5 Singles Olympic Champions Without A Grand Slam Success

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Puig became the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal while representing Puerto Rico and the ninth overall medalist for that delegation....

- Puneet Ahlawat

If you ask any Tennis player about his or her dream, the answer would come in form of Grand Slams wins, Olympic Medals and other leading tournaments. There are players who have won everything which is on offer in the world of tennis while there are many who haven’t won all the important trophies in tennis.Winning an Olympic Gold is a matter of pride for any player as this adds more weightage to the profile of a player and his individual country. There are very few singles players who despite winning a gold medal at the Olympics couldn’t replicate their success in the Grand Slams. Here is the list of such players.

MARC ROSSET

He is a former professional tennis player from Switzerland who is best remembered for winning the men’s singles gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games. 1992 was the pinnacle of Rosset’s career. Representing Switzerland at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, he defeated several top players en route to qualifying for the men’s singles final, including Jim Courier, Goran Ivanisevic, Wayne Ferreira, and Emilio Sanchez. In the final, he faced Spain’s Jordi Arrese and won an exciting five-set match, 7–6, 6–4, 3–6, 4–6, 8–6, to claim the gold medal. Rosset’s career-high ATP singles ranking was world no. 9 and he won a total of 15 top-level singles titles. He won at least one singles title on all surfaces: clay, grass, carpet, and hard court. However, his luck had always deserted him in Grand Slams. He reached the semis of the French Open in 1996, which was his best performance in the prestigious four events. The Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon, the other three Grand Slams also remained far from his reach during the course of his entire career.

NICOLAS MASSU