Winning in sport is tough, but when you get on a roll it can become a habit. In years gone by, winning became exactly that for Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter, Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal across the North American hard-court swing.
During their careers, those four greats all completed one of the ATP Tour’s unique accomplishments at the Cincinnati Open. Since the ATP Masters 1000 series began in 1990, they are the only players to have backed up a title run at the Omnium Banque National présenté par Rogers by claiming the trophy at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Ohio that same season.
Cracking the winning code consecutively in Canada and Cincinnati has proven tough even for some of the ATP Tour’s most iconic stars. Yet former World No. 1s Agassi (1995), Rafter (1998), Roddick (2003) and Nadal (2013) all dug deep win both hard-court events in the same season. All except Agassi also went on to win the US Open in the same year.
Ahead of the 2024 edition of the Cincinnati Open, which begins on Monday in Mason, Ohio, ATPTour.com looks back at the four champions who have tasted back-to-back Masters 1000 success in North America.
Andre Agassi – 1995
In 1995, Agassi arrived in Montreal seeking to consolidate his position as World No. 1 at the Omnium Banque National présenté par Rogers. Two weeks and 10 wins later, the American stood on centre court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center having become the first man to win the Canada-Cincinnati Masters 1000 double.
The American had already captured hard-court titles earlier that year at the Australian Open and in San Jose, Miami and Washington. The fact he prevailed from the Montreal and Cincinnati fields was therefore not a huge surprise, yet the way Agassi clinched his back-to-back Masters 1000 crowns was almost as impressive as the novel achievement itself.
The 25-year-old dropped just two sets across 10 matches in Montreal and Cincinnati, and he defeated Top 10 opponents in both finals. After notching his third victory of the year against World No. 2 Pete Sampras to successfully defend his title in Canada, Agassi brought some of his best tennis to his homeland with a dominant run in Cincinnati.
With a week between the events, Agassi arrived in Ohio rested and refreshed. His only moment of peril came when he was forced to recover from being bagelled in the second set of his second-round clash against former World No. 12 Alberto Berasategui. Agassi did so, and eventually overcome two-time defending champ and World No. 5 Michael Chang 7-5, 6-2 in the final.
Agassi notched another ATP Tour crown in New Haven before his 26-match winning streak came to and end against Sampras in the US Open final. Despite that disappointment in New York, he could look back on a stunning summer in which he had picked up his sixth and seventh Masters 1000 crowns, respectively, en route to securing a slice of ATP Tour history.
Patrick Rafter – 1998
Rafter climbed to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time in July 1999, famously holding the position for just one week. Rewind a year and it was his standout results in the 1998 North American summer that built the foundations for his rise to the top.
The way Rafter flipped the script within two of his tougher Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalries was key to his double triumph in North America. After notching just his second win in eight tour-level meetings against Richard Krajicek to become the first man in 10 years to win the Canadian Masters 1000 event without dropping a set, he breezed into the Cincinnati final for the loss of just one set. Awaiting the Australian was Pete Sampras, who had triumphed in the pair’s eight previous encounters.
Even if he was full of confidence from claiming his maiden Masters 1000 crown in Toronto, Rafter may have quickly felt in familiar territory against Sampras after the American charged to the first set for the loss of one game. Yet the calm and collected Australian retained his composure to battle back for a 1-6, 7-6(2) 6-4 victory and ensure he emulated Agassi’s historic ‘Summer Sweep’.
“Well, winning becomes a habit,” said Rafter, who beat Sampras again a month later en route to the title at the US Open, after his Cincinnati win. “You just go out and play and things work for you. Every decision you make comes off. But then, you know, you can lose it very quickly as well. At this stage, the decisions I made are working. You can ask Andre that. You can ask Pete that, he’ll probably say the same thing.”
Andy Roddick – 2003
An all-American final between two good friends had home fans gripped at the 2003 Cincinnati Open.
Enjoying the summer of his career until that point, the fast-rising 21-year-old Andy Roddick powered into the championship match in Ohio without losing a set. The World No. 7 deployed his huge serve and powerful all-around game with all the confidence of a man who had arrived in Ohio fresh from downing Roger Federer and David Nalbandian to clinch his maiden Masters 1000 title in Montreal.
On the other side of the net was Roddick’s long-time friend Mardy Fish, who had spent his junior days living with the Roddick family in Boca Raton, Florida, where the pair trained together. Although Roddick later acknowledged he found it tough competing against a good friend in such a big match, he eventually cut through the tension after saving two championship points to pull off a 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(4) triumph.
“It’s tough,” reflected Roddick after outlasting Fish across two hours and 29 minutes. “I wouldn’t have wanted this to end any other way, but definitely as he was walking off, I felt for him. I’d have no problem if I didn’t really know the guy or if I just said ‘Hi’ in passing sometimes, but to know someone pretty well and know what they’re thinking and what they’re going through, it sucked, I guess.”
Just as Rafter had in 1998, Roddick went on to win the US Open in September, defeating Nalbandian once again before he beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets to win the first and only major of his career.
Rafael Nadal – 2013
Nadal’s 2013 season was one of the greatest of his historic career. The Spaniard won 10 tour-level trophies — bettered only by the 11 he collected in 2005 — while he tallied a staggering 75-7 win-loss record.
However, when the Spaniard arrived in Montreal in 2013 he was aiming to bounce back from a disappointing first-round Wimbledon exit to Belgian Steve Darcis. Nadal cruised through his first three matches in Quebec and then met Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Two months after their five-set epic at Roland Garros, Nadal once again beat the Serbian, this time 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2). With his victory, Nadal recorded his first win against Djokovic on hard courts in three years and set himself up to down home favourite Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-2 in the final for his second Canadian Masters 1000 crown.
The following week in Cincinnati, Nadal set about ensuring that his Wimbledon disappointment quickly became an even more distant memory. He survived a three-set scare from then-22-year-old Grigor Dimitrov before he beat Federer 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals. It was the Spaniard’s third consecutive win against his great rival. Nadal then beat Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals and John Isner 7-6(8), 7-6(3) in the final to lift the trophy in Cincinnati for the first time.
“It means a lot, being able to win two straight titles, two Masters 1000 on hard, back to back, is just amazing for me,” said Nadal, who remains the most recent player to complete the ‘Summer Sweep’. “I never did something like this in all my career. So it was an emotional moment for so many different facts.”
Like Rafter and Roddick, Nadal went on to win the US Open in September, his 13th major crown and second at the US Open.
