Most Semifinals Reached

At the top of the Open Era list for most ATP singles semi-finals reached stands Jimmy Connors, with 239 career semi-finals, the highest total recorded in men’s tour-level tennis. His first known ATP semi-final run came at Columbus 1971, where he faced Erik van Dillen in the last four before reaching the final against Tom Gorman.

Behind him, Roger Federer, 211, turned semi-final appearances into one of the clearest measures of his consistency: one of his earliest milestones came at Vienna 1999, his first ATP semi-final, where he faced Greg Rusedski.

Novak Djokovic is the leading active name in the chase: his first ATP title run at Amersfoort 2006 included a semi-final against Guillermo Coria, while his career has since produced record-level semi-final numbers at the biggest events, including the ATP Masters 1000.

Ivan Lendl has 189, building his semi-final volume through the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s; his early breakthrough included Brussels 1979, where he defeated Tomáš Šmíd in the semi-finals before facing Balázs Taróczy in the final.

Rafael Nadal with 178 also belongs to the same historical group: his first ATP final run came at Auckland 2004, where his semi-final path led him to a title match against Dominik Hrbatý, and his career later became one of the strongest examples of repeated last-four appearances across clay, hard courts and majors.

In this record, the semi-final is the real milestone: it means surviving almost the entire draw, again and again, across seasons, surfaces and generations of opponents.