementieva, and I feel confident that, despite still being in the prime of her career, she’s never going to win a Slam. Her overall record is a bit to the rear of Shriver’s body of work. But Pam gets marked down for disdaining the singles court at Roland Garros. She didn’t play there often and, when you think about those big old feet clomping around on clay, it’s not surprising.

Watching Dementieva on Saturday win the 544th match of her otherwise brilliant career, a come-from-behind victory over the plucky young American Melanie Oudin, was just another exercise in wonderment for me. Her ground strokes are a joy to watch — right there in a class with Serena and Venus Williams in their best moments.

Furthermore, she’s a lot more athletic than she looks at first blush and she’s a savvy, well-drilled player who not only plays the game, but understands it. The serve? Well. Ouch. She’s changed it again. It was atrocious for years and you may recall when she was dusted badly in 2004 French Open final by Anastasia Myskina, she screamed after yet another double fault: “I hate my serve.”

It got better as the years progressed, though she always looked a bit stiff — a little too mechanical. Now she’s changed again, trying to get a little more rhythm into the delivery  motion, but it’s only sporadically effective. What she has done, at least for now, is cut down on the double faults — only 13 in three matches at the Paris Indoors this week.

On balance, there’s so much game there that it’s a real head-scratcher why she hasn’t won a major. The Australian Open was her 45th Grand Slam. She’s been to two finals, losing to Myskina and to Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets at the 2004 U.S. Open.

Meanwhile, there’s a litany of players who have won a major but who wouldn’t come close to matching Elena’s overall skills — Iva Majoli . . . Jana Novotna . . . Myskina . . . Barbara Jordan.

You can argue with me if you care to, but here’s my list of best ever not to win a major, in order:

1. Elena Dementieva: Career record 545-256 (68%), Grand Slam record 112-45 (71%), 16 career titles, highest ranking No. 3 (2009). Grand Slam finals: 0-2.

2. Pam Shriver: Career record 625-270 (70%), Grand Slam record 124-53 (70%), 21 career titles, highest ranking No. 3 (1984). Grand Slam finals: 0-1.

3. Mary Joe Fernandez: Career record 437-203 (68%), Grand Slam record 141-48 (75%), 7 career titles, highest ranking No. 4 (1990). Grand Slam finals: 0-3.

4. Dinara Safina: Current record 4-2, career record 340-151 (69%), Grand Slam record 65-30 (68%), 12 career titles, highest ranking No. 1 (2009). Grand Slam finals: 0-3.

5. Helena Sukova: Career record 614-307 (67%), Grand Slam record 145-51 (74%), 7 career titles, highest ranking No. 4 (1985). Grand Slam finals: 0-4.

6. Amanda Coetzer: Career record 568-337 (63%), Grand Slam record 96-56 (62%), 9 career titles, highest ranking No. 3 (1997). Grand Slam finals: 0-0.

Charles Bricker is a guest columnist for WorldTennisMagazine.com. He can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com