The 2010s at the US Open saw five different men's and eight different women's singles champions, led by Rafael Nadal's four titles and Serena Williams' three in a row from 2012-14. As the decade comes to a close, USOpen.org is taking a look back at some of the top moments over the last 10 years at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
At the US Open, players can go from a part of the field to a household name in a New York minute, when all it takes is a big performance on a big stage. Listed chronologically, here are some of the biggest stunners from the last decade in Flushing Meadows.
2012 R2, Laura Robson def. Kim Clijsters
Three-time champion Kim Clijsters arrived at the 2012 tournament looking for a hat trick of women's singles titles, and after a first-round victory in 2012, had run her winning streak in New York to 22 straight matches--15 of which came after she returned from a two-year retirement in 2009.
That came to an end in two tiebreaks at the hands of Robson, then a talented 18-year-old left-hander from Great Britain who had just won a silver medal in mixed doubles at the London Olympics alongside Andy Murray.
As a result, Robson reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career and joined Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Amélie Mauresmo and Justine Henin as one of only six players to beat Clijsters at the Open, and the first player to beat her there since 2003.
Clijsters retired from tennis for a second time after the 2012 Open, and this early-decade upset is a watershed moment for both players' careers.
Robson has not yet again reached similar heights, with wrist and hip surgeries having kepts the now-25-year-old sidelined for much of the past few seasons. While the match seemed to mark a definitive end to the Belgian's competitive career at the time, the three-time Open champion recently announced plans to return to the court in 2020.
2013 R1, Victoria Duval def. Samantha Stosur
A year after making her Grand Slam debut at the Open--and losing to Clijsters prior to the match above--a teenaged Duval pulled off a big victory over a former champion inside the old Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Down a set and 2-4, the 17-year-old Duval, then ranked world No. 296 and a qualifier into the main draw, rallied for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the 2011 champion, who was seeded No. 11 and had reached the quarterfinals the previous year in her title defense.
2013 R4, Tommy Robredo def. Roger Federer
Nobody beats Tommy Robredo 11 times in a row, not even a GOAT. In the midst of a career-best Open result in 2013, where he reached the quarterfinals, the Spaniard stopped a streak of futility against Federer that had lasted more than a decade.
The pair first played as professionals in 2002, and over the course of 10 matches and 11 years, Robredo managed to win just three of the 27 sets he played against the Swiss great.
All that changed on a fateful day in Flushing in 2013, where the man from Catalonia not only beat Federer for the first time, but did it in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4, inside Armstrong.
"For me, Roger for the moment is the best player of all times," Robredo said after the match, which was moved from Arthur Ashe Stadium to Armstrong after inclement weather. "And to beat him in a huge stadium like the US Open and in a Grand Slam, a match of five sets, it's like a dream, no?"
2014 R1, CiCi Bellis def. Dominika Cibulkova
American CiCi Bellis arrived at the 2014 US Open aged 15, ranked world No. 1,208 and the beneficiary of a wild card into the main draw after winning the USTA Girls’ 18s National Championship. Dominika Cibulkova, the No. 12 seed and her first-round foe, became the first woman from Slovakia to reach a Grand Slam final at that year's Australian Open.
Despite a late-season dip in form for the former Top 10 player, Cibulkova was nonetheless a favorite in the match when she took the court against the youngest US Open main-draw entrant in a decade.
But in Bellis' Tour-level main draw debut, the teeanger's youthful exuberance and abandon over the course of the late afternoon in the shadow of Arthur Ashe Stadium took her to a stunning 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in front of a capacity crowd on Court 6, that rose to its feet and roared when Cibulkova's final shot found the net.
With the victory, Bellis became the youngest player to win a match at the Open since Anna Kournikova reached the fourth round in 1996 at age 15.
"I went into the match thinking it was going to be such a great experience, but I never thought I would come out on top winning," Bellis said. "It's crazy to think that I'm actually here right now with all these other people. I never thought I would be practicing or sharing a court with a player that I watch on TV frequently."
2015 R2, Petra Cetkovska def. Caroline Wozniacki
Entering the 2015 US Open on a protected ranking following hip surgery, the talented, but oft-injured Cetkovska sprung a big upset under the lights inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Ranked world No. 149, the Czech nonetheless showed the kind of tennis that took her to a career-high ranking of world No. 25 to upset defending finalist and No. 4 seed Wozniacki in a third-set tiebreak, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6, after saving four match points.
“This injury that I’ve overcome, it was really difficult," Cetkovska said. "Every day, I was asking myself if I will be able to play tennis again, to play on such a big stadium, to play such a big match and win it. So for me it is just an amazing feeling, like satisfaction for everything that I have gone through.”
2015 R3, Fabio Fognini def. Rafael Nadal
Often, an upset is called such because of who authors it--but occasionally, it can be so named for how it happens.
That's how this third-round match makes our list. From two sets down, the Italian rallied for a thrilling, five-set comeback that finished at around 1:30 a.m., 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the fourth round.
Despite having beaten Nadal twice previously in the 2015 season, the Italian had been winless to that point against Top 10 players on hard courts, entering the match with an 0-17 record, while the Spaniard had been a perfect 151-0 at Grand Slams when winning the first two sets.
2015 SF, Roberta Vinci def. Serena Williams
Already on our list in the best Open matches of the decade, there was perhaps no bigger stunner over the course of the last 10 Opens.
With Williams two matches away from winning all four Grand Slams in 2015, and entering her semifinal match against world No. 43 Vinci on a 33-match winning streak in Grand Slams, the Italian scored one of the biggest upsets not only in Open history, but in the Open era.
A 300-1 underdog entering the match, Vinci lost the opening set with ease before she chipped-and-charged her way into the final, where she'd fall to childhood friend and compatriot Flavia Pennetta, and the sport's history books, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
2016 R4, Lucas Pouille def. Rafael Nadal
One of three Frenchmen to reach the quarterfinals at the 2016 Open, the youngest of the three pulled off the biggest win to get there.
The then-22-year-old outlasted No. 4 seed Nadal in five sets and over four hours, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, as day turned to dusk inside Ashe to reach his second consecutive Slam quarterfinal in the 2016 season.
Pouille's victory over Nadal was his third straight five-set victory in the tournament, but one of his more dramatic as he was twice a break down in the final set.
After the match, which thrilled day-session fans who packed Ashe and night-session fans who arrived early and packed the South Plaza, Pouille said, "I think it was the best atmosphere I played on a center court. Sometimes I couldn't even hear myself."
2018 R4, John Millman def. Roger Federer
Federer had never lost to a player ranked outside the Top 50 at the Open in his career, until he met unseeded Aussie John Millman under the lights inside Ashe in 2018.
In a match that began on Monday evening and ended at nearly 1 a.m. on Tuesday--in Federer's 41st match in New York against a player ranked No. 50 or lower--the 55th-ranked Millman came from a set down and saved three set points in the second set en route to a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6 stunner.
Unsettled by flat hitting from the 29-year-old Millman, who was playing in the fourth round of a Slam for the first time, and high levels of humidity for a New York night, the five-time champion racked up 10 double faults and 77 unforced errors over the course of the match.
"I always was of the opinion that I was in the fourth round for a reason," Millman said. "I've never played anyone's reputation. Roger's a hero of mine.
"I felt a little bit guilty today because he didn't have his best day, and that's for sure. I know that. I'm very aware he didn't have a great day in the office. Probably to beat him I needed him to have an off day and I needed to have a decent, good day."
2019 R2, Taylor Townsend def. Simona Halep
To upset reigning Wimbledon champion Simona Halep in the second round of this year's Open, American Taylor Townsend turned back the clock.
Employing a serve-and-volley strategy for the better part of two hours inside Ashe--the left-hander came to net over 100 times against one of the best baseliners on the WTA--Townsend saved a match point and scored a shock victory in the early rounds of the decade's final Open, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6.
It was a long road to a signature victory for the former junior world No. 1, who told reporters after the match: "You flood with emotions of the things you've been through, positive, negative. Just to be able to get over the hump, it's such an amazing feeling...I just feel like this was a huge, monumental moment. It was a very defining moment for me to realize that I belong here."
