Since writing an article about the best players to never win a Grand Slam, I have been wondering if there are great players who have never won any ATP tournament. Obviously, the goal of every professional tennis player is to lift at least one trophy during his career. Jimmy Connors holds the Open Era record with 109 titles in his career. Right behind him on that list is Roger Federer with 103 titles. Novak Djokovic is in third place. As I write this article, Djokovic just won the Paris Masters, which is his 97th tournament victory. On the other end of the spectrum are great players who just never managed to him an ATP title.
1. Julien Benneteau
The French player, Julien Benneteau, is known as one of the best players to have never won a singles tournament. During his career, Benneteau reached the finals in 10 ATP tournament without ever emerging victorious. He even had one match point at a tournament in Kuala Lumpur in 2013 before eventually losing the match. The highest ranking he achieved was #25 in the world. His greatest success at a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the quarter-finals at the 2006 French Open.
He did see more success as a doubles player as he reached the finals in 21 tournaments and emerged victorious in 12 of them. He also reached a doubles ranking of #5 in the world.
2. Steve Denton
Steve Denton, the current head men’s tennis coach at Texas A&M University, was ranked #12 in the world. Unfortunately, he never managed to win an ATP singles tournament. He did reach the finals of six tournaments, including twice at the Australian Open, in 1981 and 1982. And was defeated each time in the finals.
Like Benneteau, Denton was a great doubles player. He was ranked #2 in the world and won 18 doubles titles, including the 1982 U.S. Open.
3. Jerzy Janowicz
Jerzy Janowicz, from Poland, reached a singles ranking of #14 in the world. Unfortunately, he never managed to win a tournament in either singles or doubles. His best performance at a Grand Slam was when he reached the semifinals of the 2013 Wimbledon. Janowicz did reach the finals of three ATP tournaments, but was defeated each time. He also reached the doubles finals of one tournament, the 2013 Indian Wells Masters, where he was defeated.
4. Donald Young
Donald Young was once the #1 ranked junior tennis player in the entire world. In 2012, Young also reached a professional ranking of #38 in the world. He reached the finals of two ATP 250 events, losing to Andy Murray in Thailand and Ivo Karlovic in Delray Beach, Florida. He also made it to the finals of two ATP tournaments in doubles, including the 2017 French Open. Unfortunately, he lost both of those matches. Thus, he has never won either a singles or doubles tournament.
5. Lu Yen-Hsun
While Lu Yen-Hsun has never won an ATP singles title, he does hold one impressive record. He holds the record for winning the most Challenger Tour titles. With 37 Challenger titles, he has the most singles victories. Along with his 19 doubles Challenger titles, he also holds the record for the most combined singles and doubles Challenger titles. Yen-Hsun is from Taiwan and he is also the first player from Taiwan to be ranked in the top 100 in the world. He reached a career high ranking of #33 in 2010.
While he has never won a singles title, Yen-Hsun did make it to the finals of the 2014 Auckland Open where he was defeated by John Isner. He has won 3 doubles titles. He also won over $5 million in prize money over the course of his career.
6. Vasek Pospisil
Vasek Pospisil, from Canada, is another great player who has never won a singles title on the ATP tour. He reached a career high ranking of #25 in 2014. He did make it to the singles finals of tournaments three times, but each time he was defeated.
Pospisil did win 7 doubles tournaments, including the 2014 Wimbledon. He also won the doubles title at the 2015 Indian Wells, which is my favorite tournament. He reached a career high of #4 in the world in doubles in 2015.
7. Hyeon Chung
Hyeon Chung never won an ATP singles or doubles tournament. He did reach a career high singles ranking of 19 in 2018. His most notable success was becoming the first Korean player to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam, when he reached the semis at the 2018 Australian Open. To reach the semi-finals, he defeated both Alexander Zverev in the 3rd round, and Novak Djokovic, in the fourth round. He ended up losing to Roger Federer in the semis when he forfeited the match due to a foot injury. As he never played in the finals of an ATP tournament, this Grand Slam was his best performance.
8. Filip Krajinovic
Filip Krajinovic was ranked as the #6 junior in the world and reached a ranking of #26 in the world in 2018. Unfortunately, he has never won either a singles or doubles ATP tournament. Krajinovic, from Serbia, did make it to the finals of the 2017 ATP Masters, where he was defeated by Jack Sock in three sets. He reached the finals of four other tournaments, but was unfortunately unable to win any of them.
The Best Ranked Active Players Without an ATP Title
Jan-Lennard Struff, from Germany, has had a great 2023 season during which he reached the best ranking of his career at #21 in the world. Struff played in two finals this season and was defeated both times. At the Madrid Open, he played his first Masters final and was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz in three sets. He lost the second final in his home country as he was defeated by Francis Tiafoe in the Stuttgart Open final. Two years ago, he played in another finals when he lost the Bavarian Championships to Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Rounding out the rest of the top ranked 30 players in the world, only the Spanish player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and the Czech player Jiri Lehecka do not have an ATP title. Fokina was defeated at his only ATP finals so far at the 2022 Monte-Carlo Masters final by Stefanos Tsitsipas. Lehecka has also appeared in one ATP final where he lost to Sebastian Baez in Winston-Salem. These two players are still early in their careers so they will both hopefully win their first tournaments soon.
