Andy Roddick goes down as one of the best male tennis players of the 2000s, being ranked as the world number one for a period of 13 weeks. Roddick’s career may not have resulted in many titles – he finished as the runner-up at four majors including three at Wimbledon and all of them coming at the hands of Roger Federer – he more than caught the eye for his style of play.
Armed with one of the fastest and most powerful serves in the game – Roddick could often clock up at 130-150 mph – he could often blow opponents away with the speed with which he struck the ball. His serve played a big part in winning 32 singles titles on the ATP Tour, while he also played a big part in leading the USA to Davis Cup victory in 2007.
While he may have only won one US Open in his career, the American had the backing of his home crowd every time he competed at the tournament. That support is also set to be enjoyed by the likes of Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton at the 2025 US Open, who will be hoping to make their country proud by winning their home tournament.
The duo are, of course, in the infancy of their careers, and will no doubt have seen some incredible legends go all the way and lift the title in recent years while they were coming up through the ranks. Some of the game’s absolute greats enjoyed great success at the US Open, but who could be considered among the best in the tournament’s history?
Well, Roddick himself picked out the five tennis players whom he feels can be deemed the greatest in US Open history. Find out below who they are, including quotes from Roddick on just how highly he rates those individuals.
Roger Federer
Given he won the US Open for five years in a row from 2004, it’s no surprise Andy Roddick chose Roger Federer as one of the greatest players in its history. His first title at Flushing Meadows came when he defeated Lleyton Hewitt with a dominant straight sets victory in the final, while that would also be in the middle of a stunning sequence of 40 wins in a row in the competition.
It took the perfect prototype of a player to even bother Roger a little. Chuckers like me certainly weren’t doing it, but you create a prototype of someone who is fast, strong, and can find the only pocket up and away on Roger, and all of a sudden it made tennis interesting again.
Roger completely transformed tennis with his ability to create spin, and power, and speed, and then all of a sudden you put all of those things together.
Serena Williams
A hometown favourite much like Andy Roddick was, Serena Williams enjoyed great success at the US Open. She appeared in a whopping 10 finals, winning the title six times – her first was in 1999, and then her last came in 2014. The 2002 final saw her come up against her older sister, Venus, and she beat her in straight sets to get her hands on her second US Open.
Her most dominant period in the tournament came when she won a hat-trick of titles between 2012 and 2014, defeating the likes of Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki in the process.
Well I don’t think you can and they (Serena Williams and Roger Federer) both did it in their own way. There was Serena coming from Compton and opening tennis up to an entire country of minority girls and women, and the impact that she had.
They both went about it in their own ways, with their own style, with their own personality, they were both very, very greedy with Grand Slam titles but gosh, we are so lucky to have had them in the game of tennis. They made a 23-year career seem normal.
Jimmy Connors
One of three men to win the US Open five times alongside Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors’ achievements at the tournament arguably fare as the best compared to his rivals given he won it on grass (1974), clay (1976) and on a hard court surface too (1978).
Connors’ victories at the tournament also included era-defining clashes against the likes of Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl, whom many consider to be among the greatest tennis players of all-time.
I brought in Jimmy Connors. It was one of the first times when a top player who had won a slam brought in a former player who had won a bunch of slams. We started and I was borderline outside the top 20 and then in no time at all I was number three in the world and had a couple of slam finals and a semi behind me.
Chris Evert
Nicknamed the ‘Ice Maiden’, Chris Evert enjoyed an incredible debut at the US Open when she was just 16-years-old, reaching the semi-finals of the competition in 1971. Such was Evert’s consistency and longevity, that she reached the semi-finals stage of the US Open a remarkable 16 times consecutively from 1971 to 1986.
Her first title in 1975 was arguably her best and most impressive one – certainly the most challenging – given that she fended off intense competition from Evonne Goolagong in the final to defeat her 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
I think we all give Chrissy all the flowers that she deserves but in the context of the conversation around dominance on one surface , she needs to be right there in the first three names every single time.
125 straight matches on a surface is over years. That is absurd. It needs to be right up there. As dominant as Pete was on grass, Chrissy was more dominant on clay.
Steffi Graf
A five-time winner at the US Open, Steffi Graf enjoyed success in the competition in the late 1980s and then the 1990s too. Having come up as a runner-up to Martina Navratilova in 1988, Graf went one better just a year later, defeating Gabriela Sabatini in the final. Graf would then get her comeback against Navratilova in 1990, coming back from a set down to win it.
In the end, Graf finished her US Open career with a quite stunning 73-9 win-loss record at the tournament.
Like I’ve known Andre and he’s been my idol for a long time but I have a hard time being in Steff’s presence without being like incredibly starstruck. Which, in the tennis world, at this moment in my life, not too sound jaded, I don’t get that way around many people in our orbit anymore, having lived this life for a little while.
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