By Chris Oddo | Sunday August 30, 2015

 

In 2014 Marin Cilic became just the third player outside the big four to win a major since the 2005 French Open. Could it happen again in 2015?

Photo Source: AP

We just spent a few good hours perusing US Open preview notes from the good folds at the USTA, WTA and ATP—so you don’t have to!

Here’s some numbers that we found noteworthy with regard to this year’s U.S. Open:

40: Number of thirtysomething men in this year’s main draw. That’s a record, and it’s up eight from last year. At 37 years and 4 months, Tommy Haas is the oldest player in the draw. He plays another thirtysomething, Fernando Verdasco, in the first round.

3: Women who have previously won the Calendar-Year Grand Slam. They are: Maureen Connolly (1953), Margaret Court (1970) and Steffi Graff (1988). Serena Williams will bid to become the fourth woman to achieve the milestone, and the third woman to do it in the Open Era.

5: The list for most Open Era U.S. Open men’s singles titles is deadlocked at five. Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras have all done five. Federer is bidding to break the record this year, and if he does he’ll be the only man in history to own six or more titles at two different majors since the abolition of the challenge rounds at Wimbledon and the US Open (1922 Wimbledon, 1912 US Open).

4 x 2: Steffi Graf is the only women to defend all four majors at least once. In fact, she’s also the only woman to defend all four majors twice.

196: Rafael Nadal needs four wins in New York to become the third active player to reach the 200 Grand Slam win mark. He would become the 8th player in Open Era history to do it. Here are the Grand Slam records of the big three:

Federer: 291-48
Djokovic: 200-34
Nadal: 196-28

12: Serena Williams owns the most hard court Grand Slam titles in the Open era. She’s earned three more than Steffi Graf’s 9. The next player on the list is Monica Seles with 6. Williams, Graf and Seles are the only three players to have earned more than five hard court major titles.

64: Roger Federer, father timeless, will play his 64th consecutive Grand Slam event, stretching his lead over the all-time second-best streak to two. Japan’s Ai Sugiyama played 62 consecutive Grand Slams. The next highest ATP streak of consecutive majors played is Wayne Ferreira, who played 56.

Other notable active streaks are Francesca Schiavone (61), Feliciano Lopez (55), Fernando Verdasco (50), Tomas Berdych (49), Jelena Jankovic (48), Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic (44).

16: There are 16 teenagers in the US Open draw—ten men and six women. The ten men is 25-year-high on the ATP side.

6: Serena Williams and Chris Evert are tied for the Open Era US Open title lead. Williams, who has yet to win seven at any single major, can claim the lead with a title this year. Graf (5) and Navratilova (4) are the only other two women to have won four or more US Open titles in the Open Era.

38/42: The big four’s dominance continues on. Novak Djokovic’s title at Wimbledon marked the 38th time in the last 42 majors that either Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray has won a major since Nadal won his first major at the 2005 French Open.

During that period only Stan Wawrinka (2014 Australia, 2015 Roland Garros, Juan Martin del Potro (2009 US Open) and Marin Cilic (2014 US Open). Speaking of Federer and Wawrinka, either one can become the fifth man in the Open Era to win two or more majors after turning 30. The other four are Laver (4), Rosewall (4), Agassi (2), Connors (2).