Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have achieved one feat that has eluded Novak Djokovic so far
Five men have won a Grand Slam without dropping a set in the Open Era and the names of two of the Big Three appear on the list.
Novak Djokovic holds most of the records in top-level tennis, but he is yet to win a major without dropping a set with his rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer doing it more than once.
Nadal has done it four times – all at Roland Garros – while Federer has achieved the milestone twice.
24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic has come close on a couple of occasions to winning a major event without dropping a set, but for now his name remains absent.
The first time was when he won his maiden Slam at the 2008 Australian Open as he reached the final without dropping a set, but then lost the first set against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga before winning 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6 (7–2).
In 2011 he was denied by Ivan Dodig as the Croatian won a second-set tie-breaker in the second round at Melbourne Park. Djokovic won all his other matches without dropping a set. It was a similar story during his 2023 title run as qualifier Enzo Couacaud won a tie-breaker as well.
The 5 men to win a Grand Slam without dropping a set:
Ken Rosewall – 1971 Australian Open
The Australian was the first man to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era without dropping a set as he notched up the achievement as his home major, but he only played five matches.
Seeded players had byes into the second round while it was only a 48-player draw on the grass in Sydney.
Rosewall beat the likes of Roy Emerson, Tom Okker and Arthur Ashe en route to lifting the 1971 Australian Open trophy.
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Ilie Nastase – 1973 French Open
Two years after Rosewall’s achievement, Nastase became the first man to win seven matches at a Grand Slam without dropping a set.
With Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith and Manuel Orantes losing early, Nastase beat only two seeded players – 10th seed Roger Taylor and 15th seed Francois Jauffret – during his title run.
Roger Federer – 2007 Australian Open and 2017 Wimbledon
Swiss Maestro first was already a nine-time Grand Slam winner by the time he won his first major without dropping a set at the 2007 Australian Open.
Federer’s achievement was noteworthy as he was the first and still the only man to win a hard-court major without dropping a set. The others have all been done on grass and clay.
He defeated a young Djokovic in the fourth round, seventh seed Tommy Robredo in the quarter-final, sixth seed Andy Roddick in the semi-final and 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez in the final.
A decade later and he pulled off the feat at his beloved Wimbledon. Seeded third he beat fellow seeds Mischa Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic to lift the last of his eight Wimbledon trophies.
Björn Borg – 1976 Wimbledon and 1978 and 1980 French Open
The Swede was the first man to win three Grand Slams without dropping a set with two coming on clay and one on grass.
Borg was the first achieve the milestone at Wimbledon as he defeated Guillermo Vilas, Roscoe Tanner and Nastase in the final round.
Two years later he notched a different record during his French Open title run as he not only won the tournament without dropping a set, but he dropped only 32 games in total. It was a record at the time with Boris Becker (1985 Wimbledon) and Gustavo Kuerten (1997 French Open) equalling it later.
Borg again beat all comers at the 1980 French Open as he won his fifth title at Roland Garros and ninth Grand Slam. None of his opponents won more than four games in a set.
Rafael Nadal – 2008, 2010, 2017, 2020 French Open
Nadal not only matched Borg, but he surpassed his fellow clay-court great and unsurprisingly it all came at Roland Garros.
En route to his fourth Grand Slam title in Paris, Nadal beat the likes of Fernando Verdasco, Nicolás Almagro and Djokovic to reach the final. In that showpiece match he destroyed Federer 6–1, 6–3, 6–0, which is the Swiss worst loss in a major.
Two years later Nadal again made light of the field at Roland Garros – although this time he didn’t play the likes of Federer, Djokovic and Wawrinka – but he did beat Robin Soderling, the man who stunned him in the fourth round in 2009, in the final.
At the 2017 French Open, Nadal was seeded fourth and he beat Dominic Thiem in the semi-final before dropping only six games in the final against Stan Wawrinka.
His 2020 achievement was equally impressive as after breezing through the opening week, Nadal beat a young Jannik Sinner in the quarter-final, Diego Schwartzman in the semi-final before brushing Djokovic aside 6–0, 6–2, 7–5 in the final.
