The most successful players in Wimbledon Men’s Singles history

Wimbledon is the oldest and arguably most iconic of the four tennis Grand Slams. The first edition of the tournament was held at the All England Club back in 1877 and it has remained on the grass surface of the prestigious south-west London venue ever since.

This year marked the 136th renewal of the Grand Slam and Carlos Alcaraz added his name to the roll of honour for the first time, putting an end to Novak Djokovic’s dominance on Centre Court with a 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 win in the final on July 16.

The Serbian had won the Australian Open and French Open already this year, so headed to London on red-hot form as he looked to join the great Roger Federer as the most decorated player in Wimbledon Open Era history with an eighth win. However, Alcaraz had other ideas.

Djokovic still has several more chances to match Federer’s record, so let’s take a look at some of the most successful male tennis players in The Championships’ long and storied history.

Roger Federer – 8 titles

As already mentioned, Federer currently stands alone at the top of the leaderboard with eight titles. The Swiss legend won his first Wimbledon Championship in 2003, beating Mark Philippoussis to win his first Grand Slam, and he went on to win the grass Grand Slam four more times in succession — levelling Bjorn Borg’s record of five-straight titles.

Nadal ended Federer’s run in 2008, beating the now-retired 20-time Gland Slam winner in the final after losing to him in the 2006 and 2007 showpiece matches, but Federer regained his title in 2009 when beating Andy Roddick for a third time. Federer’s other successes came in 2012 and 2017, while he lost the 2014, 2015 and 2019 finals to Novak Djokovic.

Novak Djokovic – 7 titles

One of three players on seven titles, Djokovic had won the last four renewals of Wimbledon and you certainly wouldn’t have bet against the Serb matching Federer and Bjorg with five-straight wins at the All England Club. Nole’s first win on the grass came against Nadal in 2011, which was his first Wimbledon and third overall Grand Slam, and he won it twice more by 2015 with those aforementioned wins over Federer.

Djokovic’s recent dominance over the famous gold trophy began in 2018 when he beat surprise finalist Kevin Anderson in straight sets. He followed that up with a thrilling five-setter against Federer in 2019 before the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the pandemic. The 36-year-old beat Matteo Berrettini and Nick Kyrgios in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Pete Sampras – 7 titles

The dominant force of the 1990s, Pete Sampras won his seven Wimbledon titles within the space of eight years — starting with a win over fellow American Jim Courier in 1993 and ending with a win over Australian Patrick Rafter in the 2000 renewal.

Interestingly, Sampras beat six different opponents in all of his seven finals — dispatching Goran Ivanisevic twice in 1994 and 1998, Boris Becker (1995), Cedric Pioline (1997) and Andre Agassi (1999) as well as the previously mentioned Courier and Rafter. Sampras’ only defeat at Wimbledon in that time came in the 1996 quarter-finals, when he was beaten by eventual winner Richard Krajicek.

William Renshaw is the only other player to have won Wimbledon seven times, but his success was as an amateur in the pre-Open Era. The Brit actually won The Championships six times in a row between 1881 and 1886 before winning it for a seventh time in 1889.