No other Grand Slam has changed itself so completely. The US Open has been played on grass, on clay and on hard court, at three different venues, and it is the only Slam that has settled a deciding set with a tiebreak for more than fifty years.
The tournament began in 1881 as the U.S. National Championships, played on grass at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island, and moved to the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills in Queens in 1915. It opened to professionals in 1968 with the arrival of the Open era, taking the name it carries today. Through this period it looked like what it was: an American Wimbledon, decided by serve-and-volley on fast, uneven lawns.
For three years the tournament was played on green American clay at Forest Hills — slower, higher-bouncing, a different sport from the one played there the previous summer. It produced one of the strangest lines in the record book: Jimmy Connors won the US Open on all three surfaces, grass in 1974, clay in 1976 and hard court in 1978. Nobody else has done it, and nobody else can.
The tournament moved to the newly built USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park and switched to hard court, where it has stayed ever since. Hard court is the great neutraliser: it takes away the grass specialist’s skid and the clay specialist’s time, and rewards the player whose game has no obvious hole. The surface has been refined since — DecoTurf for decades, then Laykold from 2020 — but the character has held.
Arthur Ashe Stadium opened in 1997 as the largest tennis stadium in the world, and its retractable roof was completed in 2016, ending the era of rain-wrecked finals. But the enduring innovation is older and simpler: the night session. Playing under lights in front of a New York crowd changed what the tournament asks of a player. Conditions get heavier, the ball slows, the noise never stops, and matches finish after one in the morning. More than one favourite has been beaten by the atmosphere rather than the opponent.
The US Open adopted the tiebreak early and has never backed away from it, including in the deciding set. The other three Slams held out for decades and only converged on a final-set tiebreak in recent years. It is why the US Open has no equivalent of the marathon fifth sets that made legends elsewhere — and why nerve at 6–6 has always counted for a little more in New York.
THE SLAM draws from twenty seasons of this tournament, every player re-rated for the hard court, and lets you assemble a champion out of the pieces. See also the greatest US Open champions and how hard court differs from grass.
It began in 1881 as the U.S. National Championships, played on grass at the Newport Casino. It became the US Open in 1968 with the start of the Open era.
Hard court, since 1978. Before that it was played on grass from 1881 to 1974 and on green clay from 1975 to 1977. The current surface is Laykold, which replaced DecoTurf in 2020.
At the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York. The main court, Arthur Ashe Stadium, opened in 1997 and gained a retractable roof in 2016.
Jimmy Connors. He won on grass in 1974, on clay in 1976 and on hard court in 1978 — the only player who could, since the tournament has been on hard court ever since.