Site data updated: 2026-05-28 18:14 UTC

John McEnroe #1 def. V. Gerulaitis #12

5-7 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-3

Match Information

Date	Sep 14, 1981*
Tournament	US Open
Category	Grand Slam
Surface	Hard
Round	SF
Winner	John McEnroe
Score	5-7 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-3
Loser	V. Gerulaitis

No match stats are available for this match.

Pre-match Comparison

Field	John McEnroe	V. Gerulaitis
Country	USA	USA
Birth date	Feb 16, 1959	Jul 26, 1954
Age	22	27
Height	180	183
Handedness	Left-Handed	Right-Handed
Backhand style	—	—
Ranking (entering)	1	12
Ranking points (entering)	0	0
Elo (entering)	2,322	2,027
Career W-L	833–189	527–231
Career earnings	$12,552,132	$2,778,748

Pre-match H2H

John McEnroe 4 – 3 V. Gerulaitis

Path

John McEnroe's path

Date	Round	Opponent	Score	W/L	H2H	Match data
Sep 12, 1981	QF	Ramesh Krishnan	6-7 7-6 6-4 6-2	W	—	Match data
Sep 10, 1981	R16	K. Curren	7-5 6-0 6-1	W	H2H	Match data
Sep 7, 1981	R32	P. Dupre	6-3 6-2 6-3	W	H2H	Match data
Sep 5, 1981	R64	Tom Gullikson	6-3 6-1 6-3	W	—	Match data
Sep 3, 1981	R128	J. Nunez	6-7 6-1 6-3 6-2	W	H2H	Match data

John McEnroe's next match

Date	Round	Opponent	Score	W/L	H2H	Match data
Sep 15, 1981	F	B. Borg	4-6 6-2 6-4 6-3	W	H2H	Match data

V. Gerulaitis's path

Date	Round	Opponent	Score	W/L	H2H	Match data
Sep 12, 1981	QF	B. Manson	6-4 6-2 4-6 6-1	W	H2H	Match data
Sep 10, 1981	R16	Ivan Lendl	6-3 6-4 3-6 3-6 6-4	W	H2H	Match data
Sep 7, 1981	R32	H. Solomon	6-3 6-2 6-3	W	H2H	Match data
Sep 5, 1981	R64	A. Cortes	7-5 6-0 6-1	W	H2H	Match data
Sep 3, 1981	R128	T. Moor	4-6 6-3 6-0 3-6 6-2	W	H2H	Match data