Tournament History

The U.S. Open, which celebrates its 122nd anniversary this year, has not always been the two-week extravaganza it is today. The change from an amateur event known as the U.S. National Championships to the US Open – the richest professional tennis event Click here for US Open Tennis tickets. In the world open to amateurs and professionals – is the most obvious metamorphosis. But there are many other more subtle changes.

The five major championships that constitute the US Open – men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles – grew from a single men’s tournament held as an entertainment diversion for high society at the turn of the 20th century.

The first U.S. National Singles Championship for men was held at the Newport Casino, Newport, R.I., in August 1881. Only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter. That was the beginning of a 34-year reign for Newport as the tennis center of the country.

Men’s doubles was played in conjunction with men’s singles at the Newport Casino for the first seven years, 1881-86, before it began moving to various sites. In fact, the five major events of the U.S. National Championships/ US Open have been played at nine different sites throughout their histories, including the USTA National Tennis Center. Men’s doubles has been played at eight of those sites.

Beginning in 1900, the U.S. National Men’s Doubles Championship was layered, with tournaments held in the East and West and sectional winners playing off to determine which team would meet the defending champions in the challenge round. By 1907, there were three preliminary sectional tournaments. The 1918 U.S. National Men’s Doubles Championship was a playing-through tournament, the sectional doubles and resulting challenge round having been abandoned. In 1919, the format of qualifying sectional winners and a challenge round was used for the final time. Thereafter, the format for men’s doubles hardly changed, except for the switch to best-of-three sets from best-of-five in 1993.

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In 1887, six years after the men’s nationals were instituted as an annual event, the first official U.S. Women’s National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, joined by women’s doubles in 1889. Of the five major events that constitute the U.S. Open, women’s singles has been the least traveled. U.S. women’s singles has been contested in just three places: Philadelphia Cricket Club, West Side Tennis Club and the USTA National Tennis Center.

The U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship officially began in 1892 and was played in conjunction with the women’s singles and doubles until 1921. Starting in 1921, mixed doubles was combined with the men’s doubles program of the U.S. National Championships.

The advent of the Open Era in 1968 consolidated all five major U.S. tennis championships into the US Open at West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. A total of $100,000 was offered to the field of 96 men and 63 women who entered men’s and women’s singles and doubles that year. Today the U.S. Open offers more than $14.5 million to a field of more than 600 men and women, including qualifying.