Ranking the Grand Slam men’s singles match win leaders before the 2024 Australian Open
One of the barometers of who gets to be called the greatest of all time has to be Grand Slam match wins.
Here we look at the top 10 when it comes to Grand Slam men’s singles match wins.
10 John McEnroe (167)
Between 1977 and 1992 John McEnroe won 167 Grand Slam men’s singles matches.
The majority of his wins came at Wimbledon and the US Open with McEnroe sporting an 18-5 record at the Australian Open and a 25-10 record at the French Open.
McEnroe won 59 matches at Wimbledon and 65 matches at the US Open.
9 Stefan Edberg (178)
Six-time Grand Slam singles winner, Stefan Edberg finished ahead of McEnroe in terms of match wins despite claiming six Slams to the American’s seven.
Edberg’s Grand Slam career stretched from 1983 to 1996 and saw him win the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open twice each.
He claimed his personal high tally (56 match wins) at the Australian Open, playing the event at two different venues, although both his titles in Melbourne came on the grass courts of the Kooyong Stadium.
8 Andy Murray (200)
Andy Murray crossed the 200 threshold at the 2023 US Open and is one of two players entered into that tournament on this list.
His match-win tally is a testament to his ability to get into the latter stages of the Majors in an era where that was no mean feat.
Murray has a match-win percentage of greater than 75% in all four Grand Slams.
7 Pete Sampras (203)
Pete Sampras is often heralded as the finest example of going out on top in tennis as he ended his career with a US Open title win.
Sampras racked up 63 match wins at Wimbledon in just 70 matches to end his career with a 90% win rate at the Championships.
At his home Slam he would end on 71 match wins going out on a winning streak.
6 Ivan Lendl (222)
Ivan Lendl was all out on 222 as he rounded off his 17-year professional career.
Lendl won 205 matches at Grand Slam tournaments representing Czechoslovakia and 17 matches after his defection to the United States.
He racked up an impressive 73 match wins at the US Open, a tournament he won three times.
5 Andre Agassi (224)
Andre Agassi caught on to the joy of playing in Australia later in his career but once he did he really made the most of Melbourne.
He only lost a total of five matches in 53 outings in Melbourne although he would gather more total match victories at Roland Garros and the US Open.
Agassi finished his career second on this list but would later be overtaken by the members of the big three.
4 Jimmy Connors (233)
Before the big three, Jimmy Connors held an impressive Grand Slam match win tally that some thought was unsurpassable.
However, Connors himself has admitted that he should have won more matches if not for his issues with gambling.
His records are made that much more impressive by the fact that he only bothered to make the trip to Australia twice.
3 Rafael Nadal (314)
It is unclear if Rafael Nadal will take full part in the Grand Slam calendar when he returns in 2024 but he already holds an incredible record.
He has won 112 matches at Roland Garros, a mark that will truly take some beating.
His 97% win rate at Roland Garros would stand out in any era but considering the kind of opponents he came up against he is the King of Clay.
2 Novak Djokovic (361)
Currently second but almost certainly odds on to finish his career atop this and many other lists is Novak Djokovic.
He claimed his 361st Grand Slam win in the final of the US Open in 2023.
Djokovic could even pull in Nadal’s 112 match wins at Roland Garros, although that would mean playing until at least 2026.
1 Roger Federer (369)
Roger Federer blazed his way to 369 Grand Slam match wins across his incredible career.
Federer brought up centuries at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon, a feat not yet duplicated.
His final Grand Slam match was his defeat to Hubert Hurkacz at the 2021 edition of Wimbledon.
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