Top 5 active tennis players with the most 5th set wins

#4 Stan Wawrinka (27-22)

Stanislas Wawrinka

Stan Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam winner, has a 27-22 fifth-set record which is identical to that of retired American Andre Agassi, and good enough for joint 20th in the all-time list for most fifth-set wins.

The 'other' Swiss' last fifth-set match was at Wimbledon this year, where he went down to young American Reilly Opelka in the second round after leading by two sets to one. This match came on the heels of an epic five-set Roland Garros 4th round tussle with Stefanos Tsitsipas, where Wawrinka led by a set on two occasions before outlasting the young Greek 8-6 in the fifth.

At 5 hours 9 minutes, it was the third-longest match ever at Roland Garros.

Wawrinka had dethroned three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in a five-set quarterfinal at the 2014 Australian Open. His first win in 15 attempts over the Serb laid the platform for a maiden Grand Slam title two matches later.

#3 Roger Federer (30-23)

Roger Federer

With 30 fifth-set wins, Roger Federer holds the joint-record with two other players for the most fifth-set victories by an active player.

Federer is one of five players in the Open Era to have contested over 50 fifth-set matches. Only five other players (all retired) have won more fifth-set matches than the 38-year-old.

28 of Federer's 30 fifth-set wins have come in Grand Slam tournaments, with four of his record-20 Grand Slam titles coming off matches which went the distance (2018 Australian Open - Marin Cilic, 2017 Australian Open - Rafael Nadal, 2009 Wimbledon - Andy Roddick, and 2007 Wimbledon - Rafael Nadal).

Some of Federer's most heartbreaking losses have also arrived in matches which went the distance. The Swiss maestro failed to convert match points against Novak Djokovic in the 2019 Wimbledon final, and also in the 2010-11 US Open semifinals. The same fate befell him against Kevin Anderson in the 2018 Wimbledon quarterfinals, where he led the South African by two sets to love and had a match point in the third.

Federer came within two points of victory before being thwarted in five-set finals at the 2008 Wimbledon (against Nadal) and the 2009 US Open (against Juan Martin Del Potro).

However, Federer holds the Open Era record for most comebacks from two sets down, doing so on no fewer than 10 occasions (also Aaron Krickstein and Boris Becker). The last such instance was against Marin Cilic in the 2016 Wimbledon quarterfinals, where the Swiss maestro also survived match points before eking out a hard-fought win.