The US Open has been contested since 1881, long enough for its record book to hold marks set in the 19th century alongside ones broken in the last two years. Here is a guide to the most significant US Open records: the title leaders, the consecutive-title runs, the longest match, the youngest and oldest champions, and the doubles records that singles-era players rarely approach now.
Most Singles Titles
The headline record at every Grand Slam is the title count. The full year-by-year roll of honour is in our list of US Open champions since 1968.
Women’s Singles
Chris Evert and Serena Williams share the Open Era women’s record with six singles titles each.
- Chris Evert: 6 titles (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982)
- Serena Williams: 6 titles (1999, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014)
- Steffi Graf: 5 titles (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996)
- Martina Navratilova: 4 titles (1983, 1984, 1986, 1987)
- Margaret Court: 3 Open Era titles (1969, 1970, 1973), plus two before the Open Era (1962, 1965)
Counting the pre-Open Era, Molla Bjurstedt Mallory holds the all-time women’s record with eight singles titles, won in 1915–18, 1920–22 and 1926.
Men’s Singles
Three players share the Open Era men’s record with five titles each, and three more have four:
- Jimmy Connors: 5 titles (1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1983)
- Pete Sampras: 5 titles (1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2002)
- Roger Federer: 5 titles (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
- Novak Djokovic: 4 titles (2011, 2015, 2018, 2023)
- John McEnroe: 4 titles (1979, 1980, 1981, 1984)
- Rafael Nadal: 4 titles (2010, 2013, 2017, 2019)
- Ivan Lendl: 3 titles (1985, 1986, 1987)
Before the Open Era, three men each won seven US National Championships singles titles: Richard Sears (1881–87), William Larned (1901, 1902 and 1907–11) and Bill Tilden (1920–25 and 1929). From 1884 through 1911 the tournament used a challenge round, in which the defending champion sat out the draw and played only the final, which helped Sears and Larned build their totals.
Most Finals Reached
Serena Williams holds the Open Era women’s record with 10 US Open singles finals between 1999 and 2019, winning six and losing four. Novak Djokovic holds the Open Era men’s record with 10 finals between 2007 and 2023, winning four and losing six. Ivan Lendl reached eight in a row, from 1982 to 1989, and won three.
Most Consecutive Titles and Three-Peats
Roger Federer holds the Open Era men’s record with five consecutive US Open titles, from 2004 to 2008. The all-time record belongs to Richard Sears, who won the first seven championships from 1881 to 1887, the last four of them under the challenge round. Bill Tilden won six in a row from 1920 to 1925, and William Larned five from 1907 to 1911.
In women’s singles, Chris Evert holds the Open Era record with four consecutive titles from 1975 to 1978. She won the first three on clay at Forest Hills and the fourth on hard courts in 1978, the tournament’s first year at Flushing Meadows. That equalled the all-time women’s record of four in a row, set by Molla Mallory (1915–18) and matched by Helen Jacobs (1932–35).
Five players have won at least three consecutive US Open singles titles in the Open Era:
- Chris Evert: 4 (1975–78)
- John McEnroe: 3 (1979–81)
- Ivan Lendl: 3 (1985–87)
- Roger Federer: 5 (2004–08)
- Serena Williams: 3 (2012–14)
Aryna Sabalenka won in 2024 and 2025, the first woman to win consecutive US Open titles since Williams in 2013 and 2014. She plays Elena Rybakina in the 2026 final on 12 September, bidding to become the third woman in the Open Era, after Evert and Williams, to win three in a row.
Titles on More Than One Surface
The US Open has been played on three surfaces: grass until 1974, clay at Forest Hills from 1975 to 1977, and hard courts at Flushing Meadows since 1978. Jimmy Connors is the only player to have won it on all three — grass in 1974, clay in 1976, and hard courts in 1978, 1982 and 1983.
Chris Evert is the only other player to have won it on more than one surface, on clay in 1975, 1976 and 1977 and on hard courts in 1978, 1980 and 1982. That made her both the last women’s champion on clay and the first on hard courts, in successive years.
The Longest Match and the Latest Finish
The longest match in US Open history is Daniel Evans’s first-round win over Karen Khachanov in 2024, which lasted five hours and 35 minutes on Court 6. Evans won 6-7(6), 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4, after trailing 4-0 in the fifth set.
It broke a record that had stood for 32 years, set by the 1992 semifinal between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang, which lasted five hours and 26 minutes. Edberg won 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4, his third consecutive five-set match of the tournament, and went on to beat Pete Sampras in the final for his second US Open title.
The latest finish came in 2026, when Ben Shelton beat the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a quarterfinal that ended at 3:33 a.m.
The longest women’s final by games was played in 1898, decades before tiebreakers, when Juliette Atkinson beat Marion Jones over five sets and 51 games.
Youngest and Oldest Champions
More than 25 years separate the youngest and oldest singles champions in the tournament’s history.
Youngest Champions
- Men’s Singles: Pete Sampras, 19 years and 28 days old when he won the 1990 US Open, beating Andre Agassi in the final.
- Women’s Singles: Tracy Austin, 16 years, 8 months and 28 days old when she won the 1979 US Open, beating Chris Evert in the final.
Oldest Champions
- Women’s Singles: Molla Mallory, 42 years and 171 days old when she won the 1926 US National Championships, beating Elizabeth Ryan 4-6, 6-4, 9-7 in the final. She took the record from Maud Barger-Wallach, who won in 1908 at 38.
- Men’s Singles: William Larned, who was 38 when he won the last of his seven titles in 1911.
In the Open Era, the oldest men’s champion is Novak Djokovic, who won in 2023 at 36, passing Ken Rosewall, champion in 1970 at 35. The oldest Open Era women’s champion is Flavia Pennetta, who won in 2015 at 33 in what proved to be her last major; Serena Williams, champion in 2014 at 32, is second.
Most Doubles Titles
Margaret Osborne duPont holds the all-time women’s doubles record with 13 titles between 1941 and 1957, 12 of them with Louise Brough, the most successful team in the tournament’s history.
The men’s doubles record is six titles, shared by Richard Sears (1882–87), Holcombe Ward and Mike Bryan. Sears’s six came alongside his seven singles titles, for 13 championships in seven years. Bryan won five with his brother Bob (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014) and the sixth in 2018 with Jack Sock.
In the Open Era, Martina Navratilova won nine women’s doubles titles, four of them with Pam Shriver (1983, 1984, 1986, 1987).
In mixed doubles, Margaret Osborne duPont holds the women’s record with nine titles. Several men have won four, among them Bill Tilden, Marty Riessen and Bob Bryan.
Career Total Titles Across All Divisions
- Margaret Osborne duPont: 25 titles (3 singles, 13 doubles, 9 mixed)
- Bill Tilden: 16 titles (7 singles, 5 doubles, 4 mixed)
- Martina Navratilova: 16 titles in the Open Era (4 singles, 9 doubles, 3 mixed)
The pre-war and post-war records were set when leading singles players routinely entered doubles and mixed doubles as well, which top singles players now rarely do at the majors.
Other Notable Records
- First Open Era champions: Arthur Ashe and Virginia Wade in 1968. Ashe, still an amateur, could not accept the $14,000 winner’s prize, which went to the runner-up, Tom Okker.
- First Black men’s champion: Arthur Ashe in 1968, also the first Black man to win any Grand Slam singles title.
- First Black women’s champion: Althea Gibson in 1957, when the tournament was the US National Championships. She won again in 1958.
- Sisters in a final: Venus Williams beat Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in the 2001 final, the first Grand Slam final between sisters since Maud Watson beat Lilian Watson at Wimbledon in 1884. It was also the first women’s US Open final played in prime time.
- Last player to win the triple crown: Martina Navratilova in 1987, when she won the singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The Bottom Line
Some US Open records were set under rules that no longer exist, like the challenge round that carried Sears through the 1880s. Others are still moving: the six titles of Evert and Williams, the five of Connors, Sampras and Federer, the five-hour, 35-minute Evans–Khachanov match, and the three-peat Sabalenka is chasing in 2026.
Related reading
- US Open Champions — Every Men’s and Women’s Singles Winner Since 1968
- Serena Williams at the US Open — The Defining Champion of the Modern Era
- The Greatest US Open Finals Ever Played
- The US Open Prize Money Guide — What Players Earn at Flushing Meadows
- Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open — The Defining Champion of the Modern Era
- Grand Slams Explained
