Wimbledon Champions with no top billing
Winning a match at Wimbledon has always been a dream for everyone who has held the tennis racket in an international tournament. However there have been a few players who not only have been surprise winners in the Grand Slam, but have won the event as well. Some of these are discussed below, the ones who won the Grand Slam event, without ever reaching the Number 1 ranking!
Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg have been dominant in Wimbledon, but there have been some who have not been like them, yet emerged winners. At least two players - Michael Stich and Goran Ivanisevic, managed to reach a career high of World Number 2 after winning Wimbledon Championship. While the German Stich defeated compatriot Boris Becker in the final in 1991, Ivanišević was a surprise winner ten years later as he entered the tournament as a wild card entry, and managed to win the title. This was his first win in four finals, since he lost twice to Pete Sampras and once to Andre Agassi before defeating Patrick Rafter to take the Cup.
Then there was Richard Krajicek from Holland who shocked Pete Sampras before toppling MaliVai Washington in the final of 1996 to clinch the title. Just like Australian Pat Cash who defeated Ivan Lendl nine years earlier for his only Wimbledon triumph, he reached a career high of World Number. 4. Despite being the World Number 16 in 1996, Krajicek was not given a seeding ahead of the tournament, one he eventually won. His route to the final was an impressive one as he downed former champion Michael Stich in the fourth round, and knocked out Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals, handing him his first loss in 4 years at All England Club.
Similarly, Cash also had a dream run during his only Wimbledon win as he took down Mats Wilander in the quarter-finals, Jimmy Connors in the semi-finals and defeated the then World Number 1 Ivan Lendl in the final. Unlike the rest of the Wimbledon Champions to follow, like Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash was unable to repeat his success despite reaching the final of Australian Open a couple of years later.
In 1973, as many as 81 players boycotted the Wimbledon Championship to show solidarity against Yugoslav tennis federation’s decision to suspend Nikola Pilić for not representing them in a Davis Cup tie, and ILTF’s decision to uphold the suspension. This meant that 81 of world’s top professionals, including 13 of the 16 seeds, withdrew from the Wimbledon Championship, making way for a large number of qualifiers and lucky losers. The event that year was won by Czechoslovakia’s Jan Kodeš whose best bet in the world rankings was a career high of World Numner 5.
The women’s event of Wimbledon Championship has mostly been dominated by World Number ones like Steffi Graf, the Williams Sisters, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. In the initial years of Open Era, British tennis players Ann Haydon-Jones and Sarah Virginia Wade won the event in 1969 and 1977 respectively. While Ann Haydon-Jones had been a runners-up before and participated in the event with many local competitors, Wade's triumph was notable since she won the tournament in its centenary year and was also the last Briton to win it.
Spain’s Conchita Martínez is also among the few to win Wimbledon yet not reach the World Number 1 position. The Spaniard could never get past World Number 7, which was as high as she could go. On the other hand, Czech Republic’s Jana Novotná won Wimbledon in her third try, and continued her good run, reaching as high as World Number 2.
There may not be many candidates to win the event this year in the presence of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, but one thing is certain. If any player besides the top two seeds, manages to win the event, he might also join the ‘never been there’ category since both Federer and Nadal are not going anywhere!
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