As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the US Open, we look back at the 50 champions who have left an indelible mark on this inimitable event.
There have been other young champions, precocious players who have made their marks on both the US Open and the tennis world at large. But even among those ranks, Tracy Austin was special.
Much of that could be attributed to just how young a champion she was – to this day the youngest singles winner, man or woman, in a tournament history that dates back to the 1880s – and much that she truly looked her age, pigtails flying and the heavy, wood racquet seemingly outsized for her 5-foot-4, 110-pound frame.
But Austin had game and moxie that belied her age, and those traits endeared her to the New York fans who came to cheer for the teen as she took two titles in three years – a stunning upset of top seed and four-time defending champion Chris Evert in 1979 and a steely victory over the indomitable Martina Navratilova in 1981.
Perhaps because of her youth or the dominance of Evert in the late 1970s, the prevailing notion remains that Austin was an upstart when she won her first title. But, in fact, she was already a top challenger, seeded third at the 1979 US Open and entering the event after a run to the 1978 quarterfinals in the tournament’s inaugural year in Flushing Meadows and fresh off a semifinal showing earlier that summer at Wimbledon.
She was not, however, Evert. The elder American had not just won four consecutive US Opens, she had dominated, dropping just one set in those four title runs. Moreover, she waltzed into the 1979 final on a 31-match winning streak and riding high after a 6-1, 6-0 dismissal of Billie Jean King in the semifinals. Even Austin’s coach, Robert Lansdorp, rated his pupil’s chance of winning at “about 40 percent, possibly” and said he’d give up smoking if she won.
And then she did, and convincingly at that. Austin roared past Evert, dismissing the world’s best, 6-4, 6-3, for her first Grand Slam crown.
Two years later, after Evert gained a measure of revenge in the 1980 Open semifinals, Austin was back in Louis Armstrong Stadium on Finals Weekend, this time engaged in a captivating display of styles against the serve-and-volleying Navratilova. And again, Austin, now a seasoned 18, showed her mettle, winning a pair of tiebreaks – the decider by a conclusive 7-1 margin – to claim a 1-6, 7-6, 7-6 victory and her second major.
As has been well-documented, Austin’s brilliant career was a short one. She was essentially out of the game by 1983, injuries having taken their toll. But she shined bright in her brief time at the top of the game – and never brighter than on the US Open stage.
50 Fact: Austin’s 1981 finals victory over Navratilova was the first Grand Slam singles final to finish in a final-set tiebreak, and one of just two ever to do so. The other was the 1985 US Open women’s singles final, when Hana Mandlikova edged Navratilova for the title, 7-6, 1-6, 7-6.
