The 4 players to achieve rare Olympic-US Open feat with Andy Murray the only man on list
The 4 players to achieve rare Olympic-US Open feat with Andy Murray the only man on list
Andy Murray and Steffi Graf with their Olympic titles.
Andy Murray and Steffi Graf have both delivered memorable Olympic moments.
Only a handful of players have won an Olympic gold medal and the US Open in the same year with three women and one man to notch up the achievement in the Open Era.
Tennis only returned to the Olympic programme in 1988 with 10 editions held since then and only four of the gold medal winners also won the US Open in the calendar year.
Novak Djokovic was hoping to join the list in 2024 after he won gold at the Paris Games, but he was stunned by Alexei Popyrin in the third round of the US Open.
The last time a player – man or woman – achieved the Olympic-US Open was in 2012 and the Big Three of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are absent from the list.
Nadal won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but lost in the semi-final of the US Open as he was beaten by Andy Murray. However, he and Rod Laver (1968) are the only men to win the French Open, Wimbledon and Olympics in the same year as he completed the achievement in 2008.
Federer, meanwhile, failed to win singles gold at the Olympics.
Zheng Qinwen could still join the list as the 2024 Paris Games gold medallist is still alive at the 2024 US Open.
Four players to win Olympic-US Open double:
Steffi Graf – 1988
Unsurprisingly, the great Steffi Graf was the first player to claim the Olympic-US Open double as it came during her calendar Golden Slam in 1988.
Graf won the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open and then went on to win gold at the Seoul Games (the Olympics took place after the US Open) as she defeated Gabriela Sabatini in the final.
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Venus Williams – 2000
It would take another 12 years before another player joined the list as Venus Williams beat fellow American Lindsay Davenport in the US Open final and barely three weeks later she claimed victory over Elena Dementieva in the Sydney Olympics gold medal match.
Venus came close to pulling off the “double-double” as she also won gold in the doubles alongside sister Serena Williams in Sydney, but the pair lost in the semi-final of the US Open.
Serena Williams – 2012
The 2012 London Games took place at Wimbledon and Williams pulled off the Wimbledon-Olympics-US Open singles hat-trick. First she beat Agnieszka Radwanska in the Wimbledon women’s final, then she defeated Maria Sharapova in the gold medal match at the Olympics before getting the better of Victoria Azarenka at Flushing Meadows.
Oh and Williams also won the Wimbledon and Olympic doubles alongside Venus, but they lost in the third round of the US Open.
Andy Murray – 2012
Just weeks after his Wimbledon final heartbreak against Roger Federer, Andy Murray turned the tables on the Swiss great as he defeated him in the gold medal match at the 2012 London Games. Murray also won silver in the mixed doubles alongside Laura Robson at Wimbledon.
Three weeks later, Murray went on to win his maiden Grand Slam at the US Open as he beat Djokovic in the final at Flushing Meadows.
Murray also won gold at the 2016 Rio Games, but lost in the quarter-final of the US Open.
Miloslav Mecir, Marc Rosset, Andre Agassi Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Nicolas Massu, Nadal, Alexander Zverev and Djokovic are the men’s Olympic gold medallists who have missed out on the feat.
Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Elena Dementieva, Monica Puig and Belinda Bencic are the women’s Olympic gold medallists who have missed out.
