8 players who won the French Open without dropping a set ft. Steffi Graf and Rafael Nadal
The French Open is arguably one of the most difficult Slams to win in professional tennis. Many legends of the game have failed to reign supreme on the red dirt in Paris.
Subsequently, many players have missed out on a Career Slam with just the French Open missing from their trophy cabinets. Given these facts, winning the French Open without dropping a set sounds like a Herculean task.
However, in the Open Era, eight players have managed to achieve this feat. Let's take a look at who these players are:
#1 Evonne Goolagong Cawley
At the age of 19, Evonne Goolagong Crawley found herself in the final of a Slam for the first time in her career at the French Open in 1971. The Australian was the third seed in the event and reached the final without dropping a set. She faced compatriot Helen Gourley in the title clash.
Cawley defeated Gourley in straight sets, making her the first player in the Open Era to win the French Open without dropping a set. Cawley would complete the channel Slam that year by winning Wimbledon.
While Cawley won Slams in Australia, France and England, the Australian was unable to lift the US Open title, falling in the final on four occasions.
#2 Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King had won six Slam titles by 1972. But the Suzanne Lenglen trophy had remained out of reach for the American. In 1972, the French Tennis Federation halved the draw size from 64 to 32. King was seeded third in the event and got direct entry into the third round.
She progressed through the draw with ease and faced defending champion Evonne Goolagong Cawley in the final. Just like every other match she played in the tournament that year, King won in straight sets. It was the only Roland Garros title the 12-time Grand Slam champion ever won.
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BILLIE JEAN KING
Former World No.1
Career slam in singles & mixed doubles
SLAMS: 12 singles, 16 doubles, 11 mixed doubles
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#3 Ilie Nastase
Romania's Ilie Nastase won the 1973 French Open without dropping a set. The rules were a little different back then as matches in the first two rounds were best-of-three-set affairs.
Nastase was the second seed in the tournament and reached the final with ease. He faced Nikola Pilic in the title clash and won the match 6-3, 6-3, 6-0. A couple of months later, he was ranked as the No.1 player by the newly instilled computerized ATP rankings.
#4 Chris Evert
Chris Evert was the top seed at the 1974 French Open and lived up to the billing, winning her first six matches without dropping a set. She then beat Olga Morozova 6-1, 6-2 in the final to claim her first Grand Slam title.
It was the first of seven Roland Garros titles that Evert would win. She retired from tennis with 18 singles and three doubles Grand Slam titles.
#5 Bjorn Borg
Bjorn Borg won the French Open six times, twice without dropping a set. He was a a four-time Slam champion when he entered the 1978 French Open. He was the top seed at the event and created history by dropping only 32 games en route to his third French Open title.
Borg repeated the feat two years later. The two-time defending champion defeated fifth seed Vitas Gerulaitis in straight sets in the final to win his fifth Roland Garros title. In the process, Borg became the first player to win the French Open twice without dropping a set. This record was later broken by Rafael Nadal.
#6 Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf's 1988 season is inarguably the greatest season in tennis history. She won all four Slams and Olympic gold, thereby becoming the first person to achieve the Golden Slam.
At the 1988 French Open, she set a series of records. To begin with, she dropped only 20 games in the entire tournament. This is an Open Era record for any women's singles champion at Roland Garros. In the final, she won 6-0 6-0, marking the only double bagel in a Slam final in the Open Era.
#7 Justine Henin
After winning the 2003 and 2005 editions of Roland Garros, the Belgian entered the 2006 French Open as the heavy favorite and won the event without dropping a set. She was never even forced to play a tie-break and defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets in the final.
The following year, Henin entered Roland Garros as the two-time defending champion. Yet again, she did not lose a single set in the entire tournament. She defeated Ana Ivanovic in the final, matching Monica Seles' feat of winning three consecutive Roland Garros titles.
Additionally, she became the first player to win at Roland Garros without dropping a set in two consecutive years.
Less than 5 games dropped in the women's singles finals at #RolandGarros in the Open Era:
1988 - Graf - 0
1979,1974, 1980,1983 - Evert - 2,3,3,3
2004 - Myskina - 3
2007,2005,2003 - Henin - 2,3,4
1978 - Ruzici - 4
1984 - Navratilova - 4
2019 - #Barty - 4
@josemorgado #RG19
#8 Rafael Nadal
This list would be incomplete without the King of Clay. Rafael Nadal has won a record 13 Roland Garros titles. Four of these titles were won without dropping a set.
Rafael Nadal achieved this feat in the 2008, 2010, 2017 and 2020 editions of the tournament. The Spaniard's opponents in the final were Roger Federer, Robin Soderling, Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic respectively.
Rafael Nadal has a 97% (105-3) win rate at Roland Garros. He has won 85 of his matches in Paris in straight sets.
Also Check Out: Nadal French Open Titles