At this year’s Australian Open, we saw several great comeback matches after players were down two sets. Alexander Zverev had a big advantage against Daniil Medvedev and was close to reaching the second Grand Slam final of his career, but the Russian player made a great comeback and eventually won 5-7, 3-6, 7-6(7-4), 7-6(7-5), 6-3.
In the final, Medvedev had a big advantage against Jannik Sinner, and this time the Italian player made a big comeback to win 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3, which led to the first Grand Slam title in his career. I thought it would be interesting to look at players who have excelled at coming back from a two-set deficit.
Aaron Krickstein
Aaron Krickstein, the American player who ranked as high as #6 in the world, was nicknamed “Marathon Man.” He is the first player who managed to come back from a two-set deficit at least 10 times in his career.
Although Krickstein never managed to win a Grand Slam title, he did play a very memorable match against Jimmy Connors at the 1991 U.S. Open. It was another marathon match that ESPN called an instant classic.
Unlike many matches in which he made up for a large deficit, this time Krickstein had a 2-1 lead and then a 5-2 lead in the fifth set. It wasn’t enough, though, for him to win as Connors came back to win in a tiebreaker in a match that lasted more than four and a half hours.
Fun Fact: Krickstein holds the record for the youngest player to ever win an ATP title, which he won in Tel Aviv when he was only 16 years and two months old. He is also the youngest player to ever be ranked in the top 10 in the world, which he accomplished when he was 17 years-old.
Andy Murray – The King of the Comeback
Andy Murray, who at the 2023 Australian Open overtook Krickstein when he celebrated his 11th comeback from a two-set deficit. He achieved that against Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round of the Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne. With 11 victories, Murray holds the record for the most comeback victories down two sets to love.
Richard Gasquet lost twice to Murray after being up two sets to love. In 2008, Murray reached his first quarter-finals at Wimbledon after being down two sets against Gasquet, with the French player serving for the win. Murray took the third set to a tiebreak after Gasquet served a double fault at 30-40. Murray went on to win the next two sets. Two years later aft the French Open, Murray pulled off another upset against Gasquet after being down two sets to love.
FUN FACT: Three players hold the record for the most comebacks down two sets to love in a single Grand Slam. Nicolas Escude made three such comebacks at the 1998 Australian Open, where he reached the semi-finals. Albert Costa came back three times at the 2003 French Open. A decade later, Tommy Robredo rallied from 0-2 three times at the 2013 French Open.
Roger Federer
Roger Federer is another player with 10 comeback victories after being down two sets to love. During his career, Roger won 20 Grand Slam titles and he is one of only 12 players who has come back from a two set to love deficit in each of the four Grand Slam tournaments. The legendary Swiss player made his first comeback at the 2000 U.S Open when he recovered from a two-set deficit against the Dutch player Peter Wessels.
Federer even managed to recover from a two set to love deficit against one of the greatest players of all time, Rafael Nadal. Federer defeated Nadal at the 2005 Miami Open (at the time, ATP Masters tournaments were up to five sets long) 2-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-1. This match was also the first final between the great rivals. The last big comeback of Federer’s career took place at the 2016 Wimbledon when he recovered from a two sets to love deficit to defeat the Croatian player, Marin Cilic.
Boris Becker
Boris Becker, like Krickstein and Federer, is another player who managed to come back from two sets to love deficits 10 times. Becker, the youngest Wimbledon champion in the Open era, also made these comebacks in in each of the four Grand Slam tournaments. He did it once at the French Open and Wimbledon, twice at the Australian Open and three times at the US Open. He had a lot of success in five set matche, as he won five set matches 32 times.
FUN FACT: Krickstein, Murray, Federer and Becker are the only players to come back from two set to love deficits at least 10 times. However, on a percentage basis, the most successful player in coming back from a two-set deficit is the South African player, Kevin Curren. He came back seven times out of a total of 20 matches where he was down two sets to love. This equates to an amazing 35% success rate, as compared to Federer who had “only” a 22.7% success rate.
Nadal, Djokovic, Martin, Gerulaitis & Bjorg
Rafael Nadal did not have much success in coming back when he found himself down two sets to love. He managed to come back only four times. One of these victories was at the 2022 Australian Open when Nadal came back to steal the title from Daniil Medvedev.
Novak Djokovic has been able to comeback from a two set to love deficit eight times, including in the finals of the 2021 French Open when be defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (6-8), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Todd Martin and Vitas Gerulaitis, each came back from a two sets to love deficit nine times, and Bjorn Borg came back eight times.
