| US Open 1989-1990 |

In 1986 only one American player advanced to the quarterfinals, and it was the worst tournament for the Yankees of the Open era at the time. The left-handed legends, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe had their best times behind with little chance to get another major title. The crisis of the American tennis was intermediate though, a new wave of exceptionally capable Americans emerged in the late 80s: Bollettieri’s “childs” Andre Agassi,  Jim Courier and David Wheaton, plus a bit younger Michael Chang and Pete Sampras – all those boys displayed a potential which might have suggested they could achieve much more than their predecessors  in general (the weakest link Wheaton dropped out of “the magnificent 5” around 1992, but soon was replaced by Todd Martin, who was anonymous across the decades) #. They made a lot of buzz in 1989, matured within the year, and a final of the US Open 1990 was an internal U.S. affair, the first one since 1979 when McEnroe ousted Vitas Gerulaitis. Sampras rather unexpectedly outclassed Agassi in the ’90 final, and a new great rivalry – that lasted 12 years – was established out there. It wasn’t fluke they met in the final, during those two tournaments they defeated five players who had won 12 previous editions (Sampras overcame Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl & McEnroe whilst Agassi took care of Connors & Boris Becker)!

US Open 1988-89                                                              US Open 1990-91

# Five-best under-21 Americans in 10-year intervals:

1980
2 – McEnroe (21 years old), 28 – Purcell (21), 41 – Buehning (20), 85 – Wilkison (21), 90 – Winitsky (21)
1990
4 – Agassi (20), 5 – Sampras (19), 15 – Chang (18), 25 – Courier (20), 27 – Wheaton (21)
2000
156 – Roddick (18), 181 – Dent (19), 212 – Blake (21), 305 – Fish (19), 343 – Kendrick (21)
2010
127 – Young (21), 173 – Harrison (18), 366 – El Mihdawy (21), 472 – Cox (18), 496 – Kudla (18)