Five youngest tennis players to win their first professional men’s tournament

Aaron Krickstein (Facebook)

On Saturday, Jannik Sinner of Italy won the Sofia Open title by beating Vasek Pospisil of Canada, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 in the final. At the age of 19, Sinner became the youngest player to win an ATP event since 18-year-old Kei Nishikori of Japan won the Delray Beach Tournament in Florida in 2008. However, Sinner or Nishikori, are not among the five youngest players in men’s tennis history to win a men’s professional tennis tournament for the first time. Here are the five youngest players to achieve that mark.

5) Boris Becker–West Germany–17 years, 6 months, 25 days–In 1985, Boris Becker beat South African-American Johan Kriek, 6-2, 6-3 to win the Queen’s Club event leading up to Wimbledon. Ironically, Becker became the youngest Wimbledon champion ever shortly after, as he beat another South African-American Kevin Curren, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in the 1985 Wimbledon final. It would be the first of Becker’s six grand slam singles titles.

4) Guillermo Perez Roldan–Argentina–17 years, 6 months, 22 days–In 1987, Guillermo Perez Roldan won the BMW Open in Munich, by beating Marian Vajda of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 7-6. It would be the first of three wins on clay for Perez Roldan in 1987. Perez Roldan would go on to win nine clay court events in his career. Vajda, meanwhile, is best known for being the future coach of Serbian tennis legend Novak Djokovic.

3) Lleyton Hewitt–Australia–16 years, 10 months, 19 days–In January of 1998, this young Australian tennis sensation rocked the tennis world by winning the Adelaide International. Hewitt defeated fellow Australian Jason Stoltenberg 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 in the final. Hewitt would go on to be number one in the world, and win two grand slam titles–the 2001 U.S. Open and 2002 Wimbledon.

2) Michael Chang–United States–16 years, seven months, four days–On September 26, 1988, while most of the top tennis players were competing at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Chang defeated Kriek 6-2, 6-3 in the final of a tournament in San Francisco. Less than a year later, Chang defeated Sweden’s Stefan Edberg 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to become the youngest grand slam champion ever at 17 years, three months, and 20 days. This would be the only time Chang, a native of Orange County, California, would be a grand slam singles champion. Interestingly though, Chang did go on to coach Nishikori, a position he has held since 2014.

1) Aaron Krickstein–United States–16 years, two months, 13 days–On October 15, 1983, Krickstein was barely 16 years of age when he became the youngest player ever to win a professional men’s tennis tournament. He beat Christoph Zipf of West Germany 7-6, 6-3 to take the title in Tel Aviv, Israel. It would be the first of nine tournament titles for the native of Ann Arbor, Michigan over the next decade. Ironically in 2007, Krickstein’s niece, Morgan Pressel, became the youngest player ever at that point to win a major on the LPGA Tour when she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship from Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 18 years and 313 days.

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