Jim Courier was ATP world no. 1 and a four time winner of Grand Slam major titles but he had five prominent players he was unable to beat.
Three of these puzzling players never won a major title. Courier was 0-3 vs Marcelo Rios, 0-4 vs Alex Corretja and 0-2 vs Alberto Berasategui.
The two other players Courier could not cope with were multiple Grand Slam winners – he was 0-4 vs Ivan Lendl and 0-2 vs Patrick Rafter.
It’s fascinating how certain elite players can be befuddled by certain other styles. Courier also had extreme difficulties with three other competitors – he was 1-6 vs Boris Becker, 1-5 vs Yevgeny Kafelnikov and 1-4 vs Slaa Dosedel.
On the flip side, Courier was much more suited to combat a range of other opponents – he was 7-5 Andre Agassi, 7-5 vs Thomas Muster, 12-12 vs Michael Chang, 5-4 vs Cedric Pioline, 5-2 vs Sergi Bruguera and 6-4 vs Stefan Edberg.
Of course, for a champion as formidable as Courier, he also managed to dominate some pretty impressive names – he was 8-3 vs Goran Ivanisevic, 7-1 vs Richard Krajicek, 3-0 vs Jimmy Connors, 4-0 vs Greg Rusedski, 6-1 vs Todd Martin.
Courier’s most difficult rival was without question Pete Sampras, who dominated The Rock with a 16-4 head to head.
Other curious head to head results involving Courier – 2-2 vs Brad Gilbert, 4-6 vs. Andrei Chesnokov, 2-2 vs Magnus Larsson, 2-2 vs. Andrei Medvedev and 5-7 vs Michael Stich.
Andre Agassi · Australian Open · French Open · Ivan Lendl · Jim Courier · Marcelo Rios · Pete Sampras
