A Look at the best players never to win the French Open

With the clay season underway and Roland Garros coming up, it will be interesting to look at the best players never to win the title there.

The French Open has proven to be the most challenging for some of the greatest players of the Open era.  In previous decades, the conditions on the clay were far removed from the rest of the tour.  This is reflected by the fact that it was virtually impossible for an attacking player to win the tournament. Not only attacking players were shut out, some of the best baseliners failed to win there, as playing on clay is a different challenge to playing from the baseline on hardcourts.

Stefan Edberg

Stefan Edberg is considered by many to be the finest attacking player of the last 25 years.  Edberg had fantastic volley skills and razor sharp reflexes, smooth movement and a top class kick serve.  From the backcourt, Edberg had one of the best one hand backhands of the Open era, which he used to hit with topspin or slice, or chip charge on return of serve. 

Edberg won 42 tournaments in his career including 6 Grand Slam titles, two at Wimbledon, two at the Australian Open and two at the US Open.  Edberg won his two Australian Opens on grass in 1985 and 1987.  He also got to the final 3 more times when it was played on rebound ace, losing to Ivan Lendl and Jim Courier twice.  Edberg along with John McEnroe reached number 1 in singles and doubles between 1986 and 1987, a very rare achievement.  Edberg is also one of a handful of players in the open era to play at all four major finals.  Edberg won clay tournaments at Hamburg (then equivalent of a Masters 1000) and in Stockholm.

Edberg got to the final of the French Open in 1989 against Michael Chang where he held a two sets to one lead, but was unable to finish the job and lost in 5 sets.  That would be the closest Edberg would get to winning the French Open.  A great achievement considering Edberg was primarily an attacking player who preferred to come in than stay back and rally.  Attacking tennis on clay can be successful but you really have to be careful which short ball to attack.  Had Edberg won, he would have been included in the conversation of the greatest. 

Boris Becker

Boris Becker is a contemporary of Stefan and had a similar career and style of play.  Becker won 49 titles and 6 Grand Slam titles, winning Wimbledon three times, the Australian Open twice and US Open once.  Becker was one of the first players along with Ivan Lendl to bring power tennis to a new level in the 1980s. 

Becker broke through very early to win his first Wimbledon title aged just 17.  Becker would win most of his titles before the age of 21.  Even though Becker’s contemporaries in age would be Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Thomas Muster and Michael Stich, Becker is more or less associated with Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Mats Wilander and of course Stefan Edberg.   Becker’s strengths were his fantastic serve, athleticism, great one hand backhand return and diving volleys, especially on grass!  Becker wasn’t the quickest mover due to his size at 6 ft 4 but definitely one of the most athletic.

At Roland Garros, Becker got to the semifinal on three occasions in 1987, 1989 and 1991.  In 1989 he lost to Stefan Edberg and in 1991 lost to Andre Agassi.  Becker more or less preferred to stay back on the clay and rally much more than he would on grass.  But during that era, the clay was slower and balls were heavier so it was difficult for an attack minded player like Becker to win 7 matches from the baseline. Unfortunately for Becker, he played in quite a few clay finals including Monte Carlo and the Italian Open, but never won a claycourt event despite winning 49 titles.

Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras had a rather strange record at Roland Garros.  He was a semifinalist on one occasion in 1996 and three times a quarterfinalist between 1992 and 1994.  On clay overall Sampras has a decent record but not an exceptional one.

Sampras won three clay titles overall, the biggest being the Italian Open in 1994 where he defeated Boris Becker in straight sets (best of 5).  Sampras also won Kitzbuhel in Austria in 1992 and on green clay in Atlanta in 1998.  Sampras’ biggest achievement on clay was the Davis cup in 1995 when he won all of his rubbers on extremely slow watered clay against the Russians in Moscow, designed to put Sampras off his game.
Sampras’ talent on other surfaces is unquestioned but for some reason on clay never got it together. 

In his early years, he looked like he could do something at Roland Garros but after the semifinal loss in 1996 seemed to give up mentally on the surface as his results clearly indicate.  In the early to mid 1990s Sampras beat Thomas Muster, Sergei Brugera, Jim Courier and a young Marcelo Rios at Roland Garros but couldn’t win 7 matches.  Like Becker, Sampras was not able to win 7 matches primarily playing baseline tennis.  On hardcourts Sampras could mix up baseline with attacking play but on clay the percentage demands more baseline than attack.

However you look at it, with Sampras’ talent, he should have done much better at Roland Garros.

John McEnroe

John McEnroe is remembered for one final at Roland Garros, the 1984 final where he held a two sets lead against Ivan Lendl and lost in 5 sets.  That was Lendl’s first major title after losing his first 4 finals; and although McEnroe would beat Lendl in the 1984 US Open final, McEnroe would never get another opportunity to win Roland Garros.

Along with Stefan Edberg on this list, McEnroe is the most attack minded player here, he didn’t really change his game much for the clay, he was still chipping and charging like on hardcourts.  McEnroe won 4 clay tournaments in his career, but all of his titles came in the United States on the green clay and not European red clay.  Green clay plays a little faster and feels different underfoot, hardcourt players usually like the green clay surface.

Had McEnroe being able to win the 1984 French Open, it may have paved the way for other pure serve volleyers to win in later years. 

Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors has the distinction of being the only player who won a title on three different surfaces at the US Open.  He won the title on grass in 1974, green clay in 1976 and hardcourts in 1978, 1982 and 1983.  Jimmy Connors was also a runner up on green clay in 1975 and 1977.  However, Connors never made it to the final of the French Open despite being a semifinalist on many occasions.

In fact, Connors was banned from being able to participate in the French Open in 1974 because he signed up to play World Team Tennis which the ATP and ITF did not recognise, Connors filed lawsuits but they were later dropped.  Connors made the semifinals of the French Open in 1979, 1980, 1984 and 1985, Connors also made four quarterfinals so a very respectable record.

Like John McEnroe, Connors won many clay titles in the United States on the green clay.  During the mid 1970s, many tournaments were played on green clay as part of the build up to the US Open including Cincinnati and Indianapolis.  Connors would never win a title on European red clay although in 1981 he got to the final of Monte Carlo but the final was annulled due to bad weather.  Connors did win a tournament in Paraguay but it is not recognised on the ATP tour.  Connors found like so many others, that transferring a hardcourt game with fairly flat strokes to the European clay was very difficult during that era.

Others

Other top class players and former number 1 players to not make an impression include Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin and Marcelo Rios.  Attacking players who made good runs include Michael Stich who lost the 1996 final to Kafelnikov, Richard Krajicek and Pat Rafter.