The US Open men's singles championship is an annual

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament that is part of the

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

and was established in

1881 Events January * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The Chilean army ...

. It is played on outdoor

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...

s at the

USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a stadium complex within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York. It has been the home of the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament, played every year in August and ...

Flushing Meadows – Corona Park Flushing may refer to: Places Netherlands * Flushing, Netherlands, an English name for the city of Vlissingen, Netherlands United Kingdom * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in Cornwall, England * The Flushing, a building in Suffolk, England ...

, New York City, United States. The US Open is played during a two-week period in late August and early September, and has been chronologically the last of the four

Grand Slam Grand Slam or Grand slam may refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category terminology originating in contract bridge and other whist card games Athletics * Grand Slam Track, professional track and field league Auto racing * ...

tournaments of the tennis

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

since 1987.

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay * Newport (Vietnam), a United States Army and Army of t ...

(1881–1914),

Forest Hills Forest Hills or Forrest Hills may refer to: Places United States * Forest Hills (Tampa), Florida * Forest Hills, Illinois, a neighborhood in Western Springs * Forest Hills, Kentucky * Forest Hills, Boston, Massachusetts ** Forest Hills Cemetery ...

(1915–1920, 1924–1977), and

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

(1921–1923) held the event before it settled in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

at the USTA National Tennis Center, now the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in New York City. The inaugural tournament, in 1881, was reserved for United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) club members, before the championships opened to international competitors in 1882. The

USTA The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national Sport governing body, governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and devel ...

is the national body that organizes this event.

History

The men's singles' rules have undergone several changes since the first edition. From

1884 Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera '' Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy The ...

1911 Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * January 3 ** 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 7.7 m ...

, the event started with a

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

phase, the All-Comers singles, whose winner faced the defending champion in a challenge round. The All-Comers winner was awarded the title six times (

1888 Events January * January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used. * January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, M ...

1893 Events January * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * January 6 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress; th ...

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

1901 December 13 of this year is the beginning of signed 32-bit Unix time, and is scheduled to end in January 19, 2038. Summary Political and military 1901 started with the unification of multiple British colonies in Australia on January ...

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...

) in the absence of the previous year's champion. The challenge round system was abolished with the

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

edition. From 1908 to 1914, when the championships were held at Newport, men's singles draws had exceeded 128 players, but when the event moved to Forest Hills in 1915 entries would be "submitted by clubs, thereby making the clubs weed out mediocre players. Furthermore, the entry fee would be set high enough to prevent cheapskates from entering just to get a seat at the tournament at a lower price and then defaulting". Since 1881, all matches but the All-Comers final and the challenge round were played as the best-of-three sets, before the event switched to

best-of-five There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

for all rounds in

1886 Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...

. Best-two-out-of-three-sets matches were reintroduced for early rounds in

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...

, from

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 � ...

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

, and from

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. Before

, the winner of the next game at five-games–

all All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and pro ...

took the set in every match except the All-Comers final and the challenge round, which were won by the player who had at least six games and at least two games more than his opponent. This advantage format was introduced for the final sets of early rounds in 1884, and used for all sets in all rounds from 1887 to

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

. The

tie-break In games and sport, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is any method used to determine a winner or to rank participants when there is a tie - meaning two or more parties have achieved a same score or result. A tiebreaker provides the additional criterion ...

system was introduced in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

for all sets, in its best-of-nine points

sudden death Sudden Death or Sudden death may refer to: Medical * Cardiac arrest, also known as sudden cardiac death, natural death from cardiac causes * Sudden cardiac death of athletes * Sudden infant death syndrome * Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy *Su ...

version until

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

, and in its best-of-13 points lingering death version since

. In addition, the US Open was the first slam to have a fifth set tie-break. The court surface changed twice, from

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

(1881–1974), to Har-Tru clay (1975–1977), to DecoTurf hard courts, since 1978. The only man to win on all three surfaces, which are grass, Har-Tru clay, and DecoTurf hard was

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 2 ...

. The champion receives a full-size replica of the event's trophy engraved with his name. In 2010, the winner received prize money of US$1,700,000. A bonus pool of $1,000,000 is also to US Open champions who have clinched the first place of the

US Open Series The US Open Series was the name given by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to a series of North American professional tennis tournaments leading up to and including the US Open. It was part of the "North American hard-court season". ...

. In the U.S. National Championships,

Richard Sears Richard Sears may refer to: *Richard Warren Sears (1863–1914), founder of Sears, Roebuck and Co. * Richard Sears (pilgrim) (1595–1676), early settler of Yarmouth, Cape Cod, Massachusetts *Richard Sears (tennis) Richard Dudley Sears (October ...

(1881–1887),

William Larned William Augustus Larned (December 30, 1872 – December 16, 1926) was an American tennis player who was active at the beginning of the 20th century. He won seven singles titles at the U.S. National Championships. Biography Larned was born ...

(1901–1902, 1907–1911) and

Bill Tilden William Tatem Tilden II (February 10, 1893 – June 5, 1953), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American tennis player. He was the world No. 1 amateur for six consecutive years, from 1920 to 1925, and was ranked as the world No. 1 professional by Ra ...

(1920–1925, 1929) hold the record for most titles in the men's singles, with seven victories each. Four of Sears' wins and all of Larned's, came in a time when the tournament used a challenge round format, and they won respectively only three times and twice after going through a complete draw. Sears also holds the all-time record for most consecutive titles, with seven from (1881 to 1887); the first win came when the event was closed to foreign participants. Without the challenge round, the record stands at six, and is held by Tilden (1920–1925). During the US Open, since the inclusion of the professional tennis players, Jimmy Connors (1974, 1976, 1978, 1982–1983),

Pete Sampras Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the A ...

(1990, 1993, 1995–1996, 2002), and

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

(2004–2008) have won the most championships, with five titles. Federer has had the most consecutive wins, with five (2004–2008).

Champions

United States National Championships

US Open

Statistics

Multiple champions

* ''Years in italic type denote titles defended in the challenge round.'' (*) ''denotes event only for USNLTA club members only''

Champions by country

Notes

References

;General * * ;Specific

External links

US Open official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:US Open men's singles champions

Men A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the fa ...