US Open Tennis 2019 Championships

The United States Open Tennis Championships is a hard court tennis tournament. The tournament is the modern version of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, for which men's singles and mens doubles were first played in 1881. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year. The other three, in chronological order, are the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon. The US Open starts on the last Monday of August and continues for two weeks, with the middle weekend coinciding with the U.S. Labor Day holiday.

The tournament consists of five primary championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. The tournament also includes events 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 in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York City. The US Open is owned and organized by the United States Tennis Association (USTA), a non-profit organization, and the chairperson of the US Open is Katrina Adams. Revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships, and television contracts are used to develop tennis in the United States.

The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that employs tiebreakers in every set of a singles match. For the other three Grand Slam events, there are special scoring methods for a match that reaches 66 in the last possible set (the third for women and the fifth for men): in the French Open, the decisive set continues until a player takes a two-game lead, in Australia, an extended tiebreaker to 10 points is played, and at Wimbledon, a tiebreaker is played only if the game score reaches 1212. As with the US Open, those events use tiebreakers to decide the other sets.

The US Open also is the only Grand Slam tournament with 16 qualifiers (instead of 12) in the women's singles draw.

HISTORY

The tournament was first held in August 1881 on grass courts at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. That year, only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) were permitted to enter. Richard Sears won the men's singles at this tournament, which was the first of his seven consecutive singles titles. From 1884 through 1911, the tournament used a challenge system whereby the defending champion automatically qualified for the next year's final, where he would play the winner of the all-comers tournament. In 1915, the national championship was relocated to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City. The effort to relocate it to New York City began as early as 1911 when a group of tennis players, headed by New Yorker Karl Behr, started working on it.

In the first years of the U.S. National Championship, only men competed and the tournament was known as the U.S. National Singles Championships for Men. In 1887, six years after the men's nationals were first held, the first U.S. Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. The winner was 17-year-old Philadelphian Ellen Hansell. This was followed by the introduction of the U.S. Women's National Doubles Championship in 1899 and the U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship in 1892. The women's tournament used a challenge system from 1888 through 1918, except in 1917. Between 1890 and 1906, sectional tournaments were held in the east and the west of the country to determine the best two doubles teams, which competed in a play-off for the right to compete against the defending champions in the challenge round.

Beginnings of the Tennis Grand Slam

The term Grand Slam was first used in 1933 by the American journalist John Kieran, when describing the attempt that year by player Jack Crawford to win all four titles: the Australian, French, US and Wimbledon tournaments. The term came from his comparing it with "a countered and vulnerable grand slam in bridge".

The four tennis titles, the Australian, French, US and Wimbledon, were selected as being the biggest in tennis because at the time they were the main international championships held in the only four countries who had won the Davis Cup. Although the term was first coined in 1933, Jack Crawford failed to achieve the Grand Slam in that year as he lost in the US Championships final to Fred Perry. It was not until 1938 that Donald Budge became the first person to achieve the Grand Slam 

2019 Tournament Schedule

SESSIONDAYDATESESSION TIME (ET)MATCH SCHED.

1M8/2611:00 AMMen's & Women's R1

2M8/267:00 PMMen's & Women's R1

3TU8/2711:00 AMMen's & Women's R1

4TU8/277:00 PMMen's & Women's R1

5W8/2811:00 AMMen's & Women's R2

6W8/287:00 PMMen's & Women's R2

7TH8/2911:00 AMMen's & Women's R2

8TH8/297:00 PMMen's & Women's R2

9FR8/3011:00 AMMen's & Women's R3

10FR8/307:00 PMMen's & Women's R3

11SA8/3111:00 AMMen's & Women's R3

12SA8/317:00 PMMen's & Women's R3

13SU9/111:00 AMMen's & Women's 

Round of 16

14SU9/17:00 PMMen's & Women's 

Round of 16

15M9/211:00 AMMen's & Women's 

Round of 16

16M9/27:00 PMMen's & Women's 

Round of 16

17TU9/311:00 AMMen's & Women's 

Quarterfinals

18TU9/37:00 PMMen's & Women's 

Quarterfinals

19W9/411:00 AMMen's & Women's 

Quarterfinals

20W9/47:00 PMMen's & Women's 

Quarterfinals

21TH9/57:00 PM*Women's Semifinals

22FR9/612:00 PMMens Doubles Final or Mixed Doubles Final

 4:00 PMMen's Semifinals

23SA9/712:00 PMMixed Doubles Final or Mens Doubles Final

 4:00 PMWomen's Final

24SU9/81:00 PMWomen's Doubles Final

 4:00 PMMen's Final

SEAT AVAILABILITY

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (Center) is accessible. Accessible vertical access is provided via ramps and elevators, with escalators offering additional convenience for ambulatory guests. Wheelchair-accessible seating is provided off both the lower and upper concourses of Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium and the Grandstand Stadium, off the concourse of Court 17 and at each of the field courts. All accessible seating is subject to availability. All seating in Arthur Ashe Stadium is reserved. Seating in Louis Armstrong Stadium and Grandstand Stadium is both reserved (lower concourse) and available on a first-come, first-served basis (upper concourse). Seating in all other venues is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The US Open will accommodate disabled guests and up to three companions in designated accessible seating areas, subject to availability. Additional companions may be accommodated in nearby available seating.

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