Top 4 US Open men's finals in the Open Era

#2 Mats Wilander vs Ivan Lendl (1988)

1988 US Open champion Mats Wilander

The 1988 US Open was a landmark Grand Slam as it marked the debut of two American greats - Pete Sampras and Jim Courier. Czech Ivan Lendl was the top seed, and he was followed in the seedings by the Swedish pair of Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg.

Both Lendl and Wilander were challenged quite a few times during their march to the final. Lendl was two sets to one down in his very fist match of the tournament, and Wilander had to beat American Kevin Curren the hard way, in five sets.

Lendl was chasing his 4th US Open crown while Wilander was looking for his maiden win at Flushing Meadows. Very little separated the two men as Wilander took the first set 6-4 with a single break of the Lendl serve.

But Lendl returned the favor in the second set, winning it 6-4 to level the match. Wilander took a two sets to one lead, and then Lendl broke Wilander in the penultimate game of the 4th set and later served it out at 6-5 to take the match to a deciding set.

After a marathon four hour, 54 minute encounter (the longest ever final - a feat that was later matched by Murray and Djokovic in 2012), Wilander won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to become the first Swede to lift the US Open trophy.