The 7 men with the best record against top-10 opponents: Bjorn Borg only one above 70%, Pete Sampras at No 7
Bjorn Borg has the best winning percentage against top-10 opponents while Novak Djokovic has played and won the most matches against top-10 rivals.
Former world No 1 Borg has won 70% of the matches he has played against players ranked inside the top 10 at the time of the match with Djokovic second on the list that also features Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Of the all-time greats who have played a minimum of 100 matches against top-10 opponents, the likes of John McEnroe (57.7%), Andre Agassi (54.8%), Jimmy Connors (54.4%) and Andy Murray (52.2%) miss out on this particular list.
Of the current crop, Carlos Alcaraz has a 63.3% record, but he has only played 49 matches against top-10 opponents with his win-loss figures sitting at 31-18 while Jannik Sinner is at 50.8% with a 32-31 record.
The 7 men with the best record against top-10 opponents:
7. Pete Sampras – 63.6%
The 14-time Grand Slam winner claimed his first-ever top-10 win in 1988 when he beat world No 8 Tim Mayotte in Detroit when he himself was ranked 127th in the world. His first win over a world No 1 was against Boris Becker in 1996.
Sampras enjoyed double-digit top-10 wins from 1992 until 1997 with his best tally of 14 coming in 1995.
The American’s final top-10 win was in the 2002 US Open final when he beat world No 6 Agassi as he finished with a 124–71 win-loss record.
6. Rafael Nadal – 63.9%
Rafael Nadal is third for most top-10 match wins, but lower down the list as he has a 186–105 win-loss record.
2002 French Open winner Albert Costa was Nadal’s first top-10 win as he beat his fellow Spaniard in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters in 2003. Nadal was at No 109 in the ATP Rankings at the time.
The following year – sitting at No 34 – he beat a world No 1 for the first time as he defeated Roger Federer at the Miami Open.
Nadal’s best year for top-10 wins was in 2013 when he claimed 24 wins with five coming against David Ferrer, four each against Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych, and three against Novak Djokovic.
Facts & Stats Features
5. Ivan Lendl – 64.3%
The Czechoslovakian-born Ivan Lendl defeated the great Arthur Ashe (10th in the world at the time) in the third round of the 1979 French Open for his win against a top-10 ranked opponent.
The following year he claimed a first win over a world No 1 when he beat Borg in Basel while his most productive season against top-10 players was in 1985 when he notched up 22 wins.
Boris Becker was his final top-10 win when he defeated the world No 3 in Tokyo in 1993.
4. Roger Federer – 64.6%
Roger Federer is the only player after Novak Djokovic to have more than 200 match wins against top-10 opponents with his record 224–123.
The Swiss was ranked No 243 when he claimed his first top-10 win against then world No 5 Carlos Moya in Marseille in 1999, but he had to wait until 2002 for his first win over world No 1 as that came in Miami against Lleyton Hewitt.
3. Boris Becker – 65.1%
Boris Becker has a 121–65 win-loss record against top-10 opponents and it is no surprise that his first one came during his incredible 1985 season.
Ranked No 29th, Becker beat world No 7 Pat Cash in the quarter-final at Queen’s Club before going on to claim three top-10 wins during his Wimbledon title run.
Lendl was his first world No 1 scalp in 1986 as the German claimed 15 top-10 wins during that campaign.
2. Novak Djokovic – 69.2%
Novak Djokovic was ranked No 85 in the world when he defeated world No 9 Mariano Puerta in the second round of the Paris Masters in 2005. Two years later he claimed his first win over a world No 1 when he beat Roger Federer at the Canadian Open.
The Serbian is the only player to have four seasons where he claimed more than 20 wins over top-10 opponents with his best an incredible 31 in 2015.
Carlos Alcaraz was his most recent top-10 victim as he took his record to 258–115 with victory over the Spaniard in the 2024 Paris Games gold medal match.
1. Bjorn Borg – 71.1%
The ATP Tour website states that the Ice Man played 159 matches against top-10 rivals, but there is no doubt he had a few more wins before that as the rankings and points system used during the early days were different.
He finished his career with a 113-46 record.
According to records, his first win over a top-10 player was against Arthur Ashe (4) at the 1973 US Open.
In terms of wins over world No 1s, he had the following head-to-head records: Jimmy Connors (15–8), Ilie Năstase (10–7), John McEnroe (7–7), Ivan Lendl (6–2), Rod Laver (6–2), Stan Smith (5–2), John Newcombe (2–3), Ken Rosewall (1–0), Mats Wilander (1–0) and Pancho Gonzales (0–1).
