US Open: 5 most successful male players of all time

Roger Federer, just before his semifinal against eventual champion Marin Cilic at the 2014 US OpenThe biggest stars of tennis will make their way to Flushing Meadows this week as the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open, is set to commence on Monday.The epic tournament proper has seen many illustrious names hold aloft the gleaming Tiffany trophy over the years.With hopefuls all geared up for the final Major tournament of the 2015 calendar year, it is time for us to have a brief look back at some of the stars of the game who have shone brightest at the Arthur Ashe stadium.Here are 5 players of the Open era who succeeded the most under the New York sun, in no particular order.

#1 Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors of the USA is a 5-time US Open champion

James Scott “Jimmy” Connors, one of America’s greatest tennis stars and former World No.1, has been crowned the champion of US on a total of 5 different occasions, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982 and 1983, making him one of the only three players to have clinched the championship as many times.

Having plied his trade in tennis for 24 long years, the Illionis native has won a total of 8 Grand Slams titles in his glittering career and also held the Open-era record for appearing in the top 10 of the year-end rankings for a staggering 16 years.

The only player in the history to have won the US open on three different turfs - clay, grass and hard court, Connors made it to the semi-finals as many as 14 times. The last of these times, he was 39 years old.

#2 Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras is the most successful American at the US Open

Another American on this list, 14 Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras has collected five of his majors at the New York event, making him the the most successful American at the championship with Connors.

‘Pistol Pete’, as he was so famously nicknamed, won the first of the quintet back in 1990 at the tender age of 19, and this would set the tone for his future.

He would go on to lift four more silver-gilt cups in his career. The last of these came in 2002, the year Sampras retired, defeating his arch-nemesis Andre Agassi in the finals.

Sampras was the first player to surpass the record twelve Grand Slam titles held by the luminary Roy Emerson, and also sat at the summit of world tennis, holding his No. 1 title for six straight years from 1993 to 1998, a record that stands even today.

#3 Roger Federer

Swiss ace Roger Federer also has 5 US Open wins

Swiss maestro Roger Federer completes the Holy Trinity of the players to have prevailed with a record 5 wins at the U.S. Open, and enters the competition this year seeking a sixth, which would put him in a league of his own.

Touted to be the greatest man to have held a tennis racquet, Federer has the highest number of Grand Slam titles in the Open era, with a mammoth 17 titles in his trophy cabinet.

At 34 and in the twilight of his career, the World No. 2 continues to go strong. With his recent victory over World No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the Cincinnati Masters, FedEx will look to build on momentum to end his recent barren run at the Flushing Meadows. He last won the championship in 2008.

#4 Ivan Lendl

Ivan Lendl has three US Open titles to his credit

A blistering force of the 80s, Czech Republic international Ivan Lendl, now an American citizen, is next on our list of most prolific players at the Flushing Meadows with three titles to his credit, all of which came in a row in 1985, 1986 and 1987.

A former World No. 1, Lendl made it to the final two in New York for 8 years on the trot from 1982 to 1989, and also shares the distinction of appearing in atleast one Grand Slam final for eleven consecutive years with Sampras. He also sat atop the world rankings for four years and boasts an incredible 1000 victories in his professional career, second only toJimmy Connors.

With 94 career titles, he again trails the latter in the all-time records.

#5 John McEnroe

Fiery John McEnroe has 4 titles at Flushing Meadows

Notorious for his confrontational on-court demeanour but revered for his artistic shot-makings and volleys, American tennis legend John McEnroe played some of his best tennis on the hard court. He used to be at his scintillating best at the Flushing Meadows and conquered the court on 4 occasions in his career. Three of these were consecutive, between 179 and 1981, with the last of the four in 1984, a victory over Lendl.

His fourth major US Open crown came in the year 1984, which held a special significance. He set a record for the greatest winning season in terms of win percentage since the inception of the Open Era, with a win-loss record of 82-3 to win 96.47% of his matches.

No one has ever come within even a whisker of even equalling the feat, let alone bettering it.