US Open - Lost in Transition
The year’s final major tournament doesn’t have many instances that showcase its junior champions going on to win the competition proper
It was not until 1973 that it was first played. While the US Open has been a trendsetter when it comes to incorporating changes to suit to the changing times, it has also been a slow-starter in some cases.
The junior-level tournaments is one such example. The boy’s and girl’s competitions started at the Australian Open way back in 1922. Soon after the Second World War, in 1947, both the French Open and the Wimbledon began organizing their own competition for the next generation. However, it wasn’t until 1973 — four years after tennis became a professional sport that the junior competitions commenced in New York.
That said, even after 47 years of competition most of the promising players that won the junior titles at the US Open have failed to translate that success in the tournament proper. While the other Grand Slams have quite a few examples of their junior winners going on to win the main competition in the following years, the US Open has proved to be a difficult nut to crack.
Most of the boy’s and girl’s singles champions at the US Open got lost in transition so to speak. Future champions like Boris Becker (in 1984), Martin Hingis (in 1994), Roger Federer (in 1998), Svetlana Kuznetsova (in 2001), Sofia Kenin (in 2015) reached the final but came up short.
Listed below are the handful that actually made the cut, and fulfilled the promise that they had shown as juniors, at a senior level.
Stefan Edberg (Sweden)
Boys’ Singles: 1983
Men’s Singles: 1991–92
Stefan Edberg is the first among the three men in the list.
In 1983 he won all four Grand Slam junior titles, thereby becoming the first player to achieve the “Junior Slam”. It’s been 37 years since and the Swede remains the only player to have achieved the feat.
New York was his third stop — back then the US Open wasn’t the year’s final major tournament, with the Australian Open being played in December. In the boys’ singles competition the Swede, having already won the French Open and Wimbledon titles, was the top seed.
While one of his freak serves proved fatal for linesman Richard Wertheim, Edberg didn’t let the accident affect him, beating Australian Simon Youl 6–2, 6–4 in the final. The Swede also defeated Youl 6–4, 6–4 in the Australian Open final three months later to complete his collection of all the four junior titles.
Besides winning the boys singles title, Edberg also made his first appearance in the main draw in 1983, losing a hard fought five-set encounter — 7/6 in the fifth to American Aaron Krickstein, in the opening round.
Eight years later the Swede would return to New York to win successive men’s singles titles. In fact the final two Grand Slam singles titles of Edberg’s illustrious career came at the US Open. In the 1991 final he decimated American Jim Courier 6–2, 6–4, 6–0 with a serve-and-volley masterclass while the following year he defended it as a native, coming back from a break down in the decisive set in three successive matches before besting Pete Sampras 3–6, 6–4, 7–6 (5), 6–2 in the final.
The Swede posted a career record of 43–12 in New York, with a 78 per cent success rate. Not to forget he also won the men’s doubles competition in 1987, partnering compatriot Anders Jarryd.
Lindsay Davenport (United States)
Girls’ Singles: 1992
Women’s Singles: 1998
The 1991 edition of the US Open marked the first time Lindsay Davenport featured in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. The American lost in straight sets to compatriot Debbie Graham in the opening round.
In 1992 Davenport was awarded a wild card again. On this occasion she managed to win her opening round match — against Indonesia’s Yayuk Basuki, before losing in straight sets to Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the fifth seed, in the second round.
However, Davenport did win something in New York that year. Seeded no.1 in the girls’ singles competition the 16-year-old beat compatriot Julie Stevens 6–2, 6–2 in the final.
Six years later in 1998, Davenport beat defending champion (and top seed) Martina Hingis 6–3, 7–5 to win her maiden Grand Slam title in New York. It was a rematch of the previous year’s semi-final, that the Swiss Miss had won in straight sets. However, on this occasion Davenport was dominant, and did not drop a set throughout the entire tournament. It was her fifth, and most important, title of what was an extremely successful year.
En route to the title Davenport had accounted for Venus Williams in the semi-final. Two years later Venus beat her in straight sets in the final.
Andy Roddick (United States)
Boys’ Singles: 2000
Men’s Singles: 2003
Coming into the boys’ singles competition at the US Open in 2000 Andy Roddick had already won the Australian Open in that category earlier in the year. Seeded no.1 he eased past compatriot Robby Ginepri 6–1, 6–3 in the final. Roddick finished as the world’s top ranked junior in 2000.
Having also received a wild card for the competition proper — for his first Grand Slam main draw appearance, Roddick lost in four sets to Spaniard Albert Costa in the opening round.
A year later the American made his senior breakthrough, winning three titles, and at the US Open reached the quarter-final of a major tournament for the first time in his career. Roddick lost to the fourth-seeded Australian, and eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt in a five-set thriller [7–6, 3–6, 4–6, 6–3, 4–6].
In 2003, Roddick bested the reigning French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, in straight sets, overtaking the Spaniard as the world’s top-ranked player in the process. While the American did finish 2003 as the world’s №1 player, he failed to add another Grand Slam title to his collection.
Roddick did reach the final in New York for a second time, in 2006, but nemesis Roger Federer denied him the title, the Swiss maestro winning in four sets.
Andy Murray (Great Britain)
Boys’ Singles: 2004
Men’s Singles: 2012
In the 2004 boys’ singles competition Gael Monfils was attempting to become the first junior to achieve a calendar Grand Slam since Stefan Edberg (in 1983). The Frenchman had won the first three majors of the year but was beaten by Viktor Troicki in the third round in New York.
Instead it was Andy Murray who won his first, and only, junior Grand Slam title. The Scot, seeded third, began the campaign beating future champion Juan Martin del Potro — the Argentine going on to win the men’s singles in 2009–6–0, 6–1 in the opening round.
Sam Querrey, who had accounted for another future champion (in Marin Cilic), was beaten in three sets in the quarters, and Mischa Zverev was disposed off in straight sets in the semis. In the final, the Scot got the better of the seventh seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, winning 6–4, 6–2.
In 2008 Murray became the first British man to reach the Grand Slam final since Greg Rusedski in the 1997 US Open, beating Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals before losing in straight sets to Federer — the Swiss winning the tournament for a fifth straight time.
However, it was in 2012 that New York would be the stage for Murray’s maiden Grand Slam title. Having endured disappointment in four previous finals, the Scot made his fifth final count, defeating defending champion Novak Djokovic 7–6 (12–10), 7–5, 2–6, 3–6, 6–2.
The triumph made Murray the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 — also at the US Open — to win a Grand Slam singles title.
