The successful defense of the US Open title has been one of the most difficult challenges on the male circuit in recent years. While female tennis has seen the triumph after 11 years thanks to Aryna Sabalenko, he has been waiting for such a milestone for 17 years. Janik Sinner (24) has never succeeded lately on concrete, and Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal Nadal and the current leader Carlos Alcaraz, could never do so. The last one was the New York Major twice in a row the legendary Roger Federer (44).
Federer won the title at the US Open five times. And he even succeeded in consecutive years, specifically in 2004-08. Since then, no one has been defending the triumph in Flushing Meadows, and it is not so surprised to talk about the most open Grand Slam of the last years in terms of male tennis.
Female counterparts are not much better off. Sabalenko has dominated the US Open in the last two years and managed to defend the triumph as the first woman by Serena Williams in 2014.
The Male US Open was also dominated by the legendary Nadal and Djokovic (four times), Alcaraz (this year for the second time) or Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka. However, neither of them could defend the title in New York.
And if you find this period too short, we can look at the whole open era. Since 1968, in the last almost 60 years, only seven tennis players have managed to win the US Open twice in a row. It is John McEnroe (1979-81), Jimmy Connorse (1982-83), Ivan Lendl (1985-87), Stefan Edberg (1991-92), Pet Sampras (1995-96), Patrick Rafter (1997-98) and Federer (2004-08).
Alcaraz is next. He had the opportunity to interrupt this long series as early as 2023 and dropped out in the semifinals with Daniil Medvedev.
