Youngest tennis Grand Slam singles champions in Open Era
Swiss ace Martina Hingis is the youngest Grand Slam champion in history while USA’s Michael Chang is the youngest man to win a tennis major.
Emma Raducanu, at the age of 18 years and 302 days, won the US Open 2021 women’s singles title to become the latest teenager to win a tennis major.
The sensation from Great Britain, however, isn’t the youngest to lift a Grand Slam title. In fact, she isn’t even in the top 10.
In the Open Era (professional tennis since 1968), Swiss legend Martina Hingis is the youngest Grand Slam winner ever, courtesy her Australian Open triumph in 1997 at the age of just 16 years and 117 days.
Martina Hingis broke fellow women’s tennis icon Monica Seles’ record from the 1990 French Open - 16 years 189 days – to claim the title of the youngest Grand Slam champion for herself.
USA’s Michael Chang is the youngest men’s tennis player to win a Grand Slam title. He won the 1980 French Open title at the age of 17 years and 110 days.
Looking at the Grand Slams individually, all four records belong to women. Martina Hingis holds two of them – youngest Australian Open champion (1997) and youngest Wimbledon champion (1997) aged 16 years and 278 days.
Monica Seles is the youngest French Open winner (1990) while Tracy Austin became the youngest US Open champion (1979) when she was 16 years and 270 days old and still holds the perch.
In men’s singles, Michael Chang is the youngest French Open men’s singles champion (1989), Pete Sampras the youngest US Open champion (1990) at the age of 19 years and 28 days and Mats Wilander the youngest Australian Open champion (1983) at 19 years and 111 days old.
Boris Becker won the Wimbledon title in 1985 when he was 17 years and 228 days old to become the youngest men’s singles champion at SW19.
Among the big three of modern tennis, Roger Federer became a Grand Slam winner (2003 Wimbledon) for the first time when he was 21 years and 333 days old.
Rafael Nadal clinched his first major, the 2005 French Open, aged 19 years and three days while Novak Djokovic’s maiden Grand Slam – the 2008 Australian Open – came when he was 20 years and 251 days old.
Here’s the top 10 youngest Grand Slam winners in Open Era tennis.
*Both Monica Seles and Martina Hingis won multiple Grand Slam titles by the time they were 18, hence only their first titles have been included in the list.