97 Fun Facts About US Open

The US Open tennis championships are played in which New York City borough?

Queens: the event outgrew the private West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, also in Queens, and moved three miles north to public courts at Flushing Meadows in 1978.

Where does the US Open fall in the yearly order of tennis's Grand Slam tournaments?

Fourth and last: from late 1977 to 1985 the Australian Open held a December slot and closed the Grand Slam year, until its move back to January in 1987 put the US Open last again.

Since 1978 the US Open tennis has been played on which surface?

Acrylic hard courts came with the 1978 move to Flushing Meadows and made this the first Grand Slam played on a hard surface; the Australian Open left grass for hard courts ten years later.

From 1975 to 1977 the US Open tennis was played on which surface?

Clay (green Har-Tru) was used from 1975 to 1977 after complaints about uneven bounces on the old grass; floodlit night play arrived in the same 1975 switch.

Which man is the only player to have won US Open singles titles on all three surfaces the event has used?

Jimmy Connors won before, between and after the event's two surface changes of 1975 and 1978; the surface has not changed since, so no later champion has had the chance.

The Newport Casino, site of the first US championships in 1881, is now home to what?

The International Tennis Hall of Fame was founded there in 1954, when the ageing Newport Casino was in danger of being torn down; the championships had left for New York in 1915.

In 2006 the US Open tennis venue was renamed after which four-time singles champion?

Billie Jean King had the USTA National Tennis Center renamed for her in 2006; in 1970 she was one of nine women who signed $1 contracts to break away and start their own professional tour.

The main tennis stadium is named after which player, who won the first US Open of the Open Era in 1968?

Arthur Ashe won in 1968 as an amateur and a U.S. Army lieutenant, so he could not accept the $14,000 first prize; it went to Tom Okker, the man he beat in the final.

The US Open's main tennis stadium holds what distinction?

The largest tennis stadium in the world seats 23,771 and stands on a filled-in ash dump, the wasteland F. Scott Fitzgerald turned into the 'valley of ashes' in The Great Gatsby.

Which addition to the US Open's main tennis stadium was completed in time for the 2016 tournament?

A retractable roof was ready for 2016, after rain had pushed the men's final back to a Monday five years running, from 2008 to 2012.

Which is the second-largest show court at the tennis US Open?

Louis Armstrong Stadium, rebuilt with about fourteen thousand seats and reopened in 2018, is second only to the main stadium; its upper tier is general admission.

What nickname has the US Open's Court 17 earned because its playing surface sits below ground level?

The Pit opened in 2011 in a corner of the grounds; crews digging out its sunken bowl struck buried foundations from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs.

Since 2005, what colour have US Open tennis courts been painted inside the lines?

It is trademarked as 'US Open Blue' and was chosen to make the ball easier to see; outside the lines stays green.

In 1970 the US Open became the first Grand Slam to use which scoring innovation?

A tiebreak in 1970 was sudden death, first to five points, so at 4-4 a single point was set point for both players; the gentler 12-point version replaced it in 1975.

In 1973 the US Open became the first Grand Slam to do what?

Pay men and women equal prize money: John Newcombe and Margaret Court each got $25,000, after the 1972 women's champion, paid $15,000 less than the men's, said she would sit out otherwise.

In 2006 the tennis US Open became the first Grand Slam to use which system for line-call challenges?

Hawk-Eye challenges debuted at the 2006 US Open, the first Slam to use them, after the 2004 Serena Williams–Jennifer Capriati quarter-final was marred by bad line calls.

In 2018 the tennis US Open was the first Grand Slam to introduce what?

A 25-second serve clock between points was introduced in the 2018 main draw to speed play, after trials in the 2017 qualifying rounds.

On the US Open's old 'Super Saturday', which match was played between the two men's semi-finals?

The women's final sat between the men's semi-finals until 2001, when it moved to a prime-time slot of its own; the old schedule left the men's finalists less than a day to recover.

The tennis US Open is the only Grand Slam that has been what?

Held every year since it began in 1881: both world wars halted the other three majors, but the 1917 edition went ahead as a 'Patriotic Tournament', with no trophies and its entry fees given to the Red Cross.

Which Masters tournament moved to New York in 2020 to share the US Open's spectator-free bubble?

Cincinnati's event was played on the US Open courts the week before, so players stayed inside one bubble while the COVID-19 pandemic kept fans out of both tournaments.

Which US Open event was relaunched in 2025 as a two-day, $1 million contest packed with singles stars?

Mixed doubles moved to the week before the main draw with $1 million for the winners, yet the specialists still won: defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori beat Iga Świątek and Casper Ruud.

The middle weekend of the tennis US Open coincides with which American holiday?

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, lands on the middle weekend because the main draw begins in the last week of August and runs a fortnight.

Which woman won six US Open singles titles between 1975 and 1982, a joint Open Era record?

Chris Evert won six times in eight years, then lost the 1983 and 1984 finals to her great rival Martina Navratilova; Serena Williams matched her six in 2014.

In her 2022 Vogue essay about leaving tennis after the US Open, Serena Williams preferred which word to 'retirement'?

Evolution: she wrote that she was 'evolving away from tennis' toward other things. After that US Open she stayed away for nearly four years, then came back to play doubles in June 2026.

Through 2025, which three men shared the Open Era record of five US Open singles titles?

Connors, Sampras and Federer each won five; Novak Djokovic reached ten finals but lost six of them, which left him one short on four titles.

Who ended Roger Federer's five-year US Open reign by beating him in the 2009 final?

Juan Martín del Potro, then 20, won in five sets after trailing two sets to one; it stayed his only major, because wrist injuries and repeated surgery cost him most of 2010, 2014 and 2015.

Who became the youngest US Open men's singles champion in 1990, aged 19?

Pete Sampras was 19 years and 28 days old; in the quarter-finals he ended Ivan Lendl's run of eight straight US Open finals, then beat John McEnroe to reach his first major final.

Whom did Sampras beat in the 2002 US Open final to win his 14th and last major?

Andre Agassi, his chief rival for more than a decade, lost in four sets; Sampras, seeded only 17th, never played another tournament and announced his retirement a year later.

Which American won the 2003 men's singles title, his only Grand Slam?

Andy Roddick beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in the 2003 final; he went on to lose four more major finals, every one of them to Roger Federer.

In 2018 which player beat Serena Williams in a stormy US Open final to win her first major?

Naomi Osaka, 20, won in straight sets after Williams was docked a game during a row with umpire Carlos Ramos; the crowd booed through the trophy ceremony and Osaka wept.

Which British teen was the first qualifier to win an Open Era Grand Slam singles title, in 2021?

Emma Raducanu, 18, came through qualifying and won ten matches without dropping a set, beating Leylah Fernandez in the 2021 final.

Who won his first Grand Slam title at the 2022 US Open, aged 19?

Carlos Alcaraz beat Casper Ruud in that final, and the title made him, at 19, the youngest men's world number one in ATP history.

Which American won the 2023 US Open women's singles title, her first major?

Coco Gauff, 19, lost the first set of the final 6-2, then won the next two; she was the first American teenager to take the title since Serena Williams in 1999.

Which Belarusian won the US Open women's title in 2024 and defended it in 2025?

Aryna Sabalenka had lost the 2023 final from a set up; she then beat Jessica Pegula in 2024 and Amanda Anisimova in 2025, the first successful defence since Serena Williams in 2014.

Who reached all four men's major finals in 2025 but lost the US Open final?

Jannik Sinner won the Australian Open and Wimbledon but lost the Paris and New York finals to the same rival, who took his world number one ranking with the second win.

Which body stages the U.S. Open golf championship?

The USGA was formed in 1894 after two clubs each held a 'national amateur championship' and crowned different winners; it staged its first U.S. Open the following year.

The U.S. Open golf is scheduled to finish on which holiday?

Father's Day, the third Sunday in June, is the scheduled finish; the 2020 edition missed it when the pandemic pushed the championship back three months to September.

The first tennis championships (1881) and first golf U.S. Open (1895) were held in Newport, in which state?

Rhode Island: Newport was the summer colony of America's richest families, and sugar magnate Theodore Havemeyer, who founded its golf club in 1893, was eager to bring national championships there.

How did the first U.S. Open golf championship, in 1895, differ from today's?

It was played in a single day: ten professionals and one amateur went four times round Newport's nine holes the day after the U.S. Amateur ended, and Horace Rawlins won $150 and a gold medal.

Which 20-year-old amateur beat Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a playoff to win the 1913 U.S. Open?

Francis Ouimet had been a caddie at the host club as a boy, and the caddie carrying his own bag that week, Eddie Lowery, was just 10 years old.

Which golfer won a record-equalling four U.S. Opens, the last of them in 1980?

Jack Nicklaus made the 1962 U.S. Open his first win as a professional, beating Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff; the last of his four came 18 years later.

Who is the only golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Opens, from 1903 to 1905?

Willie Anderson, a Scottish immigrant, won four titles in five years and was dead at 31, five years after the last; more than a century on, nobody else has won three in a row.

Ben Hogan's 1950 win, sixteen months after a near-fatal head-on crash with a bus, became known as what?

The Miracle at Merion: doctors had doubted Hogan would walk again, yet he won a three-way 18-hole playoff over Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio on aching legs.

Who holds the record for most U.S. Open runner-up finishes, with six?

Phil Mickelson finished second six times, the last behind Justin Rose in 2013; it is the one major he has not won, so the career Grand Slam has eluded him.

On which course did Tiger Woods win the 2000 U.S. Open by a record 15 strokes?

Pebble Beach: Woods finished 12 under par while the two runners-up were three over, a 15-stroke gap that remains the largest winning margin in any major championship.

Whom did Tiger Woods beat in sudden death after an 18-hole playoff at the 2008 U.S. Open?

Rocco Mediate, 45, fell at the 19th hole of the Monday playoff; Woods had played on a double stress fracture and a torn knee ligament and missed the rest of the season.

Since 2018, how is a tie after 72 holes at the U.S. Open golf settled?

A two-hole aggregate playoff replaced the Monday 18-hole round in 2018, yet through 2026 it had never been needed: the last U.S. Open playoff was Tiger Woods's win in 2008.

Which course hosted its record tenth U.S. Open golf championship in 2025?

Oakmont Country Club, outside Pittsburgh, is the only course its founder Henry Fownes ever designed; he built it in 1903 with 150 men and some two dozen mule teams.

Who set the U.S. Open 72-hole scoring record of 268, sixteen under par, in 2011?

Rory McIlroy won his first major by eight shots at Congressional, two months after his final-round collapse at the 2011 Masters.

Who is the oldest U.S. Open golf champion, winning in 1990 at 45?

Hale Irwin, 45, played on a special exemption and beat Mike Donald at the 19th hole of their Monday playoff at Medinah.

Who made the cut at the 1973 U.S. Open at the age of 61, the oldest ever to do so?

Sam Snead made the 1973 cut at 61, 36 years after finishing second on his debut; he was runner-up four times, and the U.S. Open stayed the one major he never won.

Who won the 1968 U.S. Open at Oak Hill with four rounds in the 60s?

Lee Trevino, 28, a former Marine who had been a club professional in El Paso, made the U.S. Open his very first PGA Tour win, with rounds of 69, 68, 69 and 69.

What must an amateur have to enter qualifying for the U.S. Open golf championship?

A near-scratch handicap is all it takes, an index of 0.4 or better as of 2026, so thousands of hopefuls enter qualifying each year for roughly half of the 156 places.

Which South African, nicknamed 'The Big Easy', won the U.S. Open in 1994 and 1997?

Ernie Els left Colin Montgomerie as a runner-up both times, in a three-man playoff in 1994 and by a single stroke in 1997; the Scot ended his career without a major.

U.S. Open golf sectional qualifying is billed on television as what?

Golf's Longest Day is the Golf Channel's billing for the Monday when most sectional qualifiers are played: every hopeful plays two rounds back to back, at sites across the country.

Who led from start to finish to win the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst by eight strokes?

Martin Kaymer opened with two rounds of 65, then the lowest 36-hole total in U.S. Open history, and was never caught; he was the first winner from continental Europe.

Which architect nicknamed the 'Open Doctor' is best known for toughening courses ahead of the U.S. Open?

Rees Jones earned the 'Open Doctor' tag by reworking courses such as Bethpage Black before they staged majors; he learned the trade as a boy, surveying courses with his father, the designer Robert Trent Jones.

Why does a U.S. Open course usually play to par 70, not 72?

Two par fives become par fours in the usual set-up: holes that are short fives in regular play are used as long fours, which helps keep winning scores close to even par.

The four non-American U.S. Open golf champions of 2004–2007 all came from where?

The Southern Hemisphere supplied all four: Retief Goosen (South Africa), Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) and Ángel Cabrera (Argentina). Campbell had to come through a qualifier in England just to play.

In 2010 who became the first European to win the U.S. Open golf since Tony Jacklin in 1970?

Graeme McDowell, from Northern Ireland, was the first European champion in forty years; the drought then broke for good, as three more Europeans won within the next four years.

Who holed a 15-foot par putt to win at Pinehurst in 1999, months before dying in a plane accident?

Payne Stewart had let a four-stroke lead slip in the final round a year earlier; this time he birdied the 17th and holed the par putt on the last to win by one.

Who won the 2020 U.S. Open as the only player under par in the final round?

Bryson DeChambeau, who had bulked up dramatically that year, shot a final-round 67 and won by six strokes over Matthew Wolff.

Who won the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club?

Wyndham Clark had never finished better than 75th in a major, yet he held off Rory McIlroy by one shot; Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele had both opened with record 62s.

Who won the 2025 U.S. Open, having considered quitting the tour a year earlier?

J. J. Spaun bogeyed five of his first six holes that Sunday, regrouped after a storm delay, and holed a 64-foot birdie putt on the final green to win by two strokes.

In Tin Cup, what does Roy McAvoy refuse to do on the U.S. Open's final hole?

He refuses to lay up short of the water, keeps firing at the green, and finally holes out for a 12 that ends his shot at the title.

Which network took over U.S. Open golf television rights in 2020 after Fox handed back its contract?

NBC took over in June 2020; Fox had signed a 12-year rights deal in 2013 but could not fit the pandemic-delayed September event around its football schedule.

The first US women's tennis championship, in 1887, was hosted by a Philadelphia club founded for which sport?

Cricket: the Philadelphia Cricket Club staged the women's championship from 1887 until it moved to Forest Hills in 1921; its first winner, local Ellen Hansell, had battled anaemia as a child.

Who in 1957 became the first Black player to win the US National singles title?

Althea Gibson had broken the colour line at the 1950 championships, invited only after former champion Alice Marble published a scathing open letter; she won the title in 1957 and again in 1958.

Who won the 2009 US Open women's title while unranked, in only the third tournament of a comeback from retirement?

Kim Clijsters became the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong in 1980, and her 18-month-old daughter Jada joined her on court for the trophy ceremony.

Who became the youngest US Open women's singles champion, winning in 1979 aged 16?

Tracy Austin, still 16, beat the second seed in the semi-final and the top seed in the final, denying the defending champion a fifth title in a row.

Who won the 2015 women's final, the first all-Italian singles final at a major?

Flavia Pennetta, 33, beat childhood friend Roberta Vinci in straight sets, then announced at the trophy ceremony that she would retire at the end of 2015.

Who won the 2020 men's title, the first man born in the 1990s to win a major?

Dominic Thiem came from two sets down against Alexander Zverev in a final settled by a fifth-set tiebreak, played in an empty main stadium.

Whose straight-sets win in the 2021 men's final denied Novak Djokovic a calendar Grand Slam?

Daniil Medvedev had lost that year's Australian Open final to Djokovic in straight sets; seven months later he returned the favour, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, with the calendar Slam one match away.

Rod Laver sealed his 1969 Grand Slam by beating which fellow Australian in the US Open final?

Tony Roche took the first set 9-7 on rain-soaked, slippery grass; Laver then changed into spiked shoes and lost only five more games.

Whom did Steffi Graf beat in the 1988 final to complete her calendar Grand Slam?

Gabriela Sabatini took the second set before losing in three; Graf was the third woman to win all four majors in one year, and her Seoul Olympic gold weeks later made it the first 'Golden Slam'.

Whom did Novak Djokovic beat in the 2011 final for his first US Open title?

Rafael Nadal lost the 2011 final in four sets, a year after beating Djokovic in the 2010 final for his own first US Open title.

Who lost the 2014 US Open final as the first man from an Asian country to reach a Grand Slam singles final?

Kei Nishikori beat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, then lost in straight sets to Marin Čilić, who was also playing his first major final.

Who beat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the 2016 final for the third of his three major titles?

Stan Wawrinka won in four sets; the Swiss beat the reigning world No. 1 in all three of his major finals, having beaten Nadal at the 2014 Australian Open and Djokovic at the 2015 French Open.

On his 39th birthday in 1991, Jimmy Connors came from 2–5 down in the fifth set to beat whom?

Aaron Krickstein lost a fifth-set tiebreak after 4 hours 41 minutes, and for years afterwards the match was television's stand-by replay whenever rain stopped play at the US Open.

Who in 2019 became the first Canadian, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam singles title?

Bianca Andreescu, 19, beat Serena Williams in straight sets in the 2019 final, a month after Williams retired injured against her in the Toronto final.

Who won six straight US men's singles titles from 1920 to 1925?

Bill Tilden, known as 'Big Bill', beat the same rival in five of those six finals: 'Little Bill' Johnston, the man who had beaten him in the 1919 final.

Which Norwegian-born player won a record eight US women's singles titles, the last in 1926?

Molla Mallory arrived in New York as a little-known Norwegian masseuse and won her first title in 1915; in 1921 she led the great Suzanne Lenglen by a set when the French star quit the match in tears.

Arnold Palmer wiped out a seven-shot deficit in the 1960 final round at which Colorado course?

Cherry Hills, near Denver: he drove the green at the par-4 1st, shot a 65 and held off a 20-year-old amateur who would become his greatest rival.

Who shot a final-round 63 in 1973, the first 63 in any major, and won?

Johnny Miller began the final day six shots off the lead, won by one with his 63, and later spent 29 years as a lead television golf analyst.

The 1974 championship, won at seven over par, became known as 'The Massacre at' which course?

Winged Foot played so brutally that many players suspected the organisers of answering the 63 shot a year earlier; sportswriter Dick Schaap coined the nickname and made it a book title.

Who nearly collapsed in 100-degree heat during the 36-hole final day in 1964, yet still won?

Ken Venturi, dehydrated in a heat wave, was told by doctors to withdraw before the final round; he took tea and salt tablets and played on, in the last U.S. Open to end with 36 holes in a day.

Who chipped in for birdie from the rough beside the 17th green to win the 1982 U.S. Open?

Tom Watson was tied with a rival already in the clubhouse when his downhill chip from the rough dropped; it gave him the lead, and he won his only U.S. Open by two strokes.

Which Iowa municipal-course pro beat Ben Hogan in a 1955 playoff, denying him a fifth title?

Jack Fleck, a Davenport municipal pro, won the 18-hole playoff at the Olympic Club using clubs made by Hogan's own company; Hogan won only one more tour event, the 1959 Colonial.

Dustin Johnson won the 2016 title despite a disputed one-stroke penalty for what?

The penalty was for his ball moving on the 5th green; told on the 12th tee that it might be applied after the round, he still won by three strokes.

Why was the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black billed as 'The People's Open'?

First on a true public course: Bethpage Black belongs to a New York state park that anyone can play, though a sign at its first tee warns that it is recommended only for highly skilled golfers.

Who won the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, the championship's youngest winner in 92 years?

Jordan Spieth, 21, won by a stroke when Dustin Johnson three-putted the 72nd green from eagle range, at the first U.S. Open held in the Pacific Northwest.

Needing par at the 72nd hole to win the 2006 U.S. Open, the leader missed the fairway and made what?

A double bogey, after he hit driver and missed the fairway; Colin Montgomerie had double-bogeyed the same hole just ahead of him, so Geoff Ogilvy, who parred it, won by one.

Whose 1930 U.S. Open win in Minnesota was the third leg of golf's only calendar-year Grand Slam?

Bobby Jones, an amateur who made his living as a lawyer, won all four majors of his day in 1930, then retired from competition at 28 with nothing left to win.

Brooks Koepka's 2018 defence was the first back-to-back win since whom in 1989?

Curtis Strange won in 1988 and 1989, and the 1989 title turned out to be his last win on tour; since the Second World War only Ben Hogan in 1950–51 had otherwise gone back-to-back.

Who won the 1965 title to become the first non-American to complete the career Grand Slam?

Gary Player, 29, beat Australia's Kel Nagle in an 18-hole playoff at Bellerive in St. Louis, and gave his winnings to junior golf and cancer research.

Who became the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Open, at Torrey Pines in 2021?

Jon Rahm closed with a 67, birdying the last two holes, two weeks after being pulled from the Memorial with a six-shot lead following a positive coronavirus test.

Which Long Island club hosted its sixth U.S. Open golf championship in 2026?

Shinnecock Hills was laid out in 1891 with the help of more than 100 members of the neighbouring Shinnecock Indian Nation, who cleared the sandy ground; three years later it helped found the game's national governing body.