Schuettler moves forward (negatively)

Rainer Schuettler [87], the oldest player in the Top 100 (almost 35 years) lost his first round match in Houston to a 15 years younger opponent – Grigor Dimitrov [70] 0-6, 2-6. It’s not the most lopsided defeat in career of the German, who suffered in the past a “double bagel” twice. In the consequence of this loss, Schuettler enters a Top 10 of players who lost the most matches in the Open era in singles, he has replaced in this group Jacob Hlasek (331 defeats). Here is the top 10 of “biggest losers” in the Open era (blue – active players):

1. Fabrice Santoro – 444
2. John Alexander – 380
3. Jonas Bjorkman – 362
4. Vincent Spadea – 359
5. Marc Rosset  – 351
6. Francisco Clavet – 340
7. Javier Sanchez – 335
8. Tomas Smid – 333
8. Goran Ivanisevic – 333
10. Rainer Schuettler – 332 *

* Schuettler notched his first tour defeat in 1995 (Tel Aviv, David Wheaton 4-6, 5-7); he is the only player in the Top 10 – besides Javier Sanchez – with a negative win/loss record (324-332)