Identification

• The modern U.S. Open tournament is played at the U.S. Tennis Association's Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York. It is composed of five championships: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles (a man and woman on the same team).
  
  

Early History

• In 1881, the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island, hosted the U.S. Championships. Until 1887, all games were played there.
  
  From 1881 to 1914, the men's tournament was hosted by the casino, although other nearby sites were also used for games. It moved in 1915 to Forest Hills, New York; in 1921 to the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; in 1924 to the West Side Tennis Club in New York; and in 1978 to its current home, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing.
  
  In 1887, the Philadelphia Cricket Club hosted the U.S. Women's National Singles Championships. Women's doubles were added two years later. Both were moved in 1921 to the West Side Tennis Club, where they were joined by the men's games three years later.
  
  

Open Era

• The tournament became known as the U.S. Open in 1968 at the West Side Tennis Club, and women's doubles joined the other tournaments. A total of 96 men and 64 women were allowed to compete. Prize money totaled $100,000.
  
  American Arthur Ashe won the first U.S. Open men's singles title, and Englishwoman Virginia Wade beat American Billie Jean King in the women's championship. Ashe would have been entitled to $14,000 for his victory, but because he was still considered an amateur (he was in the U.S. Army at the time), he received only $20 per day. Wade earned $6,000 for her win.
  
  For the first time, in 1973, men and women earn the same prize money for winning the title: $25,000.
  
  In 1975, the tournament, always played on grass before, was played on hard court for the first ime.
  
  In 1978, the tournament moved to the USTA National Tennis Center. The site was renamed for Billie Jean King in 2006.
  
  In 2008, Roger Federer became the first player to win five consecutive U.S. Open singles titles.
  
  The U.S. Open now draws three-quarters of a million people a year. More than $20 million is paid out to some of the 600 men and women who compete.
  
  

Weather and the Grand Slam

• In 1938, a hurricane that had killed more than 500 people along the East Coast forced officials to postpone the tournament for a record six days. Don Budge eventually won the men's singles title, making him the first player to win the grand slam of tennis: the French Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. (Open) Championship.
  
  In 1962, the championship was postponed for a day by rain. When it was played, Rod Laver won, making him the second player to win the grand slam.
  
  Laver earned his second grand slam in 1969 after another rain-delayed championship.
  
  

Fun Facts

• Jimmy Connors won the tournament on grass in 1974, on clay in 1976 and on hardcourt in 1978. He is the only player to have won titles on all three surfaces.
  
  In 2002, Serena Williams was the most-talked-about player throughout the tournament because she donned a skin-tight, all black, short-legged outfit she described as her "Catwoman" suit.