The History of the US Open
The US Open is the last of the four major events that compose the Grand Slam (the others are the Australian Open, Wimbledon Championships, and French Open) of tennis and typically takes place every year in New York over two weeks in late August and early September. Championship tournaments are contested in five categories: men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.
The origins of the US Open can be traced back to the U.S. National Championship, which was created in 1881 and only featured a men’s singles and doubles tournament. In addition, it was only open to U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association member clubs. Women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles tournaments were added in 1887, 1889, and 1892, respectively. Yet, these tournaments were all hosted at different venues for more than 65 years. They were consolidated in 1968 to form the US Open and held at the West Side Tennis Club in Queens.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows has hosted the tournament every year since 1978. That year also marked a change in playing surface as organizers switched to DecoTurf, which features an acrylic layer atop a concrete or asphalt base. Matches were played on clay courts three years prior and grass courts from 1881 to 1974. The main court at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is the 22,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium. The center also features the 10,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium and 6,000-seat Grandstand Stadium.
Richard Sears won the men’s singles draw in the first-ever U.S. Open in 1881. He won the tournament in each of the following six years before Henry Slocum won his first back-to-back championships in 1888. Ellen Hansell was the first woman to win the US Open in 1887. Lawrence Doherty of the United Kingdom was the first non-American man to win the US Open in 1903, while Molla Bjurstedt of Norway became the first non-American woman to win in 1915. The duos of Clarence Clark and Fred Taylor and Margaret Ballard and Bertha Townsend were the first men’s and women’s doubles champions, respectively.
Today, it is far less common for American men or women to win the event. Americans Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick won back-to-back in 2002 and 2003, but no American man has won the tournament since. Recent winners of the men’s draw include Russian Daniil Medvedev (2021), Spaniard Rafael Nadal (2019, 2017, 2013, and 2010), and Novak Djokovic (2018, 2015, and 2011). Sloane Stephens (2017) is the last American woman to win the US Open.
The US Open isn’t just a highly-anticipated event among players because it is the season’s final major championship. It also offers the largest purse in the sport. More than $53 million, including $3 million each to the winners of the men’s and women’s singles draw, was distributed to players based on performance at the 2020 US Open. Due largely to the advocacy efforts (and the promise of a boycott of the 1973 US Open) of Billie Jean King, the US Open was also the first of the four Grand Slam events to offer equal pay to male-female players.
