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Winning a grand slam event is a magnificent feat of physical and mental strength. Playing and winning seven five-set matches over a period of two weeks against the top 128 players of the world is not an easy feat.
One needs to be at peak of both physical and mental fitness. It is for this reason that winning two or more grand slams is hard.
There are many who became a grand slam champ once but could not repeat. They can be called the One Slam Wonders in the wonderful world of tennis.
Let us first list them out. For reasons of time and space I am sticking to men’s singles and the open era.
Australian Open
Mark Edmondson, Vitas Gerulaitis, Roscoe Tanner, Brian Teacher, Petr Korda and Thomas Johanssen (6)
French Open
Andres Gimeno, Adriano Panatta, Yannick Noah, Michael Chang, Andrez Gomez, Thomas Muster, Carlos Moya, Alberto Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Gaston Gaudio (10)
Wimbledon
Pat Cash, Michael Stich, Richard Krajicek, Goran Ivanisevic (4)
US Open
Manuel Orantes, Andy Roddick, Juan Martin Del Potro and Marin Cilic (4)
Some of these champions are unique.
Yannick Noah who is the last Frenchman to win French Open. He married Miss Sweden and their son Joakim is a two-time NBA All Star and has once won the NBA defensive player of the year award.
Chang became the youngest male champion in 1989. Incredibly, seven years later he reached his highest ranking of World Number 2.
Panatta who won the French Open in 1976 is the only player to defeat Borg twice in the French Open. He has a 2-1 record against him there.
Edmondson won the 1976 Australian Open while ranked 212. Even today that is the lowest ranked player ever to win a major. He is the last Australian to win Australian Open.
Vitas Gerulaitis of USA was known as Lithuanian Lion as he was born of immigrants from Lithuania.
He won the Australian Open in 1977 and came close to winning in other three as well, having reached finals at French and US Open and semi-finals twice at Wimbledon, where once he stretched the great Borg to 8-6 in a five setter.
He had a tragic death at 40 from carbon monoxide poisoning at a friends guesthouse in New York from a malfunctioning swimming pool.
Roscoe Tanner of USA had a huge serve also won the Australian Open in 1977. This is unique as the tournament was played two times that year. Both times one slam wonders won.
Pat Cash who won Wimbledon in 1987 is regarded as one of the best serve and volley players of all times. He also reached the Australian Open final twice.
Michael Stich, Richard Krajicek, and Marion Cilic were big serving giants who won their respective Grand Slams with perfect display of power serving.
Andy Roddick who won the US Open in 2003 was unlucky to run into Federer three times in the Wimbledon Finals. His 14-16 loss in the 2009 final is one of the best matches ever played there.
Finally, my favourite One Slam Wonder. Goran Ivanisevic. He lost at Wimbledon three times, twice to Pistol Pete Sampras and once to Andre Agassi. However in 2001, ranked 125th he pulled off an incredible 9-7 win in the fifth set versus Pat Rafter to be the first wildcard winner in Wimbledon.
Marin Cilic won the 2014 US Open. However Cilic still is in the reckoning to be a multiple Slam Champion, being a top ten-player currently.
There are just 24 One Slam Wonders in men’s tennis in the open era. Thus out of 193 Grand Slam tournaments, only 24 have given us winners who have won just one Slam and could not go on to win a second.
Analysis of the four slams shows that the French Open has given us more winners with ten while the other three together have given us 14.
Does this not mean that the French Open is a tough tournament to master and hence there are so many single time Champions?
Even clay exponents such as Thomas Muster, Carlos Moya and Andrez Gomez have won just once.
Does it also mean that we should look at Nadal’s nine wins there with much more respect than simply calling him a clay court wizard?
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