1979 US Open – Men's Singles


defeated Vitas Gerulaitis 7–5, 6–3, 6–3 in the final to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 1979 US Open. Jimmy Connors was the defending champion but lost in the semifinals to McEnroe. Connors' loss broke a string of five consecutive men's finals reached, a record since broken by Ivan Lendl.
During the second round Ilie Nastase was defaulted from his match against John McEnroe. The umpire had docked Nastase a point in the third set and then a game in the fourth for arguing and stalling. A near riot followed as the crowd disagreed with the umpire's decision, by throwing beer cans and cups on court. The match was eventually restarted with the umpire being replaced before McEnroe ran out the winner.

Seeds

The seeded players are listed below. John McEnroe is the champion; others show the round in which they were eliminated.
  1. Björn Borg '
  2. Jimmy Connors '
  3. John McEnroe
  4. Vitas Gerulaitis '
  5. Roscoe Tanner '
  6. Guillermo Vilas '
  7. Harold Solomon '
  8. Victor Pecci Sr. '
  9. Eddie Dibbs '
  10. José Luis Clerc '
  11. Brian Gottfried '
  12. Wojtek Fibak '
  13. Gene Mayer '
  14. Tim Gullikson '
  15. Adriano Panatta '
  16. John Alexander

    Draw

Key

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8