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Explore a selection of archival images showing the history of the US Open

In 1881, members of an exclusive club would come to together to hit a ball over a net with a wooden racquet strung together by sheep intestines. We now know this popular pastime as tennis and the exclusive club was Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. They would run a tournament every year called the U.S. National Championship, which we now know as the US Open.

So how did such a tournament become the US Open we know and love today? We chart the history of the US Open to find out.

Genesis

Most people will know Newport Casino as the . But back in the 19^th century, it was a lush, grass tennis club – a far cry from the hard courts of today. It initially only held competitions for men’s singles and men’s doubles. Women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles were added before the turn of the century. However, these additional competitions were played elsewhere. It wasn’t until 1968 that all tournaments came together to be played at the in Forest Hills, Queens.

In the 1920s, the U.S. National Championship was gaining notoriety and as a result, it became one of the four Grand Slams that are still played today. So much so, it started attracting international names such as Rene Lacoste.

Althea Gibson

It seems crazy to think that segregation was still happening in 1950s America but that’s exactly what Althea Gibson had to deal with when she became the first African American to play in the 1950 U.S. National Championship. Before then, the US Tennis Association (USTA) had always maintained: black players were not allowed to play. Frustrated, black tennis players had to set up the American Tennis Association (ATA) in order to have the right to compete.

Althea first got into tennis playing paddle tennis in Harlem. Being tall and athletic, Althea found success building the foundations of her game off her powerful serve. In 1957, she overcame multiple challenges and won the U.S. National Championship singles trophy. And she defended that title a year later.

Open era

It may seem odd considering how popular tennis is today, but many of the tournaments were not open to professionals and this included the U.S. National Championship. That is until 1968, when the open era started, and the championship got renamed as the US Open. This meant tennis could now be considered a serious spectator sport where professionals could make a living. For any quizzers out there, Virginia Wade and Arthur Ashe became the first US Open singles champions that year.

Equality in pay

There’s still a lot of work to do when it comes to rectifying the gender pay gap today but the US Open was the first Grand Slam to award the same prize reward for men and women. This was only achieved due to the in 1973.

She arrived at the tournament as a defending champion demanding equal pay. And if her demands weren’t met, she threatened to boycott the competition. Billie was well-respected and influential in the world of tennis. She managed to rally a group of players and secured funding from World Tennis magazine founder Gladys Heldman. That year, she achieved her goal. Margaret Court became the women’s US Open champion to earn the same amount as her male counterpart.

The US Open as we know it

Many of us now see the US Open as the holy grail of hard-court tennis. But it wasn’t always that way and I don’t mean that it wasn’t always prestigious. But rather, it wasn’t always a hard-court tournament. In fact, it was a grass-court championship all the way until 1974. Then it had a three-year stint as a clay-court until it was moved to the Flushing Meadows where we know it as a hard-court arena for gruelling duels. Amazingly, someone has won the US Open on all three surfaces. And who else could it possibly be besides the maverick Jimmy Connors?

Now though, Americans will have many entertaining years ahead of them watching upcoming stars like Coco Gauff light up the US Open. Who do you think will make history and take this year’s titles?