This isn't a useful stat in any way, shape or form - just a little bit of fun
Looking here at the players who are at the bottom of the chain of 7 losses in Grand Slam main draws since 1990 (i.e. the player in each slam who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the eventual champion!)
Credit to @bry17may for completing this list backwards to the start of the Open Era.
Seeds in square brackets
Notes:
1) There were two Australian Opens in 1977. Allan Stone received the wooden spoon in the January tournament and Eric Friedler in the December tournament.
2) From 1978 to 1985 the Australian Open was the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.
2) The French Open in 2020 occurred after the US Open after being rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Looking here at the players who are at the bottom of the chain of 7 losses in Grand Slam main draws since 1990 (i.e. the player in each slam who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the player who lost to the eventual champion!)
Credit to @bry17may for completing this list backwards to the start of the Open Era.
Seeds in square brackets
Year | Australian Open | French Open | Wimbledon | US Open |
1968 | - | Joseph Mateo | Lance Lumsden | Billy R. Knight |
1969 | Bob Giltinan | Ivan Molina | Bob Giltinan | David Lloyd |
1970 | Anthony Hammond | Jean-Francois Caujolle | Szabolcz Baranyi | Onny Parun |
1971 | Alvin Gardiner | Bob Giltinan | Pat Cramer | Henry Irvine |
1972 | Owen Davidson [5] | Ion Tiriac | Jim Osborne | Pat Du Pre |
1973 | Jun Kuki | Piero Toci | Neale Fraser | Rayno Seegers |
1974 | Robert Casey | Michel Leclercq | Peter Szoke | Jun Kamiwazumi |
1975 | Spencer Segura | Patricio Cornejo | John Andrews | Howard Schoenfield |
1976 | Joao Soares | Chris Kachel | Jay Royappa | Ove Nils Bengtson |
1977 | Allan Stone | Eric Friedler | Chris Kachel | Mike Machette | Ricardo Cano |
1978 | Richard Lewis | Jiri Granat | John McEnroe [11] | George Amaya |
1979 | George Hardie | Bernard Fritz | John Yuill | Adriano Panatta [15] |
1980 | Jay Lapidus | Bernard Boileau | Byron Bertram | George Hardie |
1981 | Chris Johnstone | Mark Edmondson | Steve Docherty | Bill Cowan |
1982 | Jonathan Smith | Tim Mayotte | Rick Fagel | Eddie Edwards |
1983 | Henrik Sundstrom [9] | Jose Luis Damiani | Sashi Meron | Chip Hooper |
1984 | Russell Simpson | Matt Doyle | Tom Cain | Thierry Tulasne |
1985 | Mark Wooldridge | Shlomo Glickstein | Jimmy Arias | Robert Seguso |
1986 | - | Victor Pecci, Sr. | Jeremy Bates | Ulf Stenlund |
1987 | John Fitzgerald | Peter Lundgren | Gary Donnelly | Bruno Oresar |
1988 | Larry Scott | Sergio Casal | Andrei Chesnokov | Jean-Philippe Fleurian |
1989 | Michael Kures | Tore Meinecke | Patrick Baur | Paul Chamberlin |
1990 | Kelly Evernden | Guillaume Roux | Danny Sapsford | Paul Chamberlin |
1991 | Peter Doohan | Jeff Tarango | Jordi Arrese | Francisco Montana |
1992 | Karsten Braasch | Javier Sanchez | Richard Fromberg | Felipe Rivera |
1993 | Grant Doyle | Nicolas Escude | Brian Devening | Henri Leconte |
1994 | John Sullivan | Grant Stafford | Richard Krajicek | Greg Rusedski |
1995 | Goran Ivanisevic [4] | Hernan Gumy | Vincent Spadea | Greg Rusedski |
1996 | Jonathan Stark | Nicolas Lapentti | Michael Joyce | Marcelo Filippini |
1997 | Juan Albert Viloca | Emilio Benfele Alvarez | Nicolas Lapentti | Patrick McEnroe |
1998 | Marcelo Filippini | Javier Sanchez | Andrei Pavel | John van Lottum |
1999 | Joseph Sirianni | Karol Kucera [11] | Cecil Mamiit | Andre Ilie |
2000 | Cedric Pioline [13] | Galo Blanco | Michael Russell | Bob Bryan |
2001 | David Sanchez | Martin Damm | Franco Squillari [27] | Nikolay Davydenko |
2002 | Flavio Saretta | Max Mirnyi [26] | Juan Ignacio Chela [19] | Agusti Calleri |
2003 | Hicham Arazi | Justin Gimelstob | Dick Norman | Joachim Johansson |
2004 | Rainer Schuettler [6] | Joachim Johansson | John van Lottum | Marat Safin [13] |
2005 | Felix Mantilla | Fabrice Santoro | Vincent Spadea | Noam Okun |
2006 | Fernando Vicente | Oliver Marach | Greg Rusedski | Jeff Morrison |
2007 | Luis Horna | Fernando Gonzalez [5] | Juan Monaco [32] | Fernando Gonzalez [7] |
2008 | Donald Young | Viktor Troicki | Igor Kunitsyn | Brendan Evans |
2009 | Kristof Vliegen | Yen-Hsun Lu | Nicolas Lapentti | Dmitry Tursunov |
2010 | Robin Haase | Rainer Schuettler | Ramon Delgado | Illya Marchenko |
2011 | Denis Gremelmayr | Daniel Brands | Lukas Lacko | Karol Beck |
2012 | Gilles Muller | Eric Prodon | Alex Bogomolov, Jr. | Mikhail Kukushkin |
2013 | Tommy Haas [13] | Denis Kudla | Carlos Berlocq | Lukas Lacko |
2014 | Federico Delbonis | Albert Montanes | Ivo Karlovic [29] | Julien Benneteay [24] |
2015 | Blaz Kavcic | Maxime Hamou | Thomaz Bellucci | Paul-Henri Mathieu |
2016 | Rafael Nadal [5] | Julien Benneteau | Santiago Giraldo | Julien Benneteau |
2017 | Feliciano Lopez [28] | Damir Dzumhur | Malek Jaziri | Andreas Haider-Maurer |
2018 | Stefanos Tsitsipas | Nicolas Jarry | Yoshihito Nishioka | Sam Querrey |
2019 | Michael Mmoh | Bernard Tomic | Dennis Novak | Jiri Vesely |
2020 | Hugo Gaston | Quentin Halys | - | Marc Polmans |
Notes:
1) There were two Australian Opens in 1977. Allan Stone received the wooden spoon in the January tournament and Eric Friedler in the December tournament.
2) From 1978 to 1985 the Australian Open was the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.
2) The French Open in 2020 occurred after the US Open after being rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.