A breakdown of the youngest Grand Slam champions in the Open Era
In light of history-maker Emma Raducanu's first US Open title at 18 years and 302 days old, we have complied a recap on the achievements of all the teenage Grand Slam champions in Open Era history. So far 22 players have managed to win one of tennis' biggest prizes before their 20th birthdays, many of them several times over.
Martina Hingis | Australian Open 1997 | 16 years 117 days
Swiss tennis was already held in the highest regard before a certain Roger Federer came along, with Martina Hingis winning the first of her three-consecutive Australian Open titles at just 16 years and 117 days old to remain the youngest Open Era Grand Slam champion of all time. Hingis won a total of five Grand Slam titles, all before she turned 19, in a stunning run of form as the world number one that was curtailed early by several injuries that left her in pain. Hingis retired from tennis in 2003 but made several returns to the game between 2005 and 2007 in which she re-joined the top 10 and reached the quarter-finals of three Grand Slams. A further retirement in 2007 was in effect a forced one after an ITF suspension for a low threshold testing of a banned substance. Hingis’ automatic two-year suspension sparked outrage and caused the ruling to be altered for future cases.
A second return to the tour saw the majority of Hingis’ vast Doubles success in both Women’s and Mixed and she announced her final retirement at the WTA finals in 2017. Three Australian Open titles and one each at Wimbledon and the US Open in Women’s Singles are complemented by a total of 20 Women’s and Mixed Doubles Grand Slam titles. Hingis also won the WTA Tour Finals twice in Singles and thrice in Doubles, as well as a Silver Medal in Women’s Doubles from the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.
Monica Seles | Roland-Garros 1990 | 16 years 189 days
Nine-time Grand Slam champion Monica Seles won the first of three-consecutive Roland-Garros titles at 16 years old in 1990. Seles also won three consecutive Australian Open titles from 1991-93, with 1990-93 seeing her take eight major titles in total with two US Open victories in 1991 and 1992. In 1993, Seles was infamously stabbed on-court by a psychologically abnormal Steffi Graf fan who had intended to injure Seles to allow Graf to return to world number one.
Seles spent more than two years away from the sport to recover from the various traumas she developed from the event and made an emotional comeback as a US citizen in August 1995, winning her first tournament back at the Canadian Open before reaching the US Open final. The following January, Seles won her fourth Australian Open title in a row, having missed 1994 and 1995, which would be her last of nine majors – eight of which she won as a teenager. Seles won a total of 53 titles in her career and from 1989 through to 2003, she made at least the quarter-finals of 31 out of 40 Grand Slams she entered.
Tracy Austin | US Open 1979 | 16 years 270 days
Tracy Austin became the youngest ever US Open champion in 1979 by beating then world number one Chris Evert in the final at just 16 years old. The American also won the US Open in 1981 and the Mixed Doubles at Wimbledon in 1980 all before she turned 19 years old. Chronic injuries began to set in unfortunately early for Austin, particularly to her back with issues including recurring sciatica. Austin won 30 career titles but could have gone on to double that were it not for these issues. She suffered a near-fatal car crash in 1989 that caused her to retire from the sport.
Maria Sharapova | Wimbledon 2004 | 17 years 75 days
34-year-old Maria Sharapova’s last few years on tour were overshadowed by accusations of doping that saw her retire in 2020 but it would not be a huge surprise to see a comeback one day in the future. The Russian remains the youngest-ever Wimbledon champion at 17 years and 75 days old after upsetting the defending champion Serena Williams in 2004. Sharapova won five Grand Slams, with one from each major and two at Roland-Garris in 2012 and 2014. Five major titles in an era shared with both Venus and Serena Williams makes her the most notable and successful of the Williams sisters’ rivals during their dominance of the first decade of the new millennium. Despite an unfortunate amount of injuries throughout her career, most often to her shoulder, Sharapova won a total of 36 titles on the WTA tour, becoming world number one for the first time in 2005. She also won the WTA Tour Finals in 2004 and a Silver Medal at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Michael Chang | Roland-Garros 1989 | 17 years 110 days
Michael Chang remains the youngest ever male Grand Slam champion with his famous run to the Roland-Garros final in 1989, where he beat Stefan Edberg in five sets. His round of 16 battle with Ivan Lendl is the match most remembered, though, where Chang employed a series of unorthodox tactics to tackle severe leg cramps over four hours and 37 minutes. Despite winning only that Grand Slam, Chang ushered in a new era of American dominance in the Men’s game with incoming contemporaries Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Jim Courier. Chang also achieved plenty of success on the ATP tour between 1988 and 2000, winning a total of 34 titles including six Masters.
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario | Roland-Garros 1989 | 17 years 174 days
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario won the first of her three Roland-Garros titles at 17 years and 174 days old, with further titles coming in 1994, where she also won the US Open, and 1998 for a total of four major trophies. The Spaniard was an ever-present threat at all four majors throughout her career but she dominated the draw at Roland-Garros throughout her career, making at least the quarter-finals in 13 of her 16 appearances in Paris. Sanchez-Vicario won a total of 29 tour titles in an illustrious Singles career complemented by more Grand Slam success in Women’s and Mixed Doubles, where she won a further 10 major titles. She has four Olympic Medals, two Silvers and two Bronzes, as the only tennis player in history to compete in five Olympic Games.
Boris Becker | Wimbledon 1985 | 17 years 228 days
Boris Becker became the youngest man to ever win Wimbledon in 1985 and he backed that up a year later to place as the second-youngest man to win Wimbledon in 1986. A total of six Grand Slam titles were shared across Wimbledon, where he also won in 1989, the US Open and later the Australian Open in which he claimed his last major in 1996. The German’s fierce and fun rivalries with the likes of Stefan Edberg and John McEnroe are well loved as part of what many would consider a previous ‘Golden Era’ of tennis to today’s vast glut of talent. 26 of his total 49 career titles came on carpet, a surface largely unused in the modern game. Becker was also a highly successful coach, helping Novak Djokovic between 2013 and 2016 to the Serb’s ‘non-calendar slam’ (2014-15) in which he won six majors, two ATP Finals and 14 Masters.
Mats Wilander | Roland-Garros 1982 | 17 years 293 days
Mats Wilander was the youngest man to win Roland-Garros in 1982 at 17 years and 293 days old, until Michael Chang’s victory in 1989, and also the youngest man to win the Australian Open the following January. The Swede won two more Roland-Garros titles alongside three Australian Open titles and his last at the US Open in 1988 for a total of seven majors. However, Wilander is one of only six men alongside Jimmy Conners, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic to win a Grand Slam on hard, clay and grass surfaces because the Australian Open was played on grass in 1983 and 1984. 20 of his total 33 career titles came on clay, though, with the Swede a venerated specialist on the surface. Wilander is also the youngest man in history to have won four Grand Slam titles at the age of 20, with his second Roland-Garros title in 1985.
Steffi Graf | Roland-Garros 1987 | 17 years 357 days
Steffi Graf won 107 titles in her illustrious career, the third-most of any woman in the Open Era (from 1973) and fourth of all players in the Open Era. The German retired at 30 years old in 1999 as the world number three and reigning Roland-Garros champion, heavily suggesting that there could have been countless more titles. Widely-regarded as the greatest female tennis player of all time, Graf is the only player, male or female, to have won each Grand Slam at least four times and she is third in the all-time Grand Slam total behind Margaret Court and Serena Williams, with 22 majors.
Graf also achieved the first Calendar Slam across three surfaces in 1988, which remained the only Golden Slam in history (with all four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic Gold medal in the same calendar year) until this year’s remarkable feats by Wheelchair tennis players Diede de Groot and Dylan Alcott. As if all that was not enough, the German ended 1988, 1995 and 1996 unbeaten and she remains the only female player to do that more than once, and only player to do it more than twice.
Serena Williams | US Open 1999 | 17 years 350 days
Widely regarded as not only one of the best tennis players of all time, but all around athletes, Serena Williams’ 23 Grand Slam Singles titles is the most earned by any player in the Open Era and one behind Margaret Court in the all-time list. The younger sister of the most dominant siblings in the history of sport, Serena actually won a Grand Slam before elder sister Venus as a 17 -year-old at the US Open in 1999. Between that first title and her most recent major at the 2017 Australian Open, the Williams sisters have won a combined 30 of the 70 available in Women’s Singles (43%) and together they claimed a further 14 Grand Slam Women’s Doubles titles.
39-year-old Serena is still very much in the hunt for that elusive 24th, record-equalling Grand Slam title with the Australian Open likely her best shot at doing so as she is the record title-holder there with seven. Other career highlights include five WTA Tour Finals titles and two Mixed Doubles Grand Slam Titles, giving her the most overall major titles of any active player (39). Furthermore, she is the only player ever to accomplish a career Golden Slam in both Singles and Doubles, with a joint-record four Gold Medals across three Olympic Games with sister Venus. Not satisfied with making just this list, Williams is also the oldest female Grand Slam winner after claiming the 2017 Australian Open at 35 years and 241 days old. Also, she was four months pregnant. GOAT.
Bjorn Borg | Roland-Garros 1974 | 18 years 10 days
Sweden’s first real superstar of Men’s tennis, Bjorn Borg was a teenage sensation in an era that desperately needed him. At just about 18 years old, Borg won his first of six Roland-Garros titles in 1974 and he went on to win five consecutive Wimbledon titles from 1976 to 1980 for a total fo 11 Grand Slam titles by the age of just 25. His stardom eventually caused a burnout and subsequent retirement in 1981, at 26, with some stark similarities with Boris Becker’s steady decline in his mid-20s a decade later. In each of his Grand Slam winning years on tour from 1974 to 1980, the Swede won on average 11 (10.5) titles a year. A total of 66 tour titles could easily have reached the likes of Rafael Nadal’s 88 or even neared Roger Federer’s 103 if Borg had found more time on the tour, with Nadal and Federer the players to break most of his long-standing records.
Emma Raducanu | US Open 2021 | 18 years 302 days
Emma Raducanu became the first ever qualifier, man or woman, to win the US Open, with her stunning 2021 run in New York. Having started July at world number 338, Raducanu earned a wildcard to Wimbledon off the back of a good performance at the Nottingham Open and she raced through to the round of 16 on her debut before breathing irregularities forced her to retire from the match against Ajla Tomljanovic. Raducanu’s tour-level win-record of 10-3 upon defeating Leylah Fernandez in the US Open final seems to be the lowest of any Grand Slam champion in the Open Era. Raducanu’s US Open campaign was her fourth tour-level tournament and she did not drop a set in 10 matches from the qualifiers through to the title.
Hana Mandikova | Australian Open 1980 | 18 years 329 days
One of the lesser-known all-time greats in this list today, Hana Mandikova had to share the spotlight with fellow countrywoman Martina Navratilova (when both represented Czechoslovakia) and Chris Evert in a true golden age of Women’s tennis. Mandikova was the youngest woman to win the Australian Open for almost two decades until Martina Hingis broke the record in 1997. She became the third woman to win a Grand Slam on all three surfaces behind Navratilova and Evert for her total of three Singles Grand Slam titles, with the US Open played on grass back in 1985. After retiring with a total of 27 WTA tour titles to her name, Mandikova then went on to coach the late Jana Novotna to her 1998 Wimbledon title.
Rafael Nadal | Roland-Garros 2005 | 19 years 3 days
Now 35 years old, Rafael Nadal has ended his 2021 season in the hopes of recovering from injury in time for a refreshed assault on the majors in 2022. The only member of the ‘Big 3’ (Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nadal) in this list, Nadal won his first of an astounding 13 Roland-Garros titles in 2005 as a 19-year-old. No player has won more than his 13 titles at a single major, with no player arguably more dominant on a surface than the Spaniard is on clay, and he currently sits joint-first with Federer and Djokovic on 20 Grand Slam titles each as the most won by a man in the Open Era. Nadal’s 88 ATP tour Singles titles will surely increase and he achieved the 1000th win of his career at last season’s Paris Masters.
The left-hander’s game will be cemented in history as one of the most iconic, whilst his two Gold Medals across two Olympic Games makes him one of only two male players to achieve the career Golden Slam along with Andre Agassi. Nadal also won two ATP Tour finals in his time and his career has spanned two legendary rivalries over two decades with Roger Federer in the ‘00s and then primarily Novak Djokovic in the ‘10s.
Pete Sampras | US Open 1990 | 19 years 29 days
Pete Sampras was one of Michael Chang’s beaten opponents in his famous victory in Paris in 1989 but just over a year later Sampras made his own history by becoming the youngest man to win the US Open. The American tussled with great rival Andre Agassi for the majority of his career throughout the 90s and early 2000s, winning 14 Grand Slam Singles title to set the all-time record before Roger Federer broke it in 2010. Sampras set the then-record for Wimbledon Singles titles at seven before Federer, again, broke it in 2019 but he still holds the joint-record of five US Open Singles titles with the Swiss.
Renowned for his powerful serve and wonderful one-handed backhand, Sampras ended six consecutive years at world number one between 1993 and 1998 which remains an Open Era record. He has the third-most weeks at number one behind Federer and Novak Djokovic and he won the year-end ATP Tour Finals five times; again just one behind Federer.
Svetlana Kuznetsova | US Open 2004 | 19 years 76 days
36-year-old Svetlana Kuznetsova is still active on the WTA tour and she beat current world number five Elina Svitolina as recently as March at the Dubai Open. The Russian won her first of two Grand Slam titles at the 2004 US Open, beating compatriot Elena Dementieva in the final, and her second at Roland-Garros in 2009 as part of a current total of 18 WTA tour Singles titles. Kuznetsova also won two Australian Open titles in the Women’s Doubles as part of a total of 16 Doubles titles.
Bianca Andreescu | US Open 2019 | 19 years 83 days
21-year-old Bianca Andreescu is very much a player for the future despite already achieving so much in the game. The Canadian raced to the 2019 US Open title on her debut, and only her fourth Grand Slam campaign, beating Serena Williams in the final. Injuries have held the well-loved big-game player back from realising her full potential and she looks unlikely to win copious amounts of titles unless she becomes wholly more consistent on tour. However, the titles she will win are likely to be of the very highest level with 2019 also seeing her claim two Masters titles at Indian Wells and the Canadian Open.
Iga Swiatek | Roland-Garros 2020 | 19 years 132 days
20-year-old Iga Swiatek was well hyped in her youth as a Roland-Garros Girls’ Doubles and Wimbledon Girls’ Singles champion but nobody saw her stunning run to the 2020 Roland-Garros title coming so quickly. Not only did the Pole win her first major without dropping a set, she dominated proceedings in all of her matches by conceding no more than five games to any opponent. Swiatek has since won a Masters title at this year’s Italian Open, where she beat former world number one Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-0, but a title in Adelaide on a hardcourt earlier this year proves she is not just a clay specialist for the future.
Chris Evert | Roland-Garros 1974 | 19 years 176 days
Chris Evert won 154 titles in her most illustrious of careers with too many achievements to list here. Her 90% career win percentage (1309-146) is higher than any tennis player in history, with her record on clay almost certainly unassailable at 382-22. The American reached more Grand Slam Singles finals than any other player in history (34) and won 18 of them to sit behind only Margaret Court, Serena Williams, Steffi Graf and Helen Wills in the all-time titles list.
Her career spans the formation of the Open Era which muddies the water a little in direct comparisons but Evert’s long reign at the top of tennis is almost certainly the most dominative by any player in the Open Era at least. Evert won at least one major title in 13 consecutive seasons, a record, and never lost in the first or second round of a Slam. She remains the Women’s record-holder for Roland-Garros titles with seven and joint US Open holder with Serena Williams at six.
Iva Majoli | Roland-Garros 1997 | 19 years 299 days
Iva Majoli beat 16-year-old Martina Hingis in the final of Roland-Garros in 1997 to keep the Swiss from becoming the surely unassailable youngest champion at two majors. She reached a career-high fourth in the WTA world rankings the year before and between Roland-Garros in 1995 and 1998 she made the quarter-finals of six out of 12 Grand Slams she entered. Majoli won a total of eight WTA titles on tour before retiring in 2004, hampered in her later years by injuries.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley | Roland-Garros 1971 | 19 years 309 days
Amongst her many achievements, Evonne Goolagong Cawley won seven Grand Slam Singles titles, with four coming at her native Australian Open, and seven Grand Slam Doubles titles (six Women’s, one Mixed). She ended her career with a total of 86 Singles titles on tour as the sixth-highest total by a female player behind Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King and Steffi Graf. Goolagong Cawley’s indigenous Australian heritage made her a trailblazing symbol and the idol of many players, not least current world number one Ashleigh Barty, and she became the first mother to win Wimbledon in the Open Era in 1980. The Aussie reached four US Open finals to come agonisingly close to the Career Grand Slam but elsewhere she won two Tour Finals and three Fed Cups.
Stefan Edberg | Australian Open 1985 | 19 years 324 days
Former world number one Stefan Edberg just sneaks onto this list as the 1985 Australian Open winner 41 days before turning 20. The Swede was very much a part of the late 80s serve-and-volley scene alongside Boris Becker that birthed the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. The Swede won a total of six Grand Slam titles with two each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open between 1985 and 1992. He finished runner-up at Roland-Garros in 1989 to come agonisingly close to a Career Grand Slam but he does, notably, remain the only player to achieve that feat as a junior player after winning all four major Boy’s Singles events in 1983. Edberg won back-to-back ATP Tour Finals from 1985-86, two Bronze Medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and four Davis Cup titles with Sweden. After hanging up his own rackets, the Swede went on to coach Roger Federer for the best part of two years 2015-16, helping the Swiss to 10 tour titles.
