Who Has Won the Most US Opens? The 12 Players With Five or More

The 2026 US Open crowns its champions this weekend, which makes this the right moment to ask the question every trophy ceremony raises: who owns this tournament?

The answer is not who you'd guess. It isn't Serena, or Federer, or Djokovic — Djokovic isn't in the top ten at all. It's a Norwegian-born woman who won her first title during World War I.

One housekeeping note before the list. We're counting singles titles at the US Open and its predecessor, the U.S. National Championships, which have run continuously since 1881 under the same governing body; 1968 didn't create a new tournament, it just let professionals in. And we're listing twelve players, not ten, because a hard top-ten cut would slice a five-way tie in half. Blame the tie, not us.

The Five-Title Club (tied for 8th)

Five players sit on five US Open singles titles, and every one of them is a legend:

Margaret Court (1962, 1965, 1969, 1970, 1973) straddles the eras — two as an amateur, three after the tournament opened. Steffi Graf (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996) won hers inside an eight-year run of total dominance. Pete Sampras (1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2002) bookended a career with them: his first at 19, the youngest men's champion in tournament history, and his last in the final match he ever played. Roger Federer (2004-08) won five straight — nobody else has done that in the Open era.

And then there's Jimmy Connors (1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1983), who holds what may be the single most unbreakable record in tennis. The US Open is the only major ever contested on three different surfaces — grass at Forest Hills, then clay, then hard courts at Flushing Meadows. Connors won it on all three. No tournament will ever change surfaces twice again, so no one can ever match him.

Six Titles: The Open Era's Best

Chris Evert (1975-78, 1980, 1982) and Serena Williams (1999, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014) are tied at six, and together they lead all players — men or women — in the Open era. Evert won four straight, a feat only two other women have managed.

Serena's six should have been seven. In 2015 she arrived at the Open with the first three majors of the year in hand, one tournament from the first calendar Grand Slam since 1988. She lost in the semifinal to Roberta Vinci — ranked 43rd, 32 years old, in her first major semi, and winless in sets against Serena across four previous meetings. The streak that died that afternoon was 33 major matches long.

Seven Titles: The Old Guard

Four players share seven, and three of them did it before 1930.

Richard Sears won the first seven US championships ever held (1881-87) — every one contested, consecutively, losing just three sets across all seven title matches. His 18-match tournament winning streak stood for 35 years. William Larned took seven between 1901 and 1911. Bill Tilden won six straight (1920-25) plus one more in 1929, and it was Tilden who finally broke Sears' streak in 1922. Helen Wills Moody won seven between 1923 and 1931, at one stretch going years without losing a set in any tournament.

1. Molla Bjurstedt Mallory — 8 Titles

The all-time leader of the US Open, across both men's and women's tennis, is a Norwegian immigrant who won her first American championship in 1915 and her last in 1926: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, with eight — including four in a row from 1915 through 1918.

Her signature moment came in 1921, and it's one of the strangest matches in tennis history. Suzanne Lenglen, the French superstar, reigning Wimbledon champion and the best player in the world, came to America and drew Mallory in the second round. Mallory took the first set 6-2. Deep in the second, Lenglen — coughing, in tears — walked to the umpire, said she was too ill to continue, and retired. American officials accused her of quitting to avoid a loss; the French federation produced medical testimony clearing her, though one of its own vice-presidents resigned in protest, insisting she'd been perfectly fit. Lenglen got her revenge at Wimbledon the following year, beating Mallory 6-2, 6-0 in 26 minutes — still the shortest Grand Slam final ever played.

But the record book doesn't care about the rematch. A century later, Molla Mallory's eight US titles still lead everyone who has ever played.

The biggest names missing: Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, tied on four with John McEnroe, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. Djokovic has won 24 majors and is still chasing his fifth in New York.

Who's your pick to add to this list? Comments below.