US Open (tennis)

History

1881–1914: Newport Casino

The tournament was first held in August 1881 on grass courts at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island, which is now home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. That year, only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) were permitted to enter. Richard Sears won the men's singles at this tournament, which was the first of his seven consecutive singles titles. From 1884 through 1911, the tournament used a challenge system whereby the defending champion automatically qualified for the next year's final, where he would play the winner of the all-comers tournament.

Only men competed in the U.S. National Championships from 1881 to 1886. It had both a singles and doubles division. The first U.S. Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in 1887. The winner was 17-year-old Philadelphian Ellen Hansell. In that same year, the men's doubles event was played at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club in South Orange, New Jersey. The women's tournament used a challenge system from 1888 through 1918, except in 1917. Between 1890 and 1906, sectional tournaments were held in the east and the west of the country to determine the best two doubles teams, which competed in a play-off for the right to compete against the defending champions in the challenge round.

The 1888 and the 1889 men's doubles events were played at the Staten Island Cricket Club in Livingston, Staten Island, New York. In the 1893 Championships, the men's doubles event was played at the St. George Cricket Club in Chicago. In 1892, the US Mixed Doubles Championship was introduced and, in 1899, the US Women's National Doubles Championship.

In 1915, the national championships was relocated to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City. The effort to relocate it to New York City began as early as 1911 when a group of tennis players, headed by New Yorker Karl Behr, started working on it.

1915–1977: West Side Tennis Club

In early 1915, a group of about 100 tennis players signed a petition in favor of moving the tournament. They argued that most tennis clubs, players, and fans were located in the New York City area and that it would therefore be beneficial for the development of the sport to host the national championships there. This view was opposed by another group of players that included eight former national singles champions. This contentious issue was brought to a vote at the annual USNLTA meeting on February 5, 1915, with 128 votes in favor of and 119 against relocation. In August 1915, the men's singles tournament was held at the West Side Tennis Club, Forest Hills in New York City for the first time, while the women's tournament was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia (the women's singles event was not moved until 1921). From 1917 to 1933, the men's doubles event was held at the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. In 1934, both men's and women's doubles events were held at Longwood Cricket Club.

From 1921 through 1923, the men's singles tournament was played at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia. It returned to the West Side Tennis Club in 1924 following the completion of the 14,000-seat Forest Hills Stadium. Although many already regarded it as a major championship, the International Lawn Tennis Federation did not officially designate it as one of the world's major tournaments until 1924. At the 1922 U.S. National Championships, the draw seeded players for the first time to prevent the leading players from playing each other in the early rounds. From 1935 to 1941 and 1946 to 1967, the men's and women's doubles were held at the Longwood Cricket Club.

Open Era

The Open Era began in 1968 when professional tennis players were allowed to compete for the first time at the Grand Slam tournament held at the West Side Tennis Club. The previous U.S. National Championships had been limited to amateur players. Except for mixed doubles, all events at the 1968 national tournament were open to professionals. That year, 96 men and 63 women entered, and prize money totaled $100,000. In 1970, the US Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to use a tiebreaker to decide a set that reached a 6–6 score in games. From 1970 through 1974, the US Open used a best-of-nine-point sudden-death tiebreaker before moving to the International Tennis Federation's (ITF) best-of-twelve points system. In 1973, the US Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to award equal prize money to men and women, with that year's singles champions, John Newcombe and Margaret Court, receiving $25,000 each. Beginning in 1975, following complaints about the surface and its impact on the ball's bounce, the tournament was played on clay courts instead of grass. This was also an experiment to make it more "TV friendly". The addition of floodlights allowed matches to be played at night.

Since 1978: USTA National Tennis Center

In 1978, the tournament moved from the West Side Tennis Club to the larger and newly constructed USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, 3 mi to the north. The tournament's court surface also switched from clay to hardcourt. Jimmy Connors is the only individual to have won US Open singles titles on all three surfaces (grass, clay, and hardcourt), while Chris Evert is the only woman to have won US Open singles titles on two surfaces (clay and hardcourt).

The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that has been played every year since its inception.

In 2005 the US Open added Wheelchair singles and Wheelchair doubles tournament, while in 2006 the US Open added the Quad singles and Quad doubles tournament. During the 2006 US Open, the complex was renamed to "USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center" in honor of Billie Jean King, a four-time US Open singles champion and one of women's tennis's early pioneers.

With the move to Flushing, the women's final was played between the two men's semi-finals on Saturday, creating a block that came to be known as "Super Saturday". While fan-friendly, the concept proved divisive among players because it gave them less than a day's rest between the semifinal and championship matches. A number of spectators also tended to leave after the women's final, and not stay for the second men's semifinal.

This ended in 2001, when the women's final was moved to prime time to encourage television viewership, citing a major growth in popularity for women's tennis among viewers. This practice was eventually discontinued, and the women's final is currently played in the late afternoon.

For five consecutive tournaments between 2008 through 2012, the men's final was postponed to Monday due to weather. In 2013 and 2014, the USTA intentionally scheduled the men's final on a Monday—a move praised for allowing the men's players an extra day's rest following the semifinals, but drew the ire of the ATP for further deviating from the structure of the other Grand Slams.

In 2015, the US Open returned to a format similar to the other Grand Slams, with women's and men's finals on Saturday and Sunday, and players having an extra day of rest. However, weather delays forced both sets of semifinals to be held on Friday of that year. The men's finals are once again held on Sunday.

In 2018, the tournament was the first Grand Slam tournament that introduced the shot clock to keep a check on the time consumed by players between points. The reason for this change was to increase the pace of play. The clock is placed in a position visible to players, the chair umpire and fans. Since 2020, all Grand Slams, ATP, and WTA tournaments apply this technology.

In 2019, the tournament marked the last time that five-time champion Roger Federer participated. Rafael Nadal won men's singles defeating Daniil Medvedev.

In 2020, the event was held without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the Western & Southern Open was also re-located from Cincinnati in order to create a bio-secure bubble for both events due to their proximity. An announcement that the wheelchair tennis competition would not be held caused controversy, because the USTA did not consult with athletes prior to it, as it had with the players' organizations for the able-bodied competitions. After accusations of discrimination, the USTA was forced to backtrack, admitting that it should have discussed the decision with the wheelchair competitors and offering them either $150,000 to be split between them (compared with $3.3m to be split between the players affected by the cancellation of each of the men's and women's qualifying competition and reductions in the mixed-doubles pool), a competition as part of the Open with 95% of the 2019 prize fund, or a competition to be held at the USTA base in Florida.

Grounds

The grounds of the US Open have 22 outdoor courts (plus 12 practice courts just outside the East Gate) consisting of four "show courts" (Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, the Grandstand, and Court 17), 13 field courts, and 5 practice courts.

The main court is the 23,771-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, which opened in 1997. A US$180 million retractable roof was added in 2016. The stadium is named after Arthur Ashe, who won the men's singles title at the inaugural US Open in 1968, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. The next largest court is the 14,061-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium, which cost US$200 million to build and opened in 2018. The 6,400-seat lower tier of this stadium is separately ticketed, reserved seating while the 7,661-seat upper tier is general admission and not separately ticketed. The third largest court is the 8,125-seat Grandstand in the southwest corner of the grounds, which opened in 2016. Court 17 in the southeast corner of the grounds is the fourth largest stadium. It opened with temporary seating in 2011 and received its permanent seating the following year. It has a seating capacity of 2,800, all of which is general admission and not separately ticketed. It is nicknamed "The Pit", partly because the playing surface is sunk 8 feet into the ground. The total seating capacity for practice courts P1-P5 is 672 and for competition Courts 4–16 is 12,656, itemized as follows:

• Courts 11 & 12: 1,704 each
• Court 7: 1,494
• Court 5: 1,148
• Courts 10 & 13: 1,104 each
• Court 4: 1,066
• Court 6: 1,032
• Court 9: 624
• Courts 14 & 15: 502 each
• Courts 8 & 16: 336 each

All the courts used by the US Open are illuminated, allowing matches and television coverage to extend into the evening.

Surface

From 1978 to 2019, the US Open was played on a hardcourt surface called Pro DecoTurf. It is a multi-layer cushioned surface and classified by the International Tennis Federation as medium-fast. Each August before the start of the tournament, the courts are resurfaced. In March 2020, the USTA announced that Laykold would become the new court surface supplier beginning with the 2020 tournament.

Since 2005, all US Open and US Open Series tennis courts have been painted a shade of blue (trademarked as "US Open Blue") inside the lines to make it easier for players, spectators, and television viewers to see the ball. The area outside the lines is still painted "US Open Green".

Player line call challenges

In 2006, the US Open introduced instant replay reviews of line calls, using the Hawk-Eye computer system. It was the first Grand Slam tournament to use the system. The Open felt the need to implement the system because of the controversial quarterfinal match at the 2004 US Open between Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati, where a number of important line calls went against Williams. Replays on TV showed these calls were incorrect, including one critical point in the match that was incorrectly overruled by the chair umpire. Instant replay was available only on the Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium courts through the 2008 tournament. In 2009, it became available on the Grandstand court. In 2018, all competition courts were outfitted with Hawk-Eye, and all matches in the main draws (Men's and Women's Singles and Doubles) followed the same procedure, whereby each player was allowed three incorrect challenges per set, with one more given in a tiebreak. Player challenges were eliminated in 2021, when the tournament became the second Grand Slam to fully incorporate Hawk-Eye Live, where all line calls are made electronically; the previous year's tournament had also incorporated Hawk-Eye Live on all courts except for Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums to reduce personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2007, JPMorgan Chase renewed its sponsorship of the US Open and, as part of the arrangement, the replay system was renamed to "Chase Review" on in-stadium video and television.

Point and prize money distribution

Ranking points for the men (ATP) and women (WTA) have varied at the US Open through the years. Below is a series of tables for each of the competitions showing the ranking points on offer for each event:

Seniors

Wheelchair

Juniors

Prize money

The total prize money for the 2025 US Open is $90 million, making it the largest package of all Grand Slams and the largest in tournament history. The package is divided as follows:

The men's and women's singles prize money ($63,240,000) accounts for 70.3 per cent of total player base compensation, while men's and women's doubles ($9,560,000), and mixed doubles ($2,360,000) account for 10.6 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively. All prize money for the doubles competitions are distributed per team. The prize money for the wheelchair draw amounts to a total of $1,600,000, plus additional expenses, such as per diem and direct hotel payments.

In 2012, the USTA agreed to increase the US Open prize money to $50.4 million by 2017. As a result, the prize money for the 2013 tournament was $33.6 million, a record $8.1 million increase from 2012. The champions of the 2013 US Open Series also had the opportunity to add $2.6 million in bonus prize money, potentially bringing the total 2013 US Open purse to more than $36 million. In 2014, the prize money was $38.3 million. In 2015, the prize money was increased to $42.3 million. In 2021, the USTA set a new record for the highest prize money and total player compensation in the tournament's history with $57,462,000 and also boosted the prize money for the qualifying tournament to $6 million, a 66% increase over the package in 2019.

The 2023 tournament saw another record, with total prize money reaching $65 million. Efforts were also undertaken to enhance support for participants across all events by implementing expanded player expense assistance measures. This iteration of the tournament introduced substantial changes in player per diem allowances, extending to all competitors. Notably, travel vouchers worth $1,000 have been newly introduced. Moreover, players can receive an additional hotel room or witness a twofold increase in their daily hotel allowance, which has been raised from $300 to $600, provided they choose alternate lodging. Additionally, an elevation in meal allowances and provision of racquet stringing services are also in effect for all participating players.

Champions

Former champions

• Men's singles
• Women's singles
• Men's doubles
• Women's doubles
• Mixed doubles
• All champions

Current champions

Most recent finals

Records

Media and attendance

Media coverage

Main article: List of US Open (tennis) broadcasters

The US Open's website allows viewing of live streaming video, but unlike other Grand Slam tournaments, does not allow watching video on demand. The site also offers live radio coverage.

United States

ESPN took full control of televising the event in 2015. When taking over, ESPN ended 47 years of coverage produced and aired by CBS. ESPN uses ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC for broadcasts, while putting outer court coverage on ESPN+.

Other regions

• Continental Europe – Eurosport
• Latin America & Caribbean – ESPN International
• Middle East & North Africa – beIN Sports
• Southern Africa – SuperSport
• Indian Subcontinent – Star Sports
• Southeast Asia – SPOTV
• Oceania – ESPN International Exceptions
• UK and Ireland – Prime Video (2022), Sky Sports (from 2023)
• Australia – Nine Network and Stan Sport
• Canada – TSN and RDS (ABC is available in selected areas closer to the border)
• China – CCTV and iQIYI
• Japan – Wowow
• Pakistan – PTV Sports
• South Korea – JTBC Source

Recent attendance

Sources: US Open, City University of New York (CUNY)

Notes

References

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