A Brief History of the U.S. Open

The Principal of Wilmington Capital Securities LLC / RBC, Dr. Derek Bryson Park holds a PhD from New York University. While attending university, he worked for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and World Championship Tennis (WCT). In 1979, Dr. Derek Bryson Park was made Director of Stadium Operations of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships at Flushing Meadows and Operations Manager of the WCT Tournament of Champions at Forest Hills, New York in 1981 and 1982.
With roots dating back to 1881 and the founding of the U.S. National Championship, the U.S. Open stands as one of the sports world’s greatest events and one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held around the world each year. Held annually over the course of approximately two weeks in August and September, the U.S. Open awards trophies in five categories: men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.
At first, the Open held separate tournaments for each of its singles’ and doubles’ events, but beginning in 1968, all of these events were held in one location during the same period. Since 1978, the U.S. Open has been hosted by the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (formerly the USTA National Tennis Center) in Flushing Meadows, New York.
The U.S. Open has played host to some of the most famous moments in tennis history, including Arthur Ashe’s historic victory in 1968, which was the first time an African-American tennis player won a Grand Slam event. On the women’s side, Chris Evert and Serena Williams share the modern record for most women’s singles U.S. Open titles, with six championships each. Meanwhile, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, and Jimmy Connors have each won five U.S. Open men’s singles titles, tying them for the most in modern history.
