WIMBLEDON, England — Welcome to the tennis world, where you will fail every week.

Julien Benneteau, 36, has won more than $9 million in his career and won a Grand Slam doubles crown. Yet, in singles, he considers himself a failure.

“I lost every week because I didn’t win an ATP singles title,” he said.

Benneteau has played nearly 600 singles matches on the ATP Tour in his career, compiling a record of 271-294. He has reached 10 tournament finals and won none.

“I have known failure because I lost every week,” he said. “Then I have to recover and think positively to be ready for the next week and do this week after week, month after month, year after year, to have a career from 2000 to now.”

Benneteau has tried to explain this to chief executives of companies, who view his career as a success.

“For them, it is something completely unbelievable,” he said.

It would be easy for the journeymen on the ATP Tour, those players who can make a good living but never have the chance to win big titles, to rue the dominance of the Big Four: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. They have won a combined 290 titles, including 52 at Grand Slam tournaments.

But without them, the prize money in the sport would surely not have risen as much or as fast as it has in the past decade.

“Even if they win everything and they share the cake only between them, I think it’s really good for our sport, for us, for the young people, for the fans,” said Jérémy Chardy, 31, another veteran French player.

“Even if we don’t like them because they win everything,” he added, laughing, “we are really happy to have them.”

In 2017, 51 men and 37 women won at least $1 million in prize money. Federer has won more than $116 million in his career, Serena Williams more than $84 million. But even the best players lose a lot. Federer and Nadal lose about 20 percent of their matches.

According to data provided by ATPWorldTour.com, 567 men have played at least 200 matches in the tour’s 45-year history, and only 277 of them have a positive win-loss record. According to the WTA Tour, 320 women have played at least 200 matches, and only 169 have a winning record. If you reduce the criteria to 100-plus matches, then only 291 of 819 men have a better than .500 percentage, while on the women’s tour, it is 186 of 563.

For junior players who are used to winning tournament after tournament, that can be a difficult transition. Many arrive on tour with dreams of winning Grand Slam titles or being ranked No. 1 in the world, but a vast majority will get nowhere near those goals.

“I was lucky because when I was a junior I was not so good, I didn’t win too much, so it was a little bit easier,” joked Paolo Lorenzi, 36, who is ranked No. 83 but has been as high as No. 33. “But it’s normal. When you see the draw, just one player will finish the week without losing.”

Sports teams can go through a season unbeaten. Usain Bolt went four years without losing a 100-meter race. Accepting the fact that you are going to lose, tennis players say, is a key factor in having a successful career.

“I think this is the most difficult part of being a tennis player,” said Lorenzi, who reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam event for the first time last year at the U.S. Open. “You have to think in your mind that you will play 30 weeks, and if you’re lucky, just for 28 you will lose. And you have to be lucky, because most of the time you will finish with 30 weeks of the year losing.”

Mischa Zverev, 30, was a late bloomer after a series of injuries early in his career and has a win-loss record of 125-173. He won his first tour title in Eastbourne, England, last month.

“I tried to have a clear mind and be very realistic, know my limitations and my potential,” he said. “Losing is fine, as long as I feel like I can win a few matches here and there and I’m happy with my game, and with my physical condition, because I know I can move on, I’ll have good weeks and bad weeks.”

Chardy has a career win-loss record of 243-242 and one title. Like Benneteau, he dreamed of winning the French Open or becoming No 1.

“When you see that it’s difficult and not everybody can be top 10 or win a Grand Slam, you start to have a different goal,” Chardy said. “For everybody it’s different; you enjoy to play, you want to win smaller tournaments.”

Kim Clijsters, a former No. 1 player and four-time Grand Slam champion, said even the top players have to cope with losing. “It’s good to try and achieve perfection, but it can’t be the goal, or it can be a disappointment,” she said. “It has to be where you want to get to, but you can never get it. It has to keep driving you to improve and physically become better, if you lose, and try to figure things out.”

For Sébastien Grosjean, a former player who is now a coach, stressing victory is still important.

“You try to focus more on victory, even if you learn more when you lose,” he said.

Benneteau, who plans to retire at the end of the year, said parents needed to teach their children that losing was OK.

“If these guys become pro, they will lose almost every week,” he said. “So you have to learn to lose. It doesn’t mean you have to accept it and not do everything to find a way to win, but this is life.”

Only one woman and one man will take home the singles titles at Wimbledon this weekend. The rest, the “failures,” will pick themselves up and go again.