From Connors and McEnroe to Sampras and Agassi, A Look At The U.S. Men Who Have Ruled The U.S. Open

Quick, name the last time a U.S. man has won the U.S. Open? It was 16 years ago, when Andy Roddick defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to win his first and only U.S. Open title. 

OK, next name the last time a U.S. man was even in the final of the U.S. Open? 13 years ago, with the same guy, Andy Roddick, losing 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 to Roger Federer, who was in the middle of winning 5 straight U.S. Open tournaments.

So, yeah, it’s been a while.

And honestly, it might be a while longer.

Currently, there are only two U.S. men in the Men’s ATP Rankings, with John Isner at #16 and Taylor Fritz at #25, and only 9 of the 98 men who received automatic entries were American. It’s a long way from the 1970’s through the 1990’s when U.S. men reigned supreme on the home courts of Queens. 

Jimmy Connors

• U.S. Open Men’s Singles Titles: 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1983
• U.S. Open Men’s Doubles Titles: 1975

Jimmy Connors had two things going for him during his career: he was durable (he went pro in 1972 and retired in 1996 at age 43) and he was one hell of a tennis player. His epic career includes holding three seemingly unbreakable records: 109 titles, 1,556 matches played, and 1,274 match wins. In 1974, he won 3 Grand Slam tournaments (Australian, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open) and could have won another had the French not banned him for his association with World Team Tennis. At the U.S. Open, he played in the final for 5 straight years from 1974-1978, and holds the unique distinction of having won the tournament on three different surfaces: 1974 on grass, 1976 on clay, and 1978 on the current hard court. 

John McEnroe

• U.S. Open Men’s Singles Titles: 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984
• U.S. Open Men’s Doubles Titles: 1979, 1981, 1983, 1989

As adept at doubles play as he was at singles, McEnroe finished his career with 77 singles titles and 78 doubles titles. His capacity as a dual threat was never more evident than at the U.S. Open, where he and rival Bjorn Borg would compete in a series of epic finals, the biggest of then being their 1980 final that has been cited as one of the top 5 matches of all time. In it McEnroe looked like he was cruising to an easy win by taking the first two sets 7-6 (7-4) and 6-1 before Borg came back and won the next two sets 6-7 (5-7) and 5-7. In the end, McEnroe would exact his revenge for Borg’s Wimbledon win earlier in the year by taking the fifth set 6-4 and the his 2^nd consecutive title. He’d win the next year as well, but it was his 1984 win that helped him set an Open era record by compiling an 82-3 match record for the year, including a straight set victory in the U.S. Open final against Ivan Lendl, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. 

Pete Sampras

• U.S. Open Men’s Singles Titles: 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2002

For a while, it seemed like Pete Sampras would forever hold the record for most Grand Slam titles with 14. Then the Big Three came along. (Can you imagine if there was just a Big One?) But until then, Sampras was the man, with 7 Wimbledon titles (until Roger Federer won his 8^th in 2017), 5 U.S. Open titles, and two Australian Open titles. His first U.S. Open title in 1990 was one of his most memorable, as he had to defeat legends Ivan Lendl (who had been to the Finals a record 9 consecutive times), John McEnroe, and in the finals, generational rival Andre Agassi, who he crushed in straight sets to become the youngest ever male singles champion at age 19 years, 28 days. The most memorable match also came against Agassi in the U.S. Open, during the 2001 quarterfinals, when Sampras won 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, a classic in which there were no breaks of serve in the entire match.

Andre Agassi

U.S. Open Men’s Singles Titles: 1994, 1999

While we may be living in the era of the Big Three, in the 90’s, there was the Big Two: Sampras and Agassi. The two were a living contrast in styles, both on the court and off, with Agassi’s fiery personality and style and Sampras’ low-key focus setting up must-see matches whenever the two met. While Sampras defeated Agassi in the 1990 and 2002 U.S. Open finals, Agassi’s two titles were memorable in the own right. His first came in 1994, when he came in unseeded (thanks to an earlier break because of wrist surgery) to win the tournament, beating 5 ranked players along the way, including 4^th ranked Michael Stich in the final, for his first U.S. Open title. His second came in 1999 after a career resurgence (and new haircut) when he defeated Todd Martin in an epic 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 match, which helped him eclipse Pete Sampras for the year-end number one ranking, breaking Sampras’ 6 year stranglehold on the honor. 

Will another American man ascend to the U.S. Open throne anytime soon? Pre-tournament, John Isner has the best odds at +8000 (by contrast the big three’s odds are Djokovic at +110, Nadal at +350, and Federer at +500.)Hey, you never know. Put your money on American Taylor Fritz to become a legend at +40,000and you could become a legend too.