How many Grand Slam finals has Novak Djokovic lost?

Grand Slam

James Richardson
April 12, 2023

Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic has played in 33 Grand Slam singles finals winning 22 and losing 11.

His first Grand Slam final loss came in his first Major championship match as he went down to Roger Federer 6–7(4–7), 6–7(2–7), 4–6 in the 2007 US Open final.

Djokovic would win his first Grand Slam just a few months later at the Australian Open but his next visit to the US Open final would mark his second defeat on that stage.

Rafael Nadal beat him in New York in 2010 to complete his career Grand Slam.

He then won the next four Grand Slam finals that he played in, claiming two more Australian Open finals and his first titles at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows.

That streak stretched across 2011 and into 2012 but would end in Paris that year as Nadal denied him a maiden French Open title.

In his next loss in a Grand Slam final, Djokovic held up his end of one of the great US Open finals as he lost to Andy Murray 6–7(10–12), 5–7, 6–2, 6–3, 2–6 in a classic match.

The following year he was again on the wrong end of an emotional Murray win but he was gracious in defeat like a true champion having beaten the Brit in Melbourne earlier in the season.

After that final, Novak Djokovic said: “He deserved to win this grand slam more than anybody because over the years he has been a top player, he has been so close, lost four finals. Now he has won it so I would like to congratulate him. Definitely happy that he won it. Us four (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray), we are taking this game to another level. It’s really nice to be part of such a strong men’s tennis era.”

His fifth and sixth losses in Grand Slam finals both came against Nadal as the Spaniard beat him in the US Open champinship match for the third time and in Paris in 2014 he denied the Serb a French Open title again.

He would then unseat Roger Federer at Wimbledon and beat Murray in Melbourne again in 2015.

Djokovic was again denied a French Open title in 2015, this time by Stan Wawrinka.

However, that 2015 defeat in Paris was followed by a sequence where Djokovic would win all four Grand Slams running from Wimbledon in 2015 to claiming his maiden French Open title in 2016.

Wawrinka haunted him with bookending Grand Slam final losses as he ended his streak of finals wins at the 2016 US Open.

Djokovic then won his next five Grand Slam finals before suffering defeat to Nadal in Paris in 2020.

He was denied a calendar Grand Slam in 2021 when he was beaten by Daniil Medvedev at the US Open in his sixth loss in the championship match at the America Major.

Djokovic has won the last two finals that he has played in at Grand Slam level and both of the last two Majors that he has entered.

Novak Djokovic