U.S. Pro Tennis Championships

U.S. Pro Tennis Championships was the oldest professional tennis tournament played until its final year of 1999.

American's first prominent professional player, Vinny Richards, arranged what became the first U.S. Pro by negotiating with Doc Kelton to have a tournament played on the Notlek courts, located at 119th Street and Riverside Drive in Brooklyn, New York, on September 23–25, 1927. Richards, fellow C.C. Pyle tour pro Howard Kinsey, and teaching pros from the eastern U.S. comprised the field, with Richards defeating Kinsey in the final in straight sets.

The tournament was subsequently held annually at various locations including the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York City, the South Shore Tennis Club in Chicago, in Rye, New York, at the Terrace Club in Brooklyn, the Chicago Town and Tennis Club in Chicago, at various clubs around Cleveland, Ohio, and Cleveland Arena in Cleveland. Its final permanent home was the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, where it was held from 1964 to 1999. It was a Grand Prix tournament with the advent of open tennis in 1968. It then became a tournament on the ATP Tour with reorganization of the top tier pro tour.

At Longwood, the tournament was played first played on a hardcourt. It was later played on Har-Tru clay courts and was an important tune-up event for the U.S. Open. When the Open moved to hardcourts in Flushing Meadows in 1978, the U.S. Pro did not follow suit, electing instead to hold its tournament during the U.S. clay court season in early summer instead of during its hitherto pre-Open (late summer) time slot. Remaining a clay event into the 1990s, the U.S. Pro was a non-ATP exhibition event during the early 1990s. It was only in its final three years that the tournament was once again an ATP event and played on hardcourts.

Past winners

ingles

Notes:

*This tournament, the first pro event open to amateur players, is considered by some as both the U.S. Pro Tennis Championship and first "U.S. Open" event "(then the U.S. Open was again held from 1938 to 1941 at Greenbrier but as a separate event from the U.S. Pro held in Chicago or in L.A)".

**This tournament, considered the U.S. Pro for the season, was billed the World Pro Championship. In 1951 a separate U.S. Pro and World Pro in Cleveland were held.

*** As with the 1950, these tournaments were billed the World Pro tournament but are considered to be the U.S. Pro event

**** From 1990 to 1995, the U.S. Pro event appears to have been an exhibition and not part of the ATP tour.