U.S. Open

U.S. Open, international tennis tournament, the fourth and final of the major events that make up the annual Grand Slam of tennis (the other tournaments are the Australian Open, the French Open, and the Wimbledon Championships).

(Read Britannica’s biography of Chris Evert.)

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The U.S. Open is held each year over a two-week period in late August and early September. Since 1978 all the U.S. Open championships have been played on the acrylic hard courts of the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) National Tennis Center (renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006) in Flushing Meadows, Queens, N.Y. The U.S. Open consists of championships in five main categories: men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles.

The U.S. Open developed from one of the oldest tennis championships in the world: the U.S. National Championship, which was established in 1881 as a national men’s singles and doubles competition. The tournament was open only to clubs that were members of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA; now the USTA). The event expanded to include women’s singles in 1887, women’s doubles in 1889, and mixed doubles in 1892. The five championships were contested at different locales until 1968, when all five tournaments were finally hosted at a common site (the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, N.Y.), whereupon the championships became known as the U.S. Open. The tournament moved to Flushing Meadows in 1978. As a unique result of this decentralized history, the tournament has been played on a variety of surfaces: from 1881 to 1974, it was played on grass; from 1975 to 1977, on clay; and since 1978, on DecoTurf, a fast hard-court surface comprising an acrylic layer over an asphalt or concrete base.

The main court at the U.S. Open (and the National Tennis Center’s largest venue) is the 22,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is followed in capacity by the 10,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium, the 6,000-seat Grandstand Stadium, and smaller side courts. All courts are lit and therefore conducive to night play, and the inner courts are painted blue to facilitate the tracking of the ball. Like most major championships tied to professional sports, the U.S. Open is as much a media extravaganza and tourist attraction as a sporting event, with special musical acts and family activities scheduled throughout the two-week period.

One of the most notable moments in U.S. Open history took place in the 1992 semifinal match between American Michael Chang and Stefan Edberg of Sweden. Edberg emerged victorious, but only after a grueling five hours and 26 minutes, defeating Chang 6–7, 7–5, 7–6, 5–7, 6–4. That is believed to be the longest match in U.S. Open history. The longest women’s match in the competition’s history—in terms of number of games—occurred in 1898 (before the institution of tiebreakers), when the five-set match between Juliette Atkinson (the winner) and Marion Jones extended to 51 games. Arthur Ashe won the U.S. Open in 1968, but because of his amateur status (he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army at the time) he was unable to accept the prize money. Another interesting side note in U.S. Open history is that Jimmy Connors is the only male to have won Open singles titles on all three of the Open’s surfaces, while Chris Evert (this author) is the only woman to have won on two surfaces, winning a record six U.S. Open titles in all (1975–78, 1980, 1982).

This author’s first experience playing a Grand Slam tournament was as a 16-year-old at the U.S. Open (in Forest Hills), and her last Grand Slam appearance (18 years later) was also at the U.S. Open (in Flushing Meadows). In the years between she won 18 singles Grand Slam championships, but those won at home, at the U.S. Open, will always be very special.

U.S. Open singles champions

The table provides a chronological list of U.S. Open singles champions.

U.S. Open doubles champions

The table provides a chronological list of U.S. Open doubles champions.