The grand prize winners are Marc-Kevin Goellner, who lost in the first round 21 times this year. Looking back at the past 4 years this clips Andrei Cherkasov's record of 20 in 1994. He is head and shoulders above the rest as he is a whole 5 tournaments above anyone else. You've got to give him credit for perseverance, though.
In the category of highest percentage of opening match losses to total number of tournaments played is Andrei Olhovskiy, who lost all 14 of his ATP Tour matches!
For previous years' awards:
1996
1995
1994
1997 Time To Get A Day Job Awards
Number of first round losses:
First Total
Round Tourn.
Player
Country Losses Played* Percentage
----------------------- -------
------ ------ ----------
1 Goellner, Marc-Kevin
GER 21 32
0.6563
2 Schalken, Sjeng
NED 16 24
0.6667
3 Fredriksson, Patrik
SWE 15 17
0.8824
4 Tillstrom, Mikael
SWE 15 22
0.6818
5 Prinosil, David
GER 15 25
0.6000
6 Siemerink, Jan
NED 15 26
0.5769
6 O'Brien, Alex
USA 15 26
0.5769
6 Spadea, Vince
USA 15 26
0.5769
9 Arazi, Hicham
MAR 15 27
0.5556
10 Rosset, Marc
SUI 15 32
0.4688
11 Olhovskiy, Andrei
RUS 14 14
1.0000
12 Dewulf, Filip
BEL 14 23
0.6087
13 Vacek, Daniel
CZE 14 25
0.5600
13 Radulescu, Alex
GER 14 25
0.5600
15 Alami, Karim
MAR 14 26
0.5385
16 Kucera, Carol
SVK 14 27
0.5185
17 Boetsch, Arnaud
FRA 13 22
0.5909
17 Hrbaty, Dominik
SLK 13 22
0.5909
19 Woodforde, Mark
AUS 13 23
0.5652
19 Sargsian, Sargis
ARM 13 23
0.5652
21 Damm, Martin
CZE 13 25
0.5200
22 Furlan, Renzo
ITA 13 26
0.5000
23 Johansson, Thomas
SWE 13 28
0.4643
24 Stanoytchev, Orlin
BJE 12 13
0.9231
25 Roux, Lionel
FRA 12 23
0.5217
26 Fromberg, Richard
AUS 12 25
0.4800
27 Ulihrach, Bohdan
CZE 12 26
0.4615
28 Gumy, Hernan
ARG 12 27
0.4444
29 Carretero, Roberto
ESP 11 13
0.8462
30 Pavel, Andrei
CZE 11 16
0.6875
31 Nestor, Daniel
CAN 11 17
0.6471
32 Gaudenzi, Andrea
ITA 11 19
0.5789
33 Reneberg, Richey
USA 11 20
0.5500
34 Filippini, Marcelo
URU 11 22
0.5000
35 Medvedev, Andrei
UKR 11 23
0.4783
36 Viloca, Juan-Alberto
ESP 11 24
0.4583
37 Tarango, Jeff
USA 11 28
0.3929
37 Berasategui, Alberto
ESP 11 28
0.3929
39 Sanchez, Javier
ESP 11 32
0.3438
40 Schaller, Gilbert
AUT 10 17
0.5882
41 Blanco, Galo
ESP 10 18
0.5556
42 Alvarez, Emilio
ESP 10 19
0.5263
43 Voinea, Adrian
ROM 10 20
0.5000
44 Courier, Jim
USA 10 21
0.4762
44 Stark, Jonathan
USA 10 21
0.4762
46 Costa, Carlos
ESP 10 22
0.4545
46 Gimelstob, Justin
USA 10 22
0.4545
48 Haarhuis, Paul
NED 10 23
0.4348
49 Raoux, Guillaume
FRA 10 24
0.4167
50 Carlsen, Kenneth
DEN 10 25
0.4000
51 Mantilla, Felix
ESP 10 26
0.3846
*minimum 10 tournaments
Percentage of first round losses to total number of tournaments played:
First Total
Round Tourn.
Player
Country Losses Played* Percentage
----------------------- -------
------ ------ ----------
1 Olhovskiy, Andrei
RUS 14 14
1.0000
2 Stanoytchev, Orlin
BJE 12 13
0.9231
3 McEnroe, Patrick
USA 9 10
0.9000
4 Fredriksson, Patrik
SWE 15 17
0.8824
5 Carretero, Roberto
ESP 11 13
0.8462
6 Gorriz, Marcos-Aurelio
ESP 8 10
0.8000
7 Pescariu, Dinu
ROM 9 12
0.7500
8 Karbacher, Bernd
GER 8 11
0.7273
8 Sanguinetti, Davide
ITA 8 11
0.7273
10 Joyce, Michael
USA 7 10
0.7000
11 Champion, Thierry
FRA 9 13
0.6923
12 Pavel, Andrei
CZE 11 16
0.6875
13 Tillstrom, Mikael
SWE 15 22
0.6818
14 Schalken, Sjeng
NED 16 24
0.6667
15 Agassi, Andre
USA 8 12
0.6667
16 Goellner, Marc-Kevin
GER 21 32
0.6563
17 Nestor, Daniel
CAN 11 17
0.6471
18 Ogorodov, Oleg
UZB 7 11
0.6364
19 Marin, Juan-Antonio
ESP 8 13
0.6154
20 Dewulf, Filip
BEL 14 23
0.6087
21 Prinosil, David
GER 15 25
0.6000
22 Lareau, Sebastien
CAN 9 15
0.6000
23 Wibier, Fernon
NED 6 10
0.6000
23 Tebbutt, Michael
AUS 6 10
0.6000
25 Boetsch, Arnaud
FRA 13 22
0.5909
25 Hrbaty, Dominik
SLK 13 22
0.5909
27 Schaller, Gilbert
AUT 10 17
0.5882
28 Volkov, Alexander
RUS 7 12
0.5833
28 Ran, Eyal
ISR 7 12
0.5833
30 Gaudenzi, Andrea
ITA 11 19
0.5789
31 Siemerink, Jan
NED 15 26
0.5769
31 O'Brien, Alex
USA 15 26
0.5769
31 Spadea, Vince
USA 15 26
0.5769
34 Sinner, Martin
GER 8 14
0.5714
35 Simian, Stephane
FRA 8 14
0.5714
36 Woodforde, Mark
AUS 13 23
0.5652
36 Sargsian, Sargis
ARM 13 23
0.5652
38 Kulti, Nicklas
SWE 9 16
0.5625
38 Golmard, Gerome
FRA 9 16
0.5625
40 Vacek, Daniel
CZE 14 25
0.5600
40 Radulescu, Alex
GER 14 25
0.5600
42 Arazi, Hicham
MAR 15 27
0.5556
43 Blanco, Galo
ESP 10 18
0.5556
44 Reneberg, Richey
USA 11 20
0.5500
45 Nydahl, Tomas
SWE 6 11
0.5455
46 Alami, Karim
MAR 14 26
0.5385
47 Martin, Alberto
ESP 7 13
0.5385
48 Alvarez, Emilio
ESP 10 19
0.5263
49 Roux, Lionel
FRA 12 23
0.5217
50 Damm, Martin
CZE 13 25
0.5200
*minimum 10 tournaments
compiled by Jens Barthelmes (Joe's ATP Tour Statistics)