ANALYSIS: Concerning numbers: The most one-sided rivalries in ATP among active players

In any sport individuals or teams will have bogey opponents, someone that they just cannot get a result against. That is the situation Gael Monfils, Alex de Minaur and Taylor Fritz are currently experiencing against specific opponents in some of the most one-sided rivalries in tennis.

The Frenchman has played against 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic 20 times yet has not tasted victory against the Serbian. This horrific record is an outlier in the career of Monfils, who has gone toe-to-toe with some of the best in the world.

The two veterans first met back in the 2005 US Open, where the only five-set tie played between them occurred. Funnily enough, three of their four Grand Slam meetings were at Flushing Meadows, with Djokovic picking up a brace of four-set triumphs in the 2010 quarter-final and 2016 semi-final. Djokovic would go on to lose in the final. Aside from those big major matchups, they have met before in a Masters 1000 final, where Monfils had the crowd behind him in the 2009 Paris Masters. A tiebreak in the last set was needed to split the duo, with Monfils maiden Masters 1000 final ending in disappointment.

As the pair aged, the dominance swayed even more in the favour of Djokovic, who has not lost a set to the 39-year-old since the semi-final of the Dubai Tennis Championships in 2020, where Monfils squandered a one-set lead. Djokovic has since won the next four matches, including one walkover, without dropping a set. With Monfils retirement slowly creeping up, he has limited chances to finally get one over on an old foe.

The two first met in the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2019, and since have met 11 times, all results going the way of Jannik Sinner. Their first Grand Slam meeting came in de Minaur's home event in 2022 where Sinner romped to a straight-set victory. However, their biggest matchup came a few months later in the Canadian Open final. It was de Minaur's first and only Masters 1000 final to date, with him spurning the opportunity against Sinner, with that being his first Masters 1000 title.

This would be the first of three consecutive final meetings, with the next coming in Italy's triumphant 2023 Davis Cup Finals run. A straight sets win from the Italian was enough for him to win his country's the prestigious award. Into 2024, and another final beckoned, this time in Rotterdam. De Minaur must have been sick at the sight of Sinner by this point, with the recent Australian Open champion claiming another title.

After another couple of defeats at the end of 2024, the 26-year-old faced Sinner once again in Melbourne, with him looking to improve on a fourth consecutive final. Unfortunately, he was once again unable to defeat him in another damaging defeat. Their most recent matches have been semi-finals in the ATP 500 events in the China Open and Vienna Open, with the same predictable results stretching the Italian's ominous record over de Minaur.

There is no surprise to see Djokovic once more on this list, but to see the current world number four without a win against him may be a surprise. After a brace of early exits in Masters 1000 events in 2019, the duo would not see each other on court until 2021, where they met three times. The most notable came in the Paris Masters quarter-final where Fritz was targeting a second Masters 1000 semi-final, but predictably ended in a straight sets triumph for the Serbian.

A year would go by with Fritz not having Djokovic in his nightmares, but they would return in full force after Djokovic pipped the American in two agonisingly close tiebreakers in the 2022 ATP Finals semi-finals. After once again not seeing each other for an elongated period of time, two matches came in consecutive events. Both were quarter-final matches, both were won by Djokovic who went on to clinch both the Cincinnati and US Open.

By the start of 2024 Fritz was firmly one of the top players in the world, starting to challenge more regularly and going deep in competitions. However, Djokovic still remained a problem despite him getting on in age. Unfortunately for Fritz, Djokovic was ageing like wine, and this proved with another Australian Open quarter-final defeat, followed by a semi-final in Shanghai and most recently another major quarter-final exit in New York.

The results are obviously very concerning for the American number one, but the fact that he has only been able to win four sets from a possible 11 matches is abysmal. The good news is that Fritz has recently recorded his first victory over Djokovic at the Six Kings Slam, taking the first set before Djokovic called it a day. If he can replicate this form onto the ATP Tour, then he may be finally available to get one over an old rival.