Five men’s singles qualifiers to reach the semifinals of a major

Aslan Karatsev (Google Images)

History was made on Tuesday in Melbourne as Aslan Karatsev of Moscow, Russia became only the fifth qualifier to reach the semifinals of a men’s singles grand slam tournament in the open era. Karatsev defeated the 18th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Dimitrov was one of three seeds to be beaten by Karatsev at the 2021 Australian Open. The others were the eighth-ranked Diego Schwartzman of Argentina and the 20th-ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada. Here are the other four men’s singles players who were originally qualifiers and got to the final four of a grand slam.

John McEnroe–United States–The seven-time major champion first made noise at Wimbledon in 1977 when he reached the semifinals of Wimbledon as a qualifier. McEnroe only needed to beat one seeded player to get to the semis, and that was 13th ranked Australian Phil Dent in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, McEnroe lost to fellow American Jimmy Connors in four sets.

Bob Giltinan–Australia–The Sydney native reached as far as the quarterfinals of the 1977 Australian Open without losing a set. Then it took him four sets to beat Robin Drysdale of Great Britain to reach the semifinals, before losing to John Lloyd of Great Britain.

Filip DeWulf–Belgium–In what was by far his best grand slam result, DeWulf reached the semifinals of the 1997 French Open. Like McEnroe, DeWulf only needed to beat one singles player in reaching the semifinals, and that was the eighth-ranked Alex Corretja of Spain. In the semis, DeWulf, lost to eventual champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, who was also unseeded. It was Kuerten’s first of three French Open titles.

Vladimir Voltchkov–Belarus–The last qualifier to reach the semifinals of a men’s grand slam singles tournament was Belarussian Vladimir Voltchkov at Wimbledon in 2000. Voltchkov’s biggest victory came in the second round, where he beat the sixth-ranked Cedric Pioline of France in five sets. In the semifinals, Voltchkov lost to the eventual champion, Pete Sampras of the United States, who won his seventh and final Wimbledon title. Like Voltchkov, Karatsev will be facing the number one seed, and heavy favourite (Novak Djokovic of Serbia) in the semifinals.

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