James Spencer COURIER

After the dominance of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe in the 1970s and 1980s, Jim Courier was the next American man to ascend to tennis’s #1 ranking. Courier was ranked #1 for 58 weeks between February 1992 and September 1993. He won the French Open in 1991-92, the first American to win that title twice since Tony Trabert in 1954-55. Courier also won the Australian Open in 1992-93. During that three-year period he went to the final of Wimbledon in 1993 and the US Open in 1991. When he made the 1993 Wimbledon final it made him the youngest player ever to make the final of all four Grand Slam events, at 22 years, 11 months.

Courier never again reached the heights of 1991-93, supplanted as world #1 and the best American player by Pete Sampras. Courier reached one more Grand Slam semi-final, that at the 1995 US Open, where he lost to Sampras. However, Courier won 23 professional singles titles in his career, along with his four Grand Slams, and six doubles titles, and he also won five Masters 1000 singles events. He retired from competitive tennis in 2000. After retirement Courier became a popular analyst for tennis on television. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005.