3. Lori McNeil stuns Steffi Graf in 1st round of Wimbledon 1994
Steffi Graf became the first defending champion in Wimbledon history to lose in the first round when she was stunned by Lori McNeil 7-5, 7-6 in 1994. Graf had won three straight Wimbledons, including 21 straight matches at the club prior to falling to McNeil, who was ranked 22nd at the time. Graf had reached at least the quarterfinals of every major she played since the US Open in 1985 prior to the upset. The last time she had lost in the first round of a major was the US Open in 1984, when she was 15 years old.
Graf won seven Wimbledon titles during her career, including the following two after suffering that upset. And though she lost in the finals of the US Open after the upset to McNeil, she won the next six majors in which she played.
McNeil went on to reach the semifinals of the tournament. She didn’t make it past the third round of any major thereafter, and she hadn’t advanced past the fourth round of any major in six years prior to the upset.
2. Serena Williams loses to No. 43 Roberta Vinci in semifinals of 2015 US Open
No. 43 Roberta Vinci pulled off the unthinkable when she defeated Serena Williams in the semifinals of the US Open. The upset ended Williams’ bid for the calendar Grand Slam. Williams was the reigning champion at all four majors, having won 33 straight matches at majors, including 26 in a row this year.
Though Williams was pushed to three sets by Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the third round and sister Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, nobody expected her to lose. Why would they? Serena had pulled out victories in all conditions and looked like an unstoppable force. But Vinci, who had never previously gotten past the fourth round at a major, proved that Serena indeed is human, as she knocked her out of the tournament and prevented Serena from joining Margaret Court and Steffi Graf as the only players to win a calendar Grand Slam.
1. Martina Navratilova loses to Kathy Horvath in 4th round of 1983 French Open
Martina Navratilova was absolutely dominating the tennis world when she lost to Kathy Horvath in the 4th round of the French Open in 1984. Prior to that defeat, Navratilova had won 36 straight matches, and 126 of 129 since the start of 1982. She had only lost seven total games in the six sets she had played at the tournament prior to losing to Horvath. Yet the 17-year-old Horvath stunned her in three sets, marking the first time in four meetings that she had won a set off Navratilova, much less won a match. Navratilova won her final 50 matches that year and also won the next seven matches she played against Horvath.
Horvath was ranked No. 45 in the world at that point.
“That day, I was feeling the ball perfectly,” Horvath remembered. “I felt confident I could keep her off the net. Maybe that’s why she was tight, because she couldn’t come in like she usually did. She’d hit an approach and then hesitate because she was too far back.”
