Americans love using statistics to decode high-level sport. It must reassure them. A quick review of some details, and more or less important figures...
106:
the number of right-handed players who have won the U.S. Open. All this for 24 lefty champions. The latter went twenty-three years without winning the title there, between 1985 and 2008, from McEnroe in '84 to Nadal in 2009. In contrast, from 1974 to 1984, exclusively ownership of the Grail: Connors (5 times), Orantes, Vilas and McEnroe (4 times).
49:
The record number of aces in a match at the U.S. Open, held since 1999 by Richard Krajicek, the Dutchman who won Wimbledon in 1996 against Kafelnikov. Score: 7/6, 7/6, 1/6, 3/6, 7/6.
26:
the number of decisive games played on the opening day of the U.S. Open in 1970, date of the tiebreak's introduction into Grand Slam tournaments.
1957:
The year when the first black female player broke down the barriers. Althea Gibson won the U.S. Open that year. Previously, she made her debut in 1950 at Forest Hills.
10:
like the number of Olympus tournaments U.S. Open Series. It was in 2005 that the courts of the most famous American tournament, the U.S. Open, became blue as those of the previous tournaments. The point was to unify the surfaces and the bearings for the players. The man and woman who make the best performances throughout the U.S. tour win the U.S. Open Series and the small check that goes with it.
14:
Kathy Horvath, 14 years old and 5 days, is the youngest person to have played a match at the U.S. Open on August 30, 1979. Unfortunately, that day, Dianne Fromholtz defeated her.
1:
first match, first win and first point penalty at the end of August ‘77 for the rookie John McEnroe against the tough Eliot Teltscher (6/1, 6/3). QED.
82:
The age combination of the two players in this match of August 31, 1969, at the U.S. Open. That day the forty-something Torben Ulrich and the no-less forty Pancho Gonzales engaged in a great battle in five sets won by the Spaniard. A kind of record...
63:
the number of games it took Novak Djokovic to get rid of Radek Stepanek in 2007 (6/7, 7/6, 5/7, 7/5, 7/6), over four hours and forty-four minutes of game time. This match also equals with the sixty-three game record of the Lloyd -McNamee game of 1979. 63 out of 65 possible games, since in New York, a tie-break is also played at the end of the fifth set.
17:
After seventeen consecutive victories at the U.S. Open – a record in the Open era - Pete Sampras finally lost at Flushing Meadows against Petr Korda.
38:
the number of points that Goran Ivanisevic and Daniel Nestor played in what is the longest tiebreak in the history of the U.S. Open. At the end, the Croatian won 20/18 to complete a straight-sets victory.
326:
In minutes, the length of the longest match in the history of Flushing Meadows (5 hours and 26 minutes, Editor's note). It was a match between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in the semi-finals of the 1992 edition that ended with a victory for the Swede.
101:
the number of victories held by Chris Evert at the U.S. Open. The last one was a victory against Monica Seles, then aged 15, in the final of the 1989 tournament. Score: 6/0, 6/2.
60,506:
The record number of spectators on a single day, September 4, 2006, on Labour Day.
05/09/1975:
the date when after losing the final of the U.S. Open, Czech-born Martina Navratilova, 18, arrived at the immigration authorities and applied for political asylum.
2:26
the hour - in the morning - at which the all-Swedish match between Mikael Pernfors and Mats Wilander ended. After four hours and one minute, this is not the longest game, but the one that ended the latest.
17500:
The amount, in US dollars, of the fine that John McEnroe had to pay in 1987 after having been particularly vehement in his victory against Slobodan Zivojinovic. A sum he had time to meditate on as it also came with a two-month suspension.
9:
The number of consecutive finals Ivan Lendl could have had played if Pete Sampras had not ended his extraordinary journey at the quarter-final stage in 1990.
32:
in 2001, in their 32nd confrontation, Agassi and Sampras produced in New York a game for the ages, won by the latter after four tiebreaks. That day, neither player had lost his service. Appreciatively, the public cheered the two Americans even before the last decisive game...
33:
the combined age of the two finalists of the 1997 tournament, the most juvenile in history between Venus Williams (16) and Martina Hingis (17). Victory went to the Swiss Miss (6/0, 6/4).
78:
the number of minutes in the final of 1974 between the young Jimmy Connors and the great Australian Ken Rosewall, making it the shortest in the Open era.
19:
The number of years - to which 28 days must be added- of the youngest winner in New York, Pete Sampras, in 1990, against the barely older Andre Agassi.
7:
since the birth of the U.S. Open in 1881, Americans have only been absent from both the men’s and women’s finals on seven occasions: 1959, 1973, 1988, 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2010.
By Rico Rizzitelli
