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US OPEN 2003 Welcome to the 123rd edition of the US National Championships, known since 1968 as the US Open Tennis Championships. With 122 years of history, the US Open is one of the oldest major sporting events in the country.
The US Open, taken with the US National Championships, is the second-oldest of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments (Wimbledon being the oldest) and the only one to have been played each year since its inception in 1881.
Since the Open Era began in 1968, allowing amateurs and pros to compete against each other for prize money, 142 Grand Slam tournament championships have been contested. The 2003 US Open is the 143rd.
POINTS AND PRIZE MONEY.... With men’s singles prize money totalling $5,156,000, the following is a breakdown in US dollars of the individual prize money, ATP Champions Race points and ATP Entry Ranking points for the men's singles competition at the 2003 US Open:
Point Allocations for all tournaments for the ATP Champions Race 2003 and an explanation of the system can be found on pages E2-E3 of the 2003 ATP Media Guide. NO DEFENDING CHAMPION.… With 2002 champion Pete Sampras choosing not to play and subsequently announcing his retirement, there is no defending men’s champion at the US Open for the first time since 1971, when 1970 winner Ken Rosewall did not play. These are the only two times that the US Open has been without its men’s defending champion in the Open Era.
The last time a Grand Slam men’s champion did not return to defend his title was earlier this year at the Australian Open, when 2002 winner Thomas Johansson was forced to miss the event due to a knee injury.
Sampras won his 14th Grand Slam tournament at last year’s US Open, extending his record for most Grand Slam tournament singles titles which had previously been set when he won his 13th at 2000 Wimbledon, surpassing Roy Emerson’s 12 major titles.
AGASSI LOOKS FOR NINTH GRAND SLAM TITLE…. The active player closest to Sampras in number of Grand Slam tournament singles titles is No. 1 seed Andre Agassi, who has won eight majors, two at the US Open (1994 and 1999). A third US Open title for Agassi would give him sole possession of sixth place for the most all-time Grand Slam titles.
Top Grand Slam titleholders
TWO IN A ROW…. Roger Federer is attempting to become the first player since Pete Sampras in 1995 to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back. Five players have combined to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back eight times in the Open Era. Three players have done it twice: Jimmy Connors in 1974 and ’82, McEnroe in 1981 and ’84 and Sampras in 1993 and ’95.
Wimbledon – US Open Perfecta
STAR SPANGLED BANNER YEARS…. Last year, with Pete Sampras defeating Andre Agassi in the US Open men’s singles final one day after Serena Williams overcame sister Venus in the women’s final, the tournament had its first all-American men’s and women’s singles finals since 1979.
US men have advanced to the US Open final 11 of the past 13 years, winning seven titles in that period. Five of the finals have been all-American affairs, including Sampras’s 63 64 57 64 victory over Agassi last year.
Since 1990, no other single nation has had more than 11 Grand Slam tournament finalists, period. This includes those instances of all-countrymen finals. Nor has any other single nation collected more than five Grand Slam tournament titles in the past 14 years. As impressive as US players have been at the US Open since 1990, stepping back to examine US results in all of the majors during that time shows that the United States have produced 45 Grand Slam tournament finalists and snared 26 titles.
Nationalities of Grand Slam finalists since 1990
A VARIETY OF GRAND SLAM CHAMPIONS.... There have been seven different winners at the last seven Grand Slam events, starting with Thomas Johansson’s success at the 2002 Australian Open. Four of these men – Johansson, Albert Costa, Roger Federer and Juan Carlos Ferrero – were first-time Grand Slam winners. The longest streak of different winners in the Open Era is eight, achieved Wimbledon 1975 through Roland Garros 1977 and again Wimbledon 2000 through Roland Garros 2002.
SIX DIFFERENT FINALISTS SO FAR IN 2003…. In 2003 to date, six different men have advanced to the final of the Grand Slam tournaments. In fact, the only two players to have appeared in more than one final in the past seven Grand Slam events are Andre Agassi and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
With the current trend, it is possible that the men’s game is heading for a fourth year in the Open Era in which eight different men have contested the finals of the four Grand Slam tournaments. All three previous occurrences have been within the last six years, including two consecutive years 2001-2002.
Eight different Grand Slam finalists in one year (Open Era)
NINE GRAND SLAM CHAMPIONS IN MAIN DRAW.... There are a total of nine Grand Slam tournament champions at the 2003 US Open. Two of these, Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt, have enjoyed success in New York. A third former US champion, 2000 winner Marat Safin, was in the draw seeded No. 26 but withdrew due to his long-term wrist injury.
There are 46 members of the club of Open Era Grand Slam tournament singles titleists, Juan Carlos Ferrero joining at this year’s Roland Garros and Roger Federer following at Wimbledon. The complete list is as follows:
Andre Agassi (USA), Arthur Ashe (USA), Boris Becker (GER), Bjorn Borg (SWE), Sergi Bruguera (ESP), Pat Cash (AUS), Michael Chang (USA), Jimmy Connors (USA), Albert Costa (ESP), Jim Courier (USA), Stefan Edberg (SWE), Mark Edmondson (AUS), Roger Federer (SUI), Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP), Vitas Gerulaitis (USA), Andres Gimeno (ESP), Andres Gomez (ECU), Lleyton Hewitt (AUS), Goran Ivanisevic (CRO), Thomas Johansson (SWE), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (RUS), Jan Kodes (TCH), Petr Korda (CZE), Richard Krajicek (NED), Johan Kriek (RSA/USA)^, Gustavo Kuerten (BRA), Rod Laver (AUS), Ivan Lendl (TCH), John McEnroe (USA), Carlos Moya (ESP), Thomas Muster (AUT), Ilie Nastase (ROM), John Newcombe (AUS), Yannick Noah (FRA), Manuel Orantes (ESP), Adriano Panatta (ITA), Patrick Rafter (AUS), Ken Rosewall (AUS), Marat Safin (RUS), Pete Sampras (USA), Stan Smith (USA), Michael Stich (GER), Roscoe Tanner (USA), Brian Teacher (USA), Guillermo Vilas (ARG) and Mats Wilander (SWE).
^ -- Johan Kriek was South African when he won the 1981 Australian Open, but he was a naturalized US citizen when he reclaimed the title in 1982.
In the Open Era, only nine men have notched their first major by winning the US Open, the same number as have claimed their first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Roland Garros is by far the most likely scene of a player’s first major title.
Joining the Grand Slam Tournament Title Club
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