Wimbledon 2011: Best Players Who Have Never Won at the All England Club

There’s little need to emphasise the point, especially in a sport like tennis: there are winners, but also the losers.

Sometimes, the losers have come up second best one too many times for their names to fade into obscurity. Certainly, when it comes to Wimbledon, no-one ever goes out in complete obscurity.

Great many champions at Wimbledon have profited at the expense of numerous other grass-court talents, who have relegated legitimate challengers for the title to mere insignificance by the glory of their victories—but this is not the case today.

Their names live on—the heroes and heroines who fought majestic battles, but never quite managed, somehow or another, to cross the finishing line. These are Wimbledon’s Greatest Could-Have-Beens.

Ken Rosewall

In some sense Ken Rosewall could have won Wimbledon—he did win the like-named Wembley Championships, in the era of ‘professional’ grand slams, in the years when he didn’t participate at Wimbledon.

His record, then, stands as a four-time losing finalist. He lost at the championship match to four different opponents—Jaroslav Drobny in 1954, and to Lew Hoad in 1956. There followed a hiatus of a good fourteen years, when he played at Wembley instead.

Returning in 1970 he lost to John Newcombe in the final, and was not able to capitalise two years later, either, when he faced a youthful and powerful Jimmy Connors in the title match.

Fred Stolle

It may have been in the early days, but losing Wimbledon, even then, could hardly have been a good feeling.

Perhaps it was terrible for Fred Stolle, who lost three in a row from 1963-5, back when Wimbledon hadn’t even yet entered the Open Era. He was a capable player, certainly, winning the French Open and US Open in his career—but Wimbledon, as with so many others, just eluded him.

He lost the first final to Chuck McKinley, then the next two to Roy Emerson, who would end his tennis career with the greatest haul of grand slams until 2000.

Hana Mandilkova

The case of Mandilkova might well be a bitter reminder of the anonymity that losing at Wimbledon entails. History is governed by the winners, and tennis is no different.

Hana Mandilkova in fact reached two Wimbledon finals, in 1981 and 1986, and possessed a pleasing game on grass, winning in all four grand slam titles in her career.

Her victors in both finals, however, couldn’t have been more distinguished—Chris Evert dealing her a 6-2, 6-2 drubbing, while Martina Navratilova swept her, too, in straights, 7-6, 6-3 in 1986.

Mandilkova became little more than a footnote, then, in the greater legacies carved out by Navratilova and Evert.

Ivan Lendl

Of hopes unfulfilled, of dreams crushed, this is what Wimbledon must seem to Ivan Lendl. He had won everything but Wimbledon, but always, the grass of SW19 would elude him, year by year.

He made especial efforts in the late 1980s, nonetheless, to make sure he did just about everything he humanly could, to lift this most coveted of grand slam trophies.

He had reached the semifinals in 1983 and 1984, and came within a match of outright championship victory in 1986 and 1987. There, alas, he faced the sternest grass-courtists of his generation, in Boris Becker and Pat Cash, in losing efforts.

Lendl became desperate, and even skipped the French Open twice, notoriously, in 1990 and 1991, in an effort to get to grips with grass. For all his exertions, however, he only reached three more semifinals, and never got the chance to win Wimbledon.

It isn’t true, then, that the gods always rewards hard work and diligence.

Monica Seles

She never made lasting impressions at Wimbledon, but Monica Seles must surely be one of tennis’ most enigmatic could-have-beens.

That horrific stabbing in 1993, surely, was the turning point. She had Steffi Graf, who had been hitherto dominating Wimbledon, within her grasp, and her biggest moves must have been coming that year.

Seles had the thumping double-handed groundstrokes to topple Graf, and her potential, really, was never really manifested at Wimbledon. Her greatest record stands at a single finals performance, losing to none other than Graf, in 1992.

She had so much more going for her, and it is a pity we never got to see it.

Pat Rafter

If ever there were someone who must have felt the pain of a Wimbledon final loss it must have been Pat Rafter, who had the game to win just about anything on grass or hard court, but never quite managed to hoist the trophy at the All-England Club.

He came close, though; in 2000 he reached the final and was a set and 4-1 up in the second set tiebreak against Pete Sampras, only to fall in four.

The next year he returned, and looked to overturn his misfortunes with a relatively less imposing proposition, in Goran Ivanisevic. He failed to convert his chances, too, losing an epic heartbreaker, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7.

Twice US Open champion from 1997-8, Wimbledon shouldn’t have been too much; but it proved so.

Tim Henman

Henman is probably one of the best players never to reach a Wimbledon. He reached the last eight four times in a row, nonetheless, and on all four occasions defeated by the eventual champion.

He reached the semifinals in 1999 and 2000, but lost on both occasions to the indomitable Pete Sampras, despite claiming sets in both matches.

His greatest chance must have seemed the next two years, however, as he pursued with undying fervour the dream of all Britons, of winning Wimbledon. In 2001 he drew Ivanisevic in the semifinals, and was within a set of victory; in 2002 the stubborn Hewitt ground him out in straights.

Four straight years in the last four, but no finals, and no Wimbledon titles. He did come tantalisingly close, nonetheless.

Justine Henin

It is in many ways truly a pity that Justine Henin never managed to win Wimbledon. Of all the players in the 2000-2010 decade she seemed to have just the right amount of versatility, and the correct tool-kit, to win on grass.

There was that gorgeous backhand, which she could hit with spin or slice; her volleys were sharp, her footwork electric. Only her serve, maybe ever let her down, without much of that easy power champions at Wimbledon have typically possessed.

She reached the finals twice, in 2001, and 2006, reaching in all three other semifinals. From 2001-3 she lost to the queens of grass, the Williams sisters, although her matches against Mauresmo and Bartoli in 2006-2007 must have seemed winnable encounters.

Leading by a set in both matches, she failed to gain the necessary momentum to finish them off. 2007, however, was a doleful upset, as Bartoli fairly clubbed her way through Henin, ultimately totally turning the tables, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Henin’s lot is a revelation for all Wimbledon wannabes—you might look the part of a winner, but pulling it off is an awful lot harder.