US Open (tennis)

GrandSlamTournaments
Name = US Open
Current = 2008 US Open (tennis)

Logo size = 100px
Bar Color = #B2C8FF
City = Flushing, New York City
Country = USA
Venue = USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
Surface = DecoTurf / Outdoors
Men Draw = 128S / 128Q / 64D
Women Draw = 128S / 96Q / 64D
Prize Money = US$19,600,000
Web site = http://www.usopen.org
Notes = The US Open tennis tournament is one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, first contested in 1881. It was the final event of the Grand Slam Tournament.

The tournament is chronologically the fourth and final event of the "Grand Slam" tennis tournaments. It is held annually in August and September over a two-week period (the weeks before and after Labor Day weekend). The main tournament consists of five championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players. Since 1978, the tournament has been played on acrylic hard court at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York City.

The US Open differs from the other three Grand Slam tournaments in that there are final-set tiebreaks. In the other three majors, the fifth set for the men and the third set for the women continue until someone wins by two games.

History

The US Open has grown from an exclusive entertainment event for high society to, as of 2008, a championship for more than 600 male and female professional players who compete for a total of over US$19 million in prize money, with $1.5 million for each winner of the singles tournaments.

The US Open for men originally was a separate tournament from the US Open for women. The U.S. National Singles Championship (men only) was first held in August 1881 at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. Only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter. From 1884 through 1911, the tournament used a challenge system whereby the defending champion automatically qualified for the next year's final. In 1915, the tournament moved to the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, New York. From 1921 through 1923, it was played at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia and returned to Forest Hills in 1924.

Six years after the men's nationals were first 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 first U.S. National Men's Doubles Championship was held in 1900. Tournaments were held in the east and the west of the country to determine the best two teams, which competed in a play-off to see who would play the defending champions in the challenge round.

The open era began in 1968 when all five events were merged into the US Open, held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York. The 1968 combined tournament was open to professionals for the first time. That year, 96 men and 63 women entered the event, and prize money totaled $100,000.

In 1970, the US Open became the first of the Grand Slam tournaments to use a tiebreak at the end of a set.

The US Open was originally played on grass until Forest Hills switched to Har-Tru clay courts in 1975. In 1978, the event moved from Forest Hills to its current home at Flushing Meadows, and the surface changed again, to the current DecoTurf. (Jimmy Connors is the only man to have won the US Open on more than one surface. He won it on all three surfaces. Female player Chris Evert won it on two surfaces.)

Player challenges of line calls

In 2006, the US Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to implement instant replay reviews of calls, using Hawk-Eye. Available only on the stadium courts (Ashe and Armstrong), each player was allowed two challenges per set plus one additional challenge during a tiebreak but was not penalized with the loss of a challenge if it was upheld. The USTA announced that starting in 2008, each player will be given three challenges per set with an extra challenge if the set goes to a tiebreak.

Once a challenge is made, the official review (a 3-D computer simulation based on multiple high-speed video cameras) is shown to the players, umpires, and audience on the stadium video boards and to the television audience at the same time. The system is said to be accurate to within five millimeters.

During the 2006 US Open, 30.5% of men's challenges and 35.85% of women's challenges were overturned. [ [http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/instant_replay/instant_replay.html?promo=homepage Replay Statistics] ] During the 2007 US Open, 95 out of 320 challenges were overturned - or 30.6%.Fact|date=March 2008

Grounds

The DecoTurf surface at the US Open is a fast surface, having slightly less friction and producing a lower bounce compared to other hard courts (most notably the Rebound Ace surface formerly used at the Australian Open). For this reason, many serve-and-volley players have found success at the US Open.

The main court is located at the 24,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, named after Arthur Ashe, the African American tennis player who won the inaugural men's final of the US Open in 1968. (In that same year, British player Virginia Wade won the first woman's US Open final, five months after she turned professional.) Court Number 2 is Louis Armstrong Stadium, which stood as the main stadium until the completion of Ashe stadium. Court Number 3 is the Grandstand Stadium, which is attached to the Louis Armstrong Stadium. Sidecourts 4, 7 and 11 each have a seating capacity of over 1,000.

All the courts used by the US Open 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 make it easier to see the ball.

The USTA National Tennis Center was renamed in honor of four-time tournament champion and tennis pioneer Billie Jean King during the 2006 US Open.

Prize Money

The total prize money for the 2008 US Open is divided as follows:

ingles (Men & Women - 128 Draws)

Men's and Women's Qualifying (128 Draws)

Current champions

*Men: Roger Federer flagicon|Switzerland, who defeated Andy Murray flagicon|United Kingdom in the men's final on September 8, 2008.
*Women: Serena Williams flagicon|USA, who defeated Jelena Janković flagicon|Serbia in the final on September 7, 2008.

All-foreign singles finals

Since the U.S. Championships began in 1881, there have been only five years when an American reached neither the men's nor women's singles final: 1959, 1973, 1988, 2004, and 2007.

Men's singles

*1926 - Rene Lacoste (France) d. Jean Borotra (France)
*1933 - Fred Perry (United Kingdom) d. Jack Crawford (Australia)
*1956 - Ken Rosewall (Australia) d. Lew Hoad (Australia)
*1957 - Mal Anderson (Australia) d. Ashley Cooper (Australia)
*1958 - Ashley Cooper (Australia) d. Mal Anderson (Australia)
*1959 - Neale Fraser (Australia) d. Alex Olmedo (Peru)
*1960 - Neale Fraser (Australia) d. Rod Laver (Australia)
*1961 - Roy Emerson (Australia) d. Rod Laver (Australia)
*1962 - Rod Laver (Australia) d. Roy Emerson (Australia)
*1964 - Roy Emerson (Australia) d. Fred Stolle (Australia)
*1965 - Manuel Santana (Spain) d. Cliff Drysdale (South Africa)
*1966 - Fred Stolle (Australia) d. John Newcombe (Australia)
*1969 - Rod Laver (Australia) d. Tony Roche (Australia)
*1970 - Ken Rosewall (Australia) d. Tony Roche (Australia)
*1973 - John Newcombe (Australia) d. Jan Kodes (Czechoslovakia)
*1986 - Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia) d. Miloslav Mecir (Czechoslovakia)
*1987 - Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia) d. Mats Wilander (Sweden)
*1988 - Mats Wilander (Sweden) d. Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia)
*1989 - Boris Becker (West Germany) d. Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia)
*1997 - Patrick Rafter (Australia) d. Greg Rusedski (United Kingdom)
*1998 - Patrick Rafter (Australia) d. Mark Philippoussis (Australia)
*2004 - Roger Federer (Switzerland) d. Lleyton Hewitt (Australia)
*2007 - Roger Federer (Switzerland) d. Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
*2008 - Roger Federer (Switzerland) d. Andy Murray (United Kingdom)

Women's singles

*1937 - Anita Lizana (Chile) d. Jadwiga Jedrzejowska (Poland)
*1959 - Maria Bueno (Brazil) d. Christine Truman Janes (United Kingdom)
*1963 - Maria Bueno (Brazil) d. Margaret Court (Australia)
*1973 - Margaret Court (Australia) d. Evonne Goolagong Cawley (Australia)
*1988 - Steffi Graf (West Germany) d. Gabriela Sabatini (Argentina)
*1990 - Gabriela Sabatini (Argentina) d. Steffi Graf (West Germany)
*1992 - Monica Seles (Yugoslavia) d. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (Spain)
*1993 - Steffi Graf (Germany) d. Helena Sukova (Czech Republic)
*1994 - Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (Spain) d. Steffi Graf (Germany)
*2003 - Justine Henin (Belgium) d. Kim Clijsters (Belgium)
*2004 - Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) d. Elena Dementieva (Russia)
*2005 - Kim Clijsters (Belgium) d. Mary Pierce (France)
*2006 - Maria Sharapova (Russia) d. Justine Henin (Belgium)
*2007 - Justine Henin (Belgium) d. Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia)

Champions

* Men's Singles
* Women's Singles
* Men's Doubles
* Women's Doubles
* Mixed Doubles
* Singles U.S. Open Final Appearances

ee also

* The US Open Series
* List of tennis players

Media coverage

The 2008 Open is being broadcast in the United States on CBS and USA Network. Beginning in 2009, the tournament will be broadcast on CBS, ESPN2, and Tennis Channel.

The tournament is being broadcast in Canada on TSN, TSN HD and TSN2. The tournament is being broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports Xtra, and Eurosport. In Spain, the tournament is being broadcast on Digital plus and Antena 3. In India and Pakistan, the US Open is being broadcast on the channel Ten Sports. In Germany, it is being broadcast by Eurosport.

References

External links

* [http://www.usopen.org/ Official Site]