One of the most dominant US Open champions of all time is part of the field for the 2025 event now underway in New York City … and it’s not Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, or Carlos Alcaraz.
We picked the five most dominant single-year performances in the history of America’s Grand Slam event. Our main criteria are the fewest sets lost and the highest percentage of total games won.
We picked a player from each era of the tournament’s history since it assumed its current format in 1912: 1) the pre-World War II era; 2) the post-World War II years when the event was on grass; 3) the stretch in the mid-1970s when the event was on clay; 4) the years immediately after the move to hard courts when the original Louis Armstrong Stadium was the show court; and 5) the current era since the completion of Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Who were the five most dominant men’s US Open champions?
Pre-World War II – Bill Tilden, 1923
Tilden claimed the fourth and most emphatic of his seven United States singles titles in the last U.S. championship played outside of New York City. Tilden dropped only one set – and that was in the first round - in his six matches at the Germantown Cricket Club in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Tilden won 71.9 percent of his total games, the best percentage of the pre-World War II era, including four 6-0 sets.
Post-World War II grass-court era – Frank Sedgman, 1952
On paper, this is the most dominant single-year performance in the history of the U.S. championship. Sedgman didn’t lose a set, and he didn’t need to win more than six games in any of those sets. It’s the only time a U.S. champion has won 21 sets without getting pushed to a set score of 7-5 or beyond. Sedgman won 75.9 percent of his total games.
That’s the best percentage in tournament history and represents an average match score of 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. Honorable mention to Frank Parker (champion in 1945), Tony Trabert (1953 and 1955), and Neale Fraser (1960), who also won the U.S. championship without losing a set, but never as impressively as Sedgman.
Clay-court era – Guillermo Vilas, 1977
The last US Open played at Forest Hills also featured one of the best single-tournament performances in the event’s entire history. Vilas won 72.1 percent of his games – tops among the U.S. Open champions who lost just one set – to claim the last of the three US Opens played on clay.
The very last set of the very last US Open match at the West Side Tennis Club was a bagel that Vilas served up to Jimmy Connors to conclude the tournament final. (Connors had won the first set to hand Vilas his only lost set of the event.) Vilas eventually finished the 1977 season with 16 or 17 tournament titles (the records vary) and a whopping 145 match wins.
Armstrong Stadium era – Ivan Lendl, 1987
Lendl’s third consecutive US Open title was his most impressive. Lendl dropped just one set in his seven matches – and that was in a 9-7 tiebreak against Mats Wilander in the final. He won 69.4 percent of his games, the best for any player since the U.S. Open moved to hard courts.
Lendl set the tone for his dominant tournament with a triple-bagel victory – 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 in 71 minutes – against Barry Moir in the first round. He dropped no more than two games in 12 of his 21 sets won.
Ashe Stadium era – Daniil Medvedev, 2021
Most remember Medvedev as the man who stopped Novak Djokovic’s bid for the calendar-year Grand Slam by beating Djokovic in straight sets in the 2021 US Open final. In retrospect, Medvedev also should be remembered for putting together the most dominant men’s championship run of the last 30 years. Medvedev lost just one set in his seven matches.
Oddly enough, the dropped set occurred in what should have been his easiest match, against qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarterfinals.
Medvedev won 65.7 percent of his total games – markedly better than Rafael Nadal’s 2010 title run, the only other time since the construction of Ashe Stadium that a men’s champion won the title with only one lost set. He's been slumping of late, but four years ago, he put together one of the best US Open performances of all time.