History
The U.S. Open originates from two separate tournaments: the men's
tournament and the women's tournament. The event was first held in August
1881 and staged at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island (men's singles
only). The championships were known as the U.S. National Singles
Championship for men. Only clubs that were members of the United States
National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter.
In 1900, U.S. National Men's Doubles Championship was held for the first
time. Tournaments were held in the east and the west of the country in order
to determine the best two teams (sectional winners). These would then
compete in a play-off - the winner would play the defending champions in the
challenge round.
Six years after the men's nationals were held, the first official U.S.
Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket
Club in 1887, followed by the U.S. Women's National Doubles Championship in
1889. The first U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship was held alongside the
Women's Singles and Doubles.
The Open Era began in 1968 when all five events were merged into the
newly named U.S. Open at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens.
Notably, the 1968 combined tournament was opened to professionals; neither
predecessor tournament allowed professionals to compete. That year, 96 men
and 63 women entered the event with prize money amounting to $100,000. The
US Open was originally played on grass until Forest Hills switched to hard
courts in the mid '70s. In 1978, the event moved from Forest Hills to its
current home at Flushing Meadows.
The main court is located at the 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, named
after Arthur Ashe, the great African American tennis player who won the
inaugural men's final of the U.S. Open in 1968. (British tennis great
Virginia Wade won the first woman's U.S. Open final, five months after she
turned professional.) Ashe died in 1993 of AIDS, which he contracted from a
blood transfusion during heart surgery. Court Number 2 is Louis Armstrong
Stadium, which stood as the main stadium until the completion of Ashe
stadium. The surfaces of all its courts are hard, so the U.S. Open always
provides tennis at a very high speed.
The US Open is also unique in that it is the only Grand Slam event where
most of the courts are lit, meaning that TV coverage of the tournament can
extend into prime-time to attract more ratings. This has recently been used
to the advantage of the USA Network on cable and especially for CBS, the
American broadcast TV outlet for the Open for many years, which used its
influence to move the women's singles final to Saturday night to draw better
television ratings.
In 2005, all US Open and US Open Series Tennis courts were given blue
inner courts and green outer courts to show uniformity, and to make it
easier to see the ball. This change has been met with mixed reactions from
both players and fans, many players saying that the ball is no easier to see
with the blue courts.
from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Open_(tennis) |
The
US Open is the richest tennis tournament in the world, both in terms of
prize money (more than $17,000,000 in total) and atmosphere, with its long
history, superb stadiums and thrilling, memorable matches. In 2006
tournament takes place from August 28th to September 10 at the USTA Tennis
Association.
