With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA Tours, USOpen.org is reliving some of the biggest tennis matches in the tournament's history in photos. In our latest featured match, we look back at the 2017 US Open men's final between Rafael Nadal and Kevin Anderson. Watch the full match on the US Open YouTube channel.
Rafael Nadal won his third US Open men’s singles title at the 2017 US Open, defeating 6-foot-8 South African Kevin Anderson, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, in the final.
The victory gave the then-31-year-old Spaniard the 16th Grand Slam championship of his career, second on the all-time list behind Roger Federer, who had won his 19th major a few months earlier at Wimbledon.
With the win, Nadal became one of only six players in the Open era to capture at least three US Open men’s singles titles, joining Federer, Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors, who have five each; John McEnroe, who has four; and Ivan Lendl, who has three. (Novak Djokovic has since become a member of this esteemed club, winning his third title in New York in 2018. He also claimed championships in 2011 and 2015.)
Here's a look back in photos at Nadal's win over Anderson.
Nadal was playing in his fourth US Open final and his first since winning the title in 2013. He had a 4-0 record against Anderson prior to their championship match.
Anderson, also 31 at the time, was making his first appearance in a Grand Slam final. His previous best performance in New York was a quarterfinal finish in 2015. At No. 32 in the world, Anderson was the lowest-ranked Grand Slam finalist since No. 38 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga finished runner-up at the 2008 Australian Open.
Nadal defeated rising stars Alexandr Dolgopolov (Round of 16) and Andrey Rublev (quarterfinals), as well as 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro (semifinals) before squaring off against Anderson in the final.
Anderson's road to the final included a 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 quarterfinal victory over Sam Querrey and a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 semifinal win over Pablo Carreno Busta.
Nadal never faced a break point on his own racquet during the final, and Anderson never won more than two points in any of Nadal's service games until the final game of the match.
Heading into the final, Anderson had been broken just five times in 108 service games in his six matches, and he led all players in aces, with a tournament-best 114.
Nadal won 102 total points in the final, including 16 of 16 at the net. He hit 30 winners and 11 unforced errors in the match.
"To step out on court against Rafa tonight, I learned a lot of lessons," Anderson said after the final. "It was a difficult match, up against somebody who has been on that stage over 20 times before. Definitely a few things I needed to have done better. Obviously I had my work cut out for me, but I think overall, obviously it's been a very, very positive two weeks for me."
"So very happy the way that I played, happy the way that I managed the pressure, and the way that I was competing during the whole event," Nadal said. "Playing better or worse, the competitive spirit have been there in a very positive way all the time."
With his win at the 2017 Open, Nadal had won at least two majors in the same year four different times. He won the French Open and Wimbledon in 2008, the final three Grand Slams of the year in 2010 and the French Open and US Open in 2013. He achieved the feat a fifth time in 2019, capturing titles at Roland Garros and the US Open.
