US Open Tennis Championship. The United States Open Tennis Championships; US Open) – is one of four Grand Slam tournaments that are the largest annual tournaments in modern tennis. Therefore, the competition attracts the attention of millions of sports fans.
The US Open is held in New York (USA) on the courts of the local National Tennis Center, and is organized by the US Tennis Association. The main draws of the tournament traditionally take place over two weeks at the end of August – in early September. As a result, winners are identified in nine categories: five – for adults and four – for senior juniors. All courts in the tournament (since 1978) have hard surface, matches are played outdoors.
The tournament dates back to the late 19th century, when it took place for the first time in August 1881. But then it was held under the name «National US Championships for men» on grass courts in Newport (Rhode Island) and only in the men's singles. Moreover, only member clubs of the US National Lawn Tennis Association could participate in the tournament. The first singles winner was American tennis player Richard Sears.
In 1884, the competition was moved to New York. Three years later, as part of these competitions, the women's singles tournament «National Women's Championship» took place, it was held at the Cricket Club of Philadelphia. The doubles tournament « followed in 1889, the US National Women's Par» Championship, as well as the «US National Mixed Par» Championship.
At first, the tournament was held separately in the eastern and western parts of the country to identify the two strongest teams, which then played each other, and the winner received the right to compete for the championship with the current title holder. The practice of holding preliminary rounds was discontinued in the 1910s.
In 1968, all championships were combined into one common tournament called the «US Open, which took place at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. 96 men and 63 women took part in the competition, the prize fund was 100 thousand US dollars. By the way, for the first time the tournament was open to professional tennis players who until that time were not allowed to compete here.
In 1978, the U.S. Open venue was moved from Forest Hills to Flushing Meadows, where it currently takes place. The main attention at the tournament, of course, is paid to adult professional tennis players. They will compete for awards in the following categories: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, mixed (mix). Among the Russian athletes who became prize-winners of these competitions in different years are – Marat Safin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Daniil Medvedev.