US Open: History
The US Open is one of the oldest tennis tournaments which was originally called the U.S. National Championship.
The US Open is one of the oldest tennis tournaments which was originally called the U.S. National Championship.
The first match under it was played in 1881. In the first few years, only men played in the event at Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. Six years later, the first official U.S. Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in 1887, accompanied by the U.S. Women's National Doubles Championship and U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship.
In the first year only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were allowed to participate. From 1884 to 1911, the tournament adopted a challenge system where in the defending champion automatically qualified for the next year's final.
In 1915, the US Championship moved to the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, New York. It moved to the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia in 1921. It returned to Forest Hills in 1924.
The Open era began in 1968 and all five events were merged into the US Open. It became open for professionals. In 1970, the US Open became the first of the Grand Slam tournaments to use a tiebreak at the end of a set. It is also the only Grand Slam that continues to use the tiebreak in the 5th set. All the other three Grand Slams play it out with service games in the 5th set.