HIstory of the US tennis Open

The first US tennis event was held in August 1881 at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. It was for men only. The championships were known as the US National Singles Championship for men.
Only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter.
In 1900, the US National Men's Doubles Championship was held for the first time. Tournaments were held in the east and the west of the country in order to determine the best two teams. These two teams would then compete in a play-off: the winner would play the defending champions in the challenge round.
Six years after the men's nationals were held, the first official US Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in 1887, followed by the US Women's National Doubles Championship in 1889.
The first US Mixed Doubles Championship was held alongside the Women's Singles and Doubles.
Only American amateurs could compete in all these preceding events.
The Open Era began in 1968 when all five events were merged into the newly named US Open at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens. This 1968 combined tournament was opened to professionals.
That year, 96 men and 63 women entered the event with prize money amounting to $100,000. British tennis player, Virginia Wade won the first woman's US Open final, five months after she turned professional and Arthur Ashe won the first US men’s Open.
The US Open was originally played on grass until Forest Hills switched to hard courts in the mid '70s.
In 1978, the event moved from Forest Hills to its current home at Flushing Meadows.
The main court is located at the 23,000 seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, named after Arthur Ashe, the great African American tennis player who won the inaugural men's final of the U.S. Ashe died in 1993 of AIDS, which he contracted from a blood transfusion during heart surgery. Court Number 2 is Louis Armstrong Stadium, which stood as the main stadium until the completion of Ashe stadium.
The surfaces of all its courts are hard, so the US Open always provides tennis at a very high speed.