WITH no live tennis on currently due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Draft Central will take a look back at some of the best players of past and present and rank them based on a specific set of guidelines. In our first Top 10 countdown, we look at the Top 10 ATP Players to never have won a Grand Slam title, moving onto number three, one of the first real visionaries of the Europeans cracking in against the strength of the top two nations.

#3 Tom Okker (1133 matches – 70.4% winning record, 40 career titles [28 in Open era], #3 career-high ranking)

The oldest player on our countdown list, Tom Okker is the only one who played prior to the Open era. He made his debut in 1964 at the age of 20 prior to the ATP Tour becoming professionalised. When it did in 1968, Okker was one of the initial stars, reaching the US Open final that very same year. In the final, the first set went 14-12 in favour of his opponent, then fifth seed Arthur Ashe, as players had to win by two games in any set once it got past 5-5. The Dutchman went on to push Ashe to five but just fell short. It would be Okker’s only career Grand Slam final, but in a world where it was dominated by Australia and the United States, Okker was a rarity. In fact, in that US Open, seeded eighth, Okker was the first player not from those nations.

He would win in Dublin and Rome that year, and then explode the next two seasons, winning a combined 12 titles in 1969-70 and the talented European would remain in the top 10 players for the next five years. Okker would end up winning another seven titles in 1973, going on to win 28 official career titles, but is credited with a further 12 prior to the Open era. With a 70.4 per cent winning record, Okker has the highest winning record on this list, and with 1133 total matches, is is a remarkable feat. It is somewhat surprising that Okker only ever made third in the world, but with the golden era of tennis between the United States and Australia in that time, it was hard to break the likes of Ashe, Stan Smith, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe and Tony Roche all strutting their stuff on the court, it was a competitive era to say the least.

Okker’s last tournament title would come in 1979 at Tel Aviv, and that year there was a new wave of champions that were firmly dominating the world rankings. Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg were fighting over the top spot, with the trio winning 29 tournaments between them. As the Dutchman was starting to slip down the rankings – though his form still warranted him a top 100 place, he eventually retired in 1981. That season he played just six matches winning one, and bowed out as one of the most durable and best players of his time that by comparison was like the David Ferrer of the modern day – so close yet not quite there to topple the elite few that dominated the top of the world rankings.

—

Top 10 ATP Players without a Grand Slam title:

#10 Wojciech Fibak (Poland)
#9 Fernando Gonzales (Chile)
#8 Tim Henman (Great Britain)
#7 Robin Soderling (Sweden)
#6 David Nalbandian (Argentina)
#5 Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic)
#4 Brian Gottfried (USA)
#3 Tom Okker (Netherlands)