The 6 Greatest US Open Finals of the Open Era, Ranked
GOATIFYThe US Open has never needed much help creating drama. New York crowds are loud, the late-summer conditions can change quickly, and championship matches often feel less like quiet tennis exhibitions than heavyweight fights with racquets.
Across the Open Era, that setting has produced finals with almost every kind of tension: famous rivalries, two-set comebacks, breakthrough major titles, career-defining upsets and emotional returns. Some were close from the opening game to match point. Others mattered because of what the victory represented.
Here are six US Open finals that still stand out, ranked by the quality of the matchup, the stakes surrounding it and the legacy that followed.
1. John McEnroe vs. Björn Borg — 1980
Score: McEnroe def. Borg 7-6, 6-1, 6-7, 5-7, 6-4
The first spot belongs to a match that had everything before the first ball was even struck. McEnroe and Borg had already produced one of the defining Wimbledon finals earlier that summer. The US Open gave them a rematch, this time with McEnroe trying to defend his New York title and Borg still chasing the one major championship that repeatedly escaped him.
McEnroe came out as if the rematch might end quickly. He survived the opening-set tiebreak and then ran through the second set 6-1. Borg, however, was at his best when a match looked close to slipping away. He took the third in another tiebreak, edged the fourth 7-5 and turned a possible straight-sets defeat into a deciding-set fight.
The fifth set is what gives the final its enduring place. McEnroe recovered his attacking rhythm, found the decisive break and closed out a second consecutive US Open championship. Borg had pushed him all the way, but New York remained the hole in an otherwise extraordinary major résumé.
2. Martina Navratilova vs. Chris Evert — 1984
Score: Navratilova def. Evert 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Few rivalries have ever offered the contrast of Navratilova and Evert. One wanted to move forward, pressure the net and shorten points. The other was a master of shape, placement and patience from the baseline. By 1984 they knew each other’s patterns almost as well as their own.
Evert struck first in New York, taking the opening set 6-4 and giving a supportive crowd reason to believe she could reverse a difficult run in the rivalry. Navratilova responded by leaning harder into the game that made her so difficult to contain: assertive serving, immediate forward movement and relentless pressure around the net.
She took the next two sets by the same 6-4 score. The victory was more than another major trophy. It extended an astonishing run at the biggest events and came against the opponent most capable of exposing any weakness in her game. Great finals do not always need five sets; sometimes the quality of the rivalry and the pressure inside every service game are enough.
3. Steffi Graf vs. Monica Seles — 1995
Score: Graf def. Seles 7-6, 0-6, 6-3
The 1995 final carried a weight that no normal championship match could replicate. Seles was back in a major final after the 1993 on-court stabbing that had interrupted her career at the height of her powers. Across the net stood Graf, the player who had become the dominant force during Seles’s absence.
The tennis matched the occasion. Graf survived a tense first-set tiebreak, only for Seles to answer with a stunning 6-0 second set. In a matter of minutes, a match that looked as if it might belong to Graf had completely reversed direction.
The deciding set demanded a reset. Graf found it first, protected her serve more effectively and prevented Seles from carrying the second-set avalanche into the third. A 6-3 finish gave Graf another US Open crown, but the lasting image of the final is bigger than the result. It was proof that one of the sport’s greatest rivalries was alive again on its largest stage.
4. Andy Murray vs. Novak Djokovic — 2012
Score: Murray def. Djokovic 7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2
Murray had spent years being grouped with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic while carrying one uncomfortable distinction: he was the member of the era’s elite without a major title. He had lost his first four Grand Slam finals, including painful defeats on multiple surfaces.
In New York, he finally broke through in the hardest possible way. Windy conditions made clean ball-striking difficult, the opening-set tiebreak became a marathon of its own, and Murray built a two-set lead only to watch Djokovic drag the match back to level.
At that point the pressure could have been overwhelming. Blowing a two-set advantage in a fifth major final would have created another brutal chapter in Murray’s near-miss story. Instead, he attacked the deciding set, broke early and pulled away 6-2.
The match lasted four hours and 54 minutes. More importantly, it ended Britain’s long wait for a men’s Grand Slam singles champion and changed how Murray’s career would be viewed. He was no longer the outstanding player who could not win the biggest one. He was a major champion.
5. Juan Martín del Potro vs. Roger Federer — 2009
Score: del Potro def. Federer 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2
Federer entered the 2009 final with an aura in New York that few champions have ever matched. He had won five straight US Open titles and was trying to make it six. Del Potro was 20 years old and appearing in his first major final.
The early stages followed the expected script. Federer won the first set and kept finding ways to stay in front. Del Potro’s response came through the shot that would define his career: a huge, flat forehand that could turn defense into a winner in one swing.
Twice the Argentine needed a tiebreak to keep the match from getting away. Twice he won it. By the fifth set, the balance of power had shifted. Del Potro was the player dictating the biggest rallies, and Federer could no longer summon the escape that had protected his New York streak for half a decade.
Del Potro took the decider 6-2 and lifted what would become his only Grand Slam singles trophy. That scarcity makes the final feel even more significant now. For one night, at the peak of Federer’s US Open dominance, del Potro found a level strong enough to end an era.
6. Kim Clijsters vs. Mary Pierce — 2005
Score: Clijsters def. Pierce 6-3, 6-1
This is the outlier on the list because the final itself was not a long thriller. Clijsters controlled it, winning 6-3, 6-1. But greatness in a final can come from the pressure surrounding the moment, and few players entered a championship match carrying more accumulated frustration.
Clijsters had already reached four major finals without winning one. Her talent had never been in question, but each additional near-miss made the next opportunity more difficult mentally. The 2005 US Open was the tournament where she stopped letting the history grow.
Pierce had produced an excellent run of her own, but Clijsters gave her almost no opening in the final. She moved brilliantly, absorbed pace and refused to allow the match to become complicated. What looked one-sided on the scoreboard was actually the release of years of pressure.
The win opened the door to a decorated US Open legacy. Sometimes the greatest championship matches are remembered for five-set chaos. Sometimes they are remembered because a player finally makes the hardest moment look simple.
That variety is what makes the US Open’s history so rich. McEnroe-Borg was a rivalry epic. Graf-Seles carried extraordinary emotion. Murray-Djokovic was an endurance test. Del Potro-Federer was an upset that ended a dynasty. Clijsters-Pierce was a breakthrough. Different kinds of pressure produced different kinds of classics, and all six still feel unmistakably New York.
