The US Open is a grand slam tennis tournament that takes place in Flushing, New York each year. It traditionally has the biggest pay out in professional tennis, a purse of $1.5 million dollars to the winners on both the men’s and women’s side. Tennis is also one of the only sports that the men and women athletes receive equal prize money. Needless to say US Open tennis is quite lucrative!

The US Open is only forty years old, relatively young in the world of tennis. Wimbledon started in the 1800s. 2008 was the 40th anniversary of the US Open. This year the tournament enters its 41st year. The US Open is a relatively new event in the world of tennis, but it has been around forever, over 100 years when it used to be called the U.S. Championships. Only in the last forty years has it been the tournament we know today.

The first winner of the US Open was Arthur Ashe, whose name now graces the stadium where the finals are played each year. He won the first title in 1968. Ashe was considered an amateur at the time of his win, so he was unable to collect the money for winning, at that time it was $14,000, the most for any tennis tournament. Instead, Ashe only collected $20 per diem. He was also the first African American to ever win a men’s singles title at tennis Grand Slam Championship.

In 1975, the US Open was the debut of the first night tennis game.  This was also the first year of three that the US Open was played on a clay court, just like the French Open. The open is now played on a hard court.

The US Open was originally played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York.  It was moved to the USTA national tennis center in Flushing Meadows, New York in 1978.