{"id":77244,"date":"2025-01-02T09:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T14:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=77244"},"modified":"2025-01-02T09:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T14:29:13","slug":"novak-djokovic-gael-monfils-one-sided-rivalries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/01\/02\/novak-djokovic-gael-monfils-one-sided-rivalries\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic Over Gael Monfils and Other One-Sided Rivalries in Men\u2019s Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Novak Djokovic\u2019s record-extending win over Gael Monfils at the ATP 250 event in Brisbane solidified the most lopsided head-to-head (H2H) record in men\u2019s tennis history. Djokovic\u2019s 20th consecutive victory against Monfils underscores a trend of dominant rivalries throughout the sport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<h2>Top 10 Most Lopsided Head-to-Head Records in Men\u2019s Tennis<\/h2>\n<h4>T9. Roger Federer (15-0) vs Jarkko Nieminen<\/h4>\n<p>Federer dominated Nieminen, allowing the Finn only one set in their 15 matches. Their rivalry began in 2002 (Moscow) with Federer winning 6-1 6-4, and concluded in 2015 (Istanbul) with a 6-2 7-5 result.<\/p>\n<h4>T9. Bjorn Borg (15-0) vs Harold Solomon<\/h4>\n<p>Despite Harold Solomon\u2019s 22 career titles and a solid win-loss record, he couldn\u2019t beat Borg, managing to win only four sets in their encounters. Their rivalry spanned from 1974 (Tokyo) to 1980 (Roland Garros).<\/p>\n<h4>T7. Ivan Lendl (16-0) vs Scott Davis<\/h4>\n<p>Lendl\u2019s dominance over Davis included a narrow five-set win at Wimbledon in 1984, emphasizing his mental and physical edge.<\/p>\n<h4>T7. Ivan Lendl (16-0) vs Brad Gilbert<\/h4>\n<p>Despite Gilbert\u2019s 20 titles, he never managed to best Lendl. Their first match (Hartford, 1982) ended 6-2 6-2 in Lendl\u2019s favor, and their last (Philadelphia, 1981) had a similar result.<\/p>\n<h4>T3. Roger Federer (17-0) vs Mikhail Youzhny<\/h4>\n<p>Federer\u2019s clean sweep against Youzhny began in 2000 (Stockholm), with Youzhny claiming a set before Federer won 5-7 6-4 6-3. Their final match, at the 2017 US Open, saw Youzhny lead two sets to one before Federer rallied to win 6-1 6-7(3) 4-6 6-4 6-2.<\/p>\n<h4>T3. Roger Federer (17-0) vs David Ferrer<\/h4>\n<p>Ferrer, a former World No. 3, took six sets off Federer across their 17 matches, often pushing him to his limits in their later encounters.<\/p>\n<h4>T3. Ivan Lendl (17-0) vs Tim Mayotte<\/h4>\n<p>Mayotte lost all 17 meetings against Lendl, including four finals. Their rivalry stretched over a decade.<\/p>\n<h4>T3. Bjorn Borg (17-0) vs Vitas Gerulaitis<\/h4>\n<p>Famously, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xLjfb9odQ5Y?si=7NaTEi0QIA52nKXJ\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gerulaitis quipped<\/a>, \u201cNobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row,\u201d referring to Jimmy Connors&#8211;but Borg did. Their rivalry began in 1974 (Tehran) and ended in 1981 (<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/wimbledon\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Wimbledon<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h4>2. Rafael Nadal (18-0) vs Richard Gasquet<\/h4>\n<p>Nadal\u2019s unbeaten streak against Gasquet started at Estoril in 2004 and extended to their 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/us-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">US Open<\/a> clash. Gasquet\u2019s lone win over Nadal came on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/atp-challenger-tour\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Challenger Tour<\/a> in 2003 when Nadal retired mid-match.<\/p>\n<h4>Novak Djokovic vs Gael Monfils(20-0)<\/h4>\n<p>Djokovic first faced Monfils at the 2005 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/us-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">US Open<\/a>, a grueling five-setter where he triumphed 7-5 4-6 7-6(5) 0-6 7-5. Over the years, Monfils came close to breaking the streak, notably in the 2009 Paris Masters final, where he held a break lead in the decider but lost 6-2 5-7 7-6(3). Their most recent clash in Brisbane ended with a 6-3 6-3 victory for Djokovic.<br \/>\nBoth players remain active on tour, leaving room for the record to potentially extend or change in the future.<\/p>\n<p>These records highlight the extraordinary dominance of tennis legends over skilled opponents, showcasing the mental and physical challenges of competing against the best in the sport.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novak Djokovic\u2019s record-extending win over Gael Monfils at the ATP 250 event in Brisbane solidified the most lopsided head-to-head (H2H) record in men\u2019s tennis history. Djokovic\u2019s 20th consecutive victory against Monfils underscores a trend of dominant rivalries throughout the sport\u2019s history. Top 10 Most Lopsided Head-to-Head Records in Men\u2019s Tennis T9. Roger Federer (15-0) vs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":61742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,9],"tags":[274,8426,445,144,9656,325,42292,22,135,190],"class_list":["post-77244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-atp","category-news","tag-bjorn-borg","tag-brad-gilbert","tag-david-ferrer","tag-gael-monfils","tag-harold-solomon","tag-ivan-lendl","tag-jarkko-nieminen","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-richard-gasquet"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77262,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77244\/revisions\/77262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}