U S Open : The history and beyond
Name game
The U.S.Open Tennis Championship, best known as the U.S.Open.
Type of the court
The tournament has been played on the hard courts with base made of asphalt or concrete with the surface made of an acrylic layer.
Venue
The U.S.T.A Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre is located in the flushing meadows corona park in New York City. The facility contains total of twenty two hard courts that includes three stadium or show courts Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium and Grandstand.
The venue is named as USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre since 1978.
Inauguration
The U.S.Open Tournament’s inception dated back to August 1881.
Total editions of the tournament
The U.S.Open has successfully completed its 143rd edition in 2023.
Indoor or outdoor stadiums?
It has been played outdoors since the inception of the tournament.
Laboratory for testing surfaces
The U.S.open is the only tennis tournament in the history of the game that has been played on three different surfaces.
Grass courts : 1881–1974
Clay courts : 1975–1977
Hard courts : since 1978
Since 1978 the courts are acrylic hard courts, and that surfaces of the courts turned blue in 2007. There is no other tennis tournament that has witnessed these much of changes, that’s why it can be called as a ‘laboratory for testing surfaces.’
Prize money
The U.S.Open Tennis Tournament gives away the highest winning total prize money in the history of the game or as compared to the other three Grand Slams. The winners gets
singles $3000000
Runner’s up $1500000
The Total prize money $65000020
Total categories
The tournament has been played in five categories, men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Largest stadium of the U.S.T.A.
The main or the centre court at the U.S.Open is the Arthur Ashe Stadium with the capacity of 22000 seating capacity followed by the Louis Armstrong Stadium with 10000 seating capacity.
You may find it unmatched
U.S.Open is the is the only tournament in the history of the game that has been played since it’s inception. The only Slam that was neither affected by cancellation due to World War 1 and World war 2 nor deterred by covid -19.
Longest match of the tournament
In the year of 1992, the semi-final match between the American Michael Chang the Swedish Stefan Edberg remained the longest match of the history of the tournament. Atlast the Edberg emerged victorious with 6–7, 7–5, 7–6, 5–7 and 6–4, but it took intolerable five hours and twenty six minutes.
Most successful players at the tournament
Men’s category
The U.S.open has been won record five times by the three male players are Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors.
Women’s category
The highest trophy lifters in the category are Chris Evert and Serena Williams with record six times.
Who makes the U S.open trophies?
Since 1987 the luxury jewellery makers Tiffany and company have been making the winners trophies every year. They have made over sixty trophies for the U.S.T.A. The dimensions of the each trophy are Eighteen inches tall with the ten pounds of weight.
Do the winners used to get original trophies?
The players don’t receive the original trophies at the tournament but the players are given the replica with the same dimensions as the original trophies at the U.S.open but at the rest of the three Grand Slams, the players are given a replica of 3/4 size of the original trophy.
Why Billie Jean King is special?
During the season of 2006 U.S.Open the complex renamed as “ U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre” in the honour of the great player of the tournament ‘Billie Jean King’ who won the tournament four times and also widely accepted as the early pioneers of the game.
What’s unique at the U.S.Open?
The U.S.Open is the only Grand Slam in the game to use tie breaker at 6–6 points in the final set. However Wimbledon recently decided to add a standard tie breaker at 12–12 in the final set.
What is the format of the match?
Women’s singles and men’s and women’s doubles matches are played in best of three format, while men’s singles is played to best of five-sets format.
Is the U.S.Open faster than Wimbledon?
Rafael Nadal(spain) and Andy Murray (Great Britain) have mentioned that Wimbledon is still the faster surface compared to the U.S.Open but the balls used at the U.S.Open are lighter and hence zip through quite quickly.
Who are the youngest to win the U.S.Open?
Pete Sampras is the youngest Men’s singles champion in the U.S.Open history. In 1990 when he defeated Andre Agassi in the straight sets. when he achieved the milestone, he was just 19 years and 28 days old. While Tracy Austin is the youngest women’s singles champion who defeated Chris Evert in the title match in 1979 at the age of 18 years and 8 months.
Recalcirtant America’s autocratic dominance
Americans are leading with unprecedented and overwhelming numbers with the rest as there is no other country to offer a little bit of fight. It’s clear autocracy and recalcitranism of the U.S.A.
In the male category, the U.S.A. is much ahead of the rest with 85 titles. Male players from Australia have won 18. Great Britain and Switzerland won 5–5.
In the women’s singles too the U.S.A. leads with 93 titles. Australia holds second with 6 titles while Belgium and Germany got 5–5 on their side.
Mints more money
The U.S.Open gives away more money to players than Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
Who made Most appearances at finals?
Bill Tilden and Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, each featured in ten U.S.Open singles finals.
Open era finals record
Pete Sampras and Chris Evert played eight and nine finals respectively at an Open Era.
What is Open Era?
Open era or what is best known in other words as a ‘Current period of professional tennis’ is considered as an Open Era from 1968.
Who played the most U.S.Open tournaments?
Vic Seixas Jr in the men played in record 28 U.S.Open while Martina Navratilova in women category played in 21 consecutive U.S.Open between 1973–1993.
Most singles matches victory record
Chris Evert won 101 women’s singles matches at the tournament while Jimmy Connors won 98.
Unseeded champions who have won the U.S.Open tournament
Kim Clijsters in 2009 Sloane Stephens in 2017 and Emma Raducanu in 2021 lifted the title trophies after entering the tournament as an unseeded players.
Special Williams sisters
In 2001, Williams sisters (Serena Williams and Venus Williams) became the first sisters to meet in the Grand Slam final at the U S.Open.
Billie Jean kings threatening magic
Tennis became the first sport and the U.S.Open became the first Slam to offer equal prize money to men and women. In 1973 when Billie Jean King threatened tournament to boycott it for not paying equally.
What is Super saturday?
In the year of 1984 when big stars-studded affair went on as the three classic matches that featuring John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Ivan Lendl.
John McEnroe said on the occasion after he won. “It had to be the best day for fans at the Open ever.”
It’s special and perpetual
Jimmy Connors is the only individual to have won the U.S.Open singles title on all three surfaces (grass,clay and hard court)
What else is interesting about the U.S.Open?
- Arthur Ashe won the U.S.Open in the 1968 but he was unable to accept prize money due to his amateur status of lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He also the only African-American player to win U.S.Open in 1968.
- Chris Evert is the only women’s player who won on two different surfaces. She is also a record six time U.S.Open winner.
- Arthur Ashe became the first men’s singles champion of the renamed U.S.Open in 1968.
- The approximate number of ball boys and ball girls in a match at U.S.Open is 80.
- Ivan Lendl played in record eight straight finals at the U S.Open . He lost first three won the next three and lost last two.
- The oldest player in the men’s category in 2018 was the Roger Federer from Basel, Switzerland. While to be oldest player in the women’s category was the Patty Schnyder.
- Chris Evert and Serena Williams are tied for the most titles in women’s singles category with six each.
Credit as sources and inspiration
U.S.OPEN.ORG
Eurosports
Douglas
Olympics
Britannica
Tennis-theme
ATP Tours
SKY Sports
CBS News
Tennis tours
Wikipedia
Business standard
Essentially sports
Merchant of Tennis
Town & country magazine
The N Y Times
The Times
The Guardian
