In the modern era, it looks as though Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner might be capable of dominating. Before those two it felt like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic simply took it in turns to win the big ones.

It hasn’t always been this way though. There have been some shock runs to Grand Slam events and during the 1996 Wimbledon event, it was two lesser known ATP Tour players who competed in the showpiece finale.

MaliVai Washington reaches 1996 Wimbledon Final

Fans who had tickets to the Wimbledon final in 1996 might have been forgiven for feeling a little bit short changed given the participants.

Pete Sampras went into the tournament as the world number one, with fourth seed Goran Ivanisevic and 13th seed Todd Martin also making the quarter-finals that year.

Sampras was dumped out at the quarter-final stage by 17th seed Richard Kraijcek and it proved to be a memorable tournament for the Dutchman as he went all the way to victory.

In the final he came up against the unknown MaliVai Washington. A remarkable tournament saw the unseeded player knock out Thomas Enqvist in round two before beating Martin in the semi-final after an epic match.

Krajicek against Washington wasn’t what the purists anticipated and the final proved to be a bit of a damp squib too, with the Dutchman thrashing Washington in three sets, coming through 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

Washington was only professional for 10 years

A 300-1 rank outsider at the start of Wimbledon in 1996, Washington wasn’t able to sustain the momentum and build upon his highest ever ranking of number 11 that came in 1992.

He did win four career titles playing singles tournaments, but that run to the Wimbledon final in 1996 seemed to decimate him in a fitness sense, with a troublesome knee ruling him out of 1997 completely.

His issue was so severe that in 1999 – just three years after that famous Wimbledon run – he chose to retire from the game and sailed off into the sunset after just 10 years as a professional player.

Washington reached the quarter-final of the Australian Open in 1994 but never got beyond the fourth round in any year at any of the other Grand Slam events and he proved a somewhat indifferent player.

Washington made a decent living out of playing tennis. However, it’s rare that someone who had such a short career would reach the final of such a huge tournament and had he won in 1996, it would have probably been the most remarkable tennis story ever!