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Event Information:
The US
Open, formally the United States
Open Tennis Championships, is a
hardcourt tennis tournament which is
the modern iteration of one of the
oldest tennis championships in the
world, the U.S. National
Championship, which for men's
singles was first contested in 1881.
Since 1987, the US Open has been
chronologically the fourth and final
tennis major comprising the Grand
Slam each year; the other three are
the Australian Open, French Open and
Wimbledon. 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
different event 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
courts at the USTA Billie Jean King
National Tennis Center at Flushing
Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New
York City.
The US
Open has tiebreaks in every set,
including the last set. The other
three Grand Slam tournaments have
tiebreaks in every set other than
the last set (i.e. the fifth set for
men and third set for women), and
therefore their last set continues
indefinitely until a two-game lead
is reached. 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
22,547-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium,
opened in 1997. It is named after
Arthur Ashe, the African American
tennis player who won the men's
final of the inaugural US Open in
1968. The next largest court is
Louis Armstrong Stadium, opened in
1978, extensively renovated from the
original Singer Bowl. It was the
main stadium from 1978–96, and its
peak capacity neared 18,000 seats,
but was reduced to 10,200 after the
opening of Arthur Ashe Stadium. The
third largest court is the
6,000-seat Grandstand Stadium,
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
lighted, meaning that television
coverage of the tournament can
extend into prime time to attract
higher ratings. This has recently
been used to the advantage of USA
Network, and now, ESPN2, on cable
and especially for CBS, the American
broadcast television outlet for the
tournament for many years, which
used its influence to move the
women's singles final to Saturday
night to draw better television
ratings.
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