14 best players to never win the French Open

1. Pete Sampras

If you need any more proof that the French Open is the most difficult Grand Slam event to win, maybe this will do it: perhaps the greatest to ever play the sport was unable to even reach the final at Roland Garros.

Sampras broke countless records during his career. He set the Open era record for Grand Slam singles titles with 14, later broken by Federer’s 17, and held the No. 1 ranking for 286 weeks, second-most all time.

Seven of those Grand Slam triumphs came at Wimbledon between 1993 and 2000. Sampras also won twice at the Australian Open and five times at the US Open, including in 2002 against Agassi to close out his career.

With a precise serve and excellent volley skills, Sampras had success on grass and hard courts. That didn’t translate to Roland Garros, as Sampras only reached the semifinals once.

That semifinal came in 1996, a straight sets loss to No. 6 seed and eventual champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Sampras would not even reach the quarterfinals for the rest of his career, going 0/13 in French Opens.

As legendary as some of the others on this ranking are, Sampras may have been the greatest player to ever wield a tennis racket, and was still unable to conquer Roland Garros.

For more French Open coverage, check out our tennis hub page.