When I commented on a tournament thread that Frederik Nielsen was on a 19-match winning streak against GB players, Greenleaf started wondering whether any player had a longer Brit-bashing streak (in singles) than that.
The first possibility that came to my mind was David Diaz-Ventura, but his win against the Wardinator in the Balaguer Final was 'only' his 9th win a row against GB players (including two against Rob Dee of course) since he lost to Morgan Phillips back in 2006. David Estruch (who has beaten Dee three times) would also have had a streak of 9 in between a loss to Morgan in 2005 and a loss to the Wardinator, had he not suffered another loss to Morgan in the middle.
Someone who played a lot of Brits in Spanish Futures qualifying before Morgan came along might be a possibility, or I think it would have to be someone who has played in GB Futures a lot, else they simply wouldn't have faced enough GB players to have a chance. Even Rui Machado only has a 5-match streak since losing to Boggo in 2004.
First thought among regular GB Futures players was Laurent Recouderc, but while he has a 19-3 record against Brits and once won a week of a Satellite with a quintuple Brit-bash, his longest streaks were 5, 5 and 7. Ah, of course - Tsonga - see below.
I doubt we'll ever find a definitive answer to this, but we can keep a list going for future reference and add to it if people think of other possibilities and check them out.
To start us off:
Winning streaks against GB players
(13+ complete)
Ilie Nastase (ROU) - 23 matches after loss to Ian Hewitt in Jun 1972, ended by Richard Lewis in Nov 1981
Frederik Nielsen (DEN) - 22 matches after loss to Colin Fleming in Jul 2006, ended by Chris Eaton in Sep 2008
John McEnroe (USA) - 20 matches from 1978, ended by Jeremy Bates in 1992 Jimmy Connors - 20 matches after loss to Roger Taylor in Aug 1972, ended by Mark Cox in Nov 1976
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) - 18 matches after loss to Ian Flanagan in May 2004, ended by Andy Murray in Oct 2007
Sebastian de Chaunac (FRA) - 17 matches to June 2010 (when he retired from tennis after losing in Wimbledon QR2, his last win having been against a Brit, Dan Cox, in QR1!) since a loss to Alan Mackin in April 2010
Bjorn Borg (SWE) - 16 matches after loss to Buster Mottram in 1975 until the end of his career Stéphane Robert (FRA) - 16 matches after loss to Alex Bogdanovic in Jan 2006, ended by Dan Evans in Mar 2009
Ed Corrie (GBR) - 15 matches after loss to Josh Milton in Oct 2012, ended by Marcus Willis in Mar 2013 (all 15 wins were in Jan-Mar) Samuel Groth (AUS) - 15 matches after loss to Edward Corrie in Aug 2007, ended by Chris Eaton in Aug 2010 (*) Stéphane Robert (FRA) - 15 matches from 2001, ended by Alex Bogdanovic in Jan 2006
Jimmy Connors (USA) - 14 matches after loss to Mark Cox in Nov 1976 until the end of his career (though there were "DEF" and "W/O" wins to Brits in that time)
Jérémy Blandin (FRA) - 13 matches from Mar 2007, ended by Dan Cox in May 2009
(8+ ongoing)
Kamil Capkovic (SVK) - 14 matches to 18 Mar 2012 (ongoing) since loss to Jonny Marray in May 2005 - all in straight sets (not even a t/b) including a win v Boggo until the last one against Morgan Phillips in the Loulé SFs which went to 3.
Go Soeda (JPN) - 12 matches to 18 Mar 2012 (ongoing) since loss to Richard Bloomfield in September 2004
James Ward (GBR) - 11 matches to 18 Mar 2012 (ongoing) since loss to Alex Ward in Mar 2010 Peter Torebko (GER) - 11 matches to 18 Mar 2012 (ongoing) since loss to Chris Eaton in April 2011
Frédéric Niemeyer (CAN) - 10 matches to the end of 2007 (ongoing) since loss to Richard Bloomfield in Jul 2005 David Diaz-Ventura (ESP) - 10 matches to the end of 2008 (ongoing) since loss to Morgan Phillips in Apr 2006
Flavio Cipolla (ITA) - 9 matches to the end of 2006 (ongoing) since loss to Martin Lee in May 2005 Ricardas Berankis (LTU) - 9 matches to 30 Jun 2010 (ongoing) since he first played a Brit in May 2006 Marcus Sarstrand (SWE) - 9 matches to the end of 2007 (ongoing) since loss to Jim May in Apr 2006 Ervin Eleskovic (SWE) - 9 matches to 31 Jan 2010 (ongoing) since loss to James Auckland in Mar 2006
(*) Groth also had a completed streak of 11 and has won 27 of his last 28 matches to 19 Mar 2010 v Brits cf Robert's 31/33 and Nielsen's 53/61, both to 19 Mar 2010
(getting close to 8 at 31 Jul 2010 - Sakharov 7, Sweeting 7, Bautista 7, Dancevic 7, Klingemann 7, Jouan 7, Nielsen 6, Ignatik 6, K Beck 6, Escoffier 6, Nishikori 6, Galvani 6)
Losing streaks against GB players (10+ complete OR 8+ ongoing)
Ka-Wing Wong (HKG) - 18 matches from Nov 2001 - ended by beating someone who posted on this thread but wishes to remain anonymous in Jul 2005 Karim Alami (MAR) - 10 matches from Danny Sapsford in 1994 to Martin Lee in 2001, never beat a Brit Ka-Wing Wong (HKG) again - 9 matches to Apr 2006 (ongoing, though he's probably now stopped playing)
French players -22 losses in a row v Andy Murray to Jul 2010 since his AO loss to Tsonga in Jan 2008 (though he did give Gasquet a w/o win in Dubai 2009)
N.B. Let's say w/o wins or losses don't count, but retirement or default wins or losses (i.e. after the match started) do count.
-- Edited by steven on Friday 16th of March 2012 04:20:27 PM
-- Edited by steven on Friday 16th of March 2012 04:22:11 PM
-- Edited by steven on Saturday 9th of March 2013 06:59:10 PM
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I think i found one: Karim Alami - never won a match against a brit, losing his first match against a brit, rusedski in January 1998. In total he lost 4 times to Rusedski, 4 times to henman and once to Lee childs
Hicham Arazi might be worth checking out for 'Losing streaks against GB players' - he lost a lot of matches against Henman and Rusedski, though he won a couple.
Sampras won 13 consecutive matches in a row against brits from jan 89 to november 98, losing to rusedski. However, in his 13 match streak, he did "lose" a match against Henman, but that was a Walkover at rotterdam 96. Also one of the matches he won against Rusedski was 3-6 5-0 RET. Still a streak lasting almost a decade is quite impressive.
John McEnroe almost went through his career unbeaten against Brits. He won 21 consecutive matches (including one walkover), before losing in the last match he ever played against a Brit (Jeremy Bates). Borg lost a few more matches against Brits, but did manage a run of 17 straight wins (including one walkover).
well looking at a lot of his shorts he may still wear them underneath
i think that the longer streaks will apply more to top challenger players nowadays as we have so few brits in atps' there is not enough to bash. i remember hewitt had a greta record vs tim, but not sure on greg.
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
I think i found one: Karim Alami - never won a match against a brit, losing his first match against a brit, rusedski in January 1998. In total he lost 4 times to Rusedski, 4 times to henman and once to Lee childs
Hicham Arazi might be worth checking out for 'Losing streaks against GB players' - he lost a lot of matches against Henman and Rusedski, though he won a couple.
Alami actually finished up 0-10 v Brits, starting with a loss against Danny Sapsford in 1994 and finishing with a loss to Martin Lee (not Lee Childs, easy thing to mis-remember) in 2001. The 8 losses in between were all to Tim and Greg.
Arazi ended up 13-17 v Brits, his longest losing streak was 5, his longest winning streak 4.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!