The 9 men with the best record against left-handed players: Rafael Nadal only man above 85%

Jimmy Connors has the most match wins against left-handed players, but Rafael Nadal has the best winning percentage against southpaws.

Being a left-hander himself, Nadal knew exactly where to hurt his opponents as he is the only ATP Tour player with an 85% plus record against left-handers.

Although 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic has the fifth-most match wins against left-handed players, he doesn’t make the top 9 for best record as his winning percentage is 77.1% (138-41 win-loss) and he currently sits at No 13.

Nadal, of course, contributed heavily to Djokovic’s 41 defeats against left-handed as the Serbian lost 29 matches against his great rival.

Other players who don’t make this top-9 list, but have won more than 100 matches against left-handers include Ivan Lendl (162-63), Ilie Nasaste (142-60), Michael Chang (137-49), John McEnroe (129-38), Andre Agassi (121-46), Stefan Edberg (119-50), Tom Okker (111-74), Bjorn Borg (111-43), Guillermo Villas (108-44), Jim Courier (104-33) and Goran Ivanisevic (101-50)

The 9 men with the best record against left-handers:

9. Carlos Alcaraz – 77.5

Still in the infancy of his career, Alcaraz hasn’t played 50 matches yet against left-handers so his record will no doubt change in the coming years.

Of course, there are also not too many left-handers inside the top 20 with Ben Shelton at No 14 currently the highest-ranked player.

But as things stand, Alcaraz has a 31-9 win-loss record against lefties and Rafael Nadal, Cameron Norrie and Thiago Monteiro have all beaten him twice although Monteiro’s most recent win in Rio 2024 came when Alcaraz suffered an ankle injury and retired.

8. Roger Federer – 78.10

Swiss Maestro Federer had the same “problem” as Djokovic and that “problem” was named Rafael Nadal.

Twenty-four of the tennis great’s 37 losses against lefties were against Nadal while Franco Squillari was the only other left-handed player to win twice against Federer.

The 20-time Grand Slam winner finished his career with a 132-37 record against southpaws.

7. Mats Wilander – 79.40

Seven-time Grand Slam winner had a 104-27 record against lefties and seven of those defeats were against John McEnroe while some other famous left-handers to beat him were Guillermo Villas, Andres Gomez and Henri Leconte.

6. Jimmy Connors – 79.60%

While Djokovic and Federer had a Nadal “problem”, Connors had to deal with John McEnroe with 20 of his losses coming against his fellow American while he also suffered several defeats against Villas and Roscoe Tanners.

And like Nadal, Connors also knew how to play against lefties as he is also a leftie. The American had a 179-46 career record against left-handed opponents.

5. Boris Becker – 80.36%

The first man on this list with an 80%-plus record against left-handers is the great Becker, who had a 135-33 record.

The German, though, didn’t have a problem against McEnroe and Connors.

Becker only lost two of his 10 matches against McEnroe while he was 6-0 against Connors, but nine of his losses were against Goran Ivanisevic.

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4. Alexander Zverev – 80.90%

Zverev is closing in on 700 career matches and he has suffered only 17 defeats against left-handed players (72-17).

Seven of his 17 losses have come against Nadal.

He has won his last 28 matches against left-handers with Marc Andrea Huesler the last lefty to beat him with the match taking place during a Davis Cup rubber against Switzerland in February 2023.

3. Andy Roddick – 81.11%

Another man with only 17 defeats against lefties with seven of those against Nadal.

The American had a 73-17 win-loss record against left-handers and 11 of the losses were against Spaniards with Fernando Verdasco (3) and Feliciano Lopez (1) also beating him.

2. Pete Sampras – 84.12%

Sampras’s career only briefly overlapped with McEnroe and Connors and he has 2-0 records against both of them while he didn’t face Nadal.

Goran Ivanisevic (6), Petr Korda (5) and Guy Forget (4) were the lefties who had some joy against him.

The American had a 143-27 career record against southpaws.

1. Rafael Nadal – 87.31%

The 22-time Grand Slam winner only lost 17 matches against left-handers and fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez did the most damage as he won four matches, but Nadal had 10-4 H2H record.

Another Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco, won three matches against Nadal while Denis Shapovalov also had three wins, but one was a walkover.