The US Open, which will begin on August 23 and end on September 13, is one of the examples of transformation in tennis history. The word “Open” does not refer to the court being uncovered, but to opening the door to professional and amateur players. Until 1968, Wimbledon, the US National Championships, the French Championships and the Australian Championships were open only to amateurs; professionals competed in separate events. This distinction ended with the Open Era, which began in 1968. The US National Championships became the US Open, the French Championships became the French Open, while the Australian Championships became the Australian Open a year later. Wimbledon did not change its name.
The tournament began in 1881 at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island with only men’s singles and doubles. Women’s singles were added in 1887, women’s doubles in 1889 and mixed doubles in 1892. Following the West Side Tennis Club and Forest Hills periods, the event moved to Flushing Meadows in Queens in 1978; USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center became its new home. The surface was grass from 1881 to 1974, clay from 1975-1977 and hard court from 1978 onward. The tournament is the only Grand Slam played on three different surfaces. Night matches began in 1975. The US Open became the first Grand Slam to offer equal prize money in 1973: Margaret Court and John Newcombe received 25 thousand dollars. Althea Gibson was the first Black player in 1950, while Arthur Ashe was the first Black man to win the singles title in 1968.
Why it matters
The history of the US Open shows that Grand Slam tennis has been transformed not only by sporting rules, but also by player status, social inclusion and organizational conditions. The end of the amateur-professional divide with the Open Era explains the institutional change behind the Open names used today, while Wimbledon’s retention of its name shows that this transformation did not affect every tournament in the same way. The shift from grass to clay and then to hard court, along with the introduction of night matches, shows that the event is a changing structure rather than a fixed tradition. Equal prize money and the pioneering role of Black athletes in the tournament’s history have made the US Open one of the reference points in debates over representation and equality in tennis. The identity of today’s tournament is thus based not on a single decision, but on structural changes that took place in different periods.
Background
The US is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 11 news reports mentioning it in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated September 3, 2026.