Tournament Profile: US Open

By Jeff Cooper, About.com Guide

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First Played:

Men: 1881; Women: 1887.

Location:

Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York.

Court Surface:

Hard.

Time of Year:

Late August into early September.

Sizes of Draws:

Men's and Women's Singles: 128
Men's and Women's Doubles: 64
Mixed Doubles: 32.

Principal Stadium or Court:

Arthur Ashe Stadium

The US Open's hard courts play at a speed roughly halfway between the fast grass of Wimbledon and the slow clay of Roland Garros. Compared to a clay court, a hard court lets the ball retain more forward speed, gives sidespin on serves much better traction, and produces a comparably high topspin bounce. Compared to grass, hard courts provide more time to line up groundstrokes and a higher point of contact. Kick serves are harder to return than on grass, other serves easier.

The court's response to topspin, combined with its sure footing, made the US Open the best venue for Patrick Rafter, who always serve-and-volleyed behind a heavy kick serve. A solid, gritty surface helps a serve-and-volleyer cut sharply to react to the return. Other serve-and-volleyers who won multiple US Opens include Martina Navratilova and Stefan Edberg.

Groundstroke and return specialists benefit from the predictable bounce of a hard court and its medium speed, which allows time to prepare an aggressive swing, but not so much time that the opponent will always run the shot down. Many power baseliners have won US Open singles titles, including Steffi Graf and Ivan Lendl. Hard courts don’t allow the time needed for the huge topspin swings that do well on clay, thus few French Open champions win the US Open.

Men's Singles Champions
Women's Singles Champions
Men's Doubles Champions
Women's Doubles Champions
Mixed Doubles Champions

About's Queens, New York Guide has a great collection of articles on Attending the US Open.