Tennis can bring the most electrifying, joyful victories – but also the most agonizing, cruel defeats…
6. Bogdan Bobrov lost two matches in one day with match points, one in singles and then in doubles. It happened in Kazakhstan. The Russian 26 year old told me he was too exhausted to cry after.
5. Paul-Henri Mathieu lead Mikhail Youzhny by two sets and seemed to be cruising to a three set masterpiece in the 2002 Davis Cup final contested in Paris. With his Davis Cup teammates anticipating and pre-celebrating the monumental triumph at 3-3 in the third set, the 20 year old Russian suddenly raised his game and snatched the third set. Youzhny then continued on his wave of momentum and took over the match in the fourth and fifth sets and ultimately won in four hours and 24 minutes. The then 20 year old Mathieu, playing his first Davis Cup, never recovered from this 63 62 36 57 46 loss. Before this Davis Cup final, Paulo won his first two ATP titles earlier in 2002 in Lyon and Moscow. He didn’t win another title until 2007 in Gstaad and Casablanca, his final two ATP titles.
4. Guillermo Coria was dominating Gaston Gaudio in the 2004 French Open final but somehow managed to lose control of the match and ended up losing in five sets – with a championship point – to his Argentine rival 60 63 46 16 68. The reigning best player on red clay at the time of this near conquest never recovered from this failure and was never a Grand Slam factor again.
3. The German duo of Rainer Schuettler and Nicolas Kiefer held four consecutive championship points in the 2004 Olympic doubles gold medal final fourth set tiebreaker, leading 6-2, but were unable to finish the job against the Chileans Nico Massu and Fernando Gonzalez.
2. Tennys Sandgren earned seven match points vs. Roger Federer at the 2020 Australian Open quarterfinal but ended up losing in five sets. It was a bitter defeat which not only cost Sandgren his first Grand Slam semifinal appearance vs. Novak Djokovic, but also about a half million dollars.
- 2019 Wimbledon final Novak Djokovic survived two championship points vs. Roger Federer in the fifth set and ultimately prevailed in the fifth set super tiebreaker, 76 16 76 46 13-12, the longest Wimbledon final ever at four hours and 57 minutes. It was Federer’s last Grand Slam final. It was the 16th Grand Slam title for Djokovic and it would have been no. 21 for Federer. Of course this match weighed heavily in the future Grand Slam count which is now at Djokovic with 24 and Federer at 20. One can only wonder what would have happened if Federer converted one of those match points for 21 and if Djokovic would have been able to get to 24 from 15 in 2019.
Davis Cup · French Open · Gaston Gaudio · Guillermo Coria · Olympics · Roger Federer
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Scoop Malinowski · April 25, 2024 at 9:49 am
Honorable mention: Gasquet blowing ten match points vs Kyrgios at Wimbledon. 1984 French Open final Lendl def McEnroe 36 26 64 75 75.
Cory · April 26, 2024 at 9:42 am
The Federer / Joker 2019 Wimby was excruciating. Fed broke ahead and i believe was serving 40-15 for it and blew the game. Then, a handful of games later, loses. My dad and I were watching and going crazy.
I recently relived that Gaudio / Coria RG final on Youtube. NOBODY saw that coming. Unbelievable.
Scoop Malinowski · April 26, 2024 at 11:59 am
Cory, RF may have been the better player that day for most of the match but when it really mattered he couldn’t finish the job. Forever will be haunted by that failure. Coria totally faked that injury in the fourth set, so arrogant he thought he could give Gaudio the fourth and just turn it on for the fifth but Gaston rose to the occasion and shocked everyone. Coria underestimated his rival which cost him everything.