Men's Tennis: 4 great Grand Slam champions who never the US Open
The US Open was established in 1881 and was the first Grand Slam to bring about equal pay between men and women competitors in 1973. Since 1987, it is played in late August and early September making it the last Grand Slam in the tennis calendar.
Newport, Forest Hills and Philadelphia were other venues where the US Open was held prior to finding its home at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre, Flushing Meadows, New York. From inception till 1974, the US Open was played on grass. Richard Sears, William Larned and Bill Tilden hold the record for the most titles won at the US Open with 7 titles each.
In the Open Era, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer have won the most titles with 5 a piece with Federer winning 5 consecutive titles between 2004 to 2008.
We take a look back at 4 Great Grand Slam champions who never lifted the US Open trophy:
#1 Michael Chang
Michael Chang was a tennis prodigy winning his first and only Grand Slam trophy at Roland Garros 1989 at the age of just 17 - a record that still stands today. With 34 titles and 662 match wins in his career, Chang was desperately unlucky to have not won a US Open title on at least two occasions.
In 1992, he was up against Swede Stefan Edberg in the semi-finals. Chang was trailing Edberg by a set going into the 4th set. He comfortably won the 4th set and forced a decider. In the deciding set, Chang was leading 3-0 and had a chance of a double-break at 15-40 in the 4th game. But things started to unravel for him as he buckled under pressure helping Edberg gain the momentum swing. Edberg won 3 successive games to level the set at 3 games all before breaking Chang decisively to close out the set 6-4.
Chang also made the finals at Flushing Meadows in 1996 only to lose to World Number 1 Pete Sampras in straight sets.