100 Fun Facts About US Open

The US Open tennis championships are played in which New York City borough?

The grounds sit in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, next to the old World's Fair site and Citi Field.

Where does the US Open fall in the calendar of the four tennis Grand Slams?

It follows the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon and runs across the Labor Day weekend.

Since 1978 the US Open tennis has been played on which surface?

It moved from grass to clay in 1975 and then to hard courts when the tournament moved to Flushing Meadows.

Between 1975 and 1977 the tennis championships were played on which surface?

Complaints about uneven bounces on the old grass prompted the switch, and floodlights arrived at the same time.

Which man is the only player to have won US Open singles titles on all three surfaces the event has used?

He won on grass in 1974, clay in 1976 and hard courts in 1978, 1982 and 1983.

The first US National Championships in 1881 were held at the Newport Casino, which is now home to what?

Richard Sears won that first event and went on to take seven straight titles.

From 1915 to 1977 the championships were held in which New York neighbourhood?

The 14,000-seat Forest Hills Stadium opened in 1924 and later became a famous concert venue.

In 2006 the US Open tennis venue was renamed after which four-time singles champion?

The complex was renamed in her honour during the 2006 tournament.

The main tennis stadium is named after which player, who won the first US Open of the Open Era in 1968?

He was still an amateur, and an army lieutenant, when he won.

With 23,771 seats, the main show court at Flushing Meadows holds what distinction?

It opened in 1997 and gained a $180 million retractable roof in 2016.

In what year did the main tennis stadium get its retractable roof?

Five straight rain-delayed men's finals between 2008 and 2012 helped make the case for it.

Which is the second-largest show court at the tennis US Open?

The rebuilt 14,000-seat stadium opened in 2018 and its upper tier is general admission.

What is the US Open's Court 17 nicknamed, partly because its surface is sunk eight feet into the ground?

It opened with temporary seating in 2011 and holds 2,800, all general admission.

Since 2005, what colour has the playing area inside the lines been painted?

It is trademarked as 'US Open Blue' and was chosen to make the ball easier to see; outside the lines stays green.

In 1970 the US Open became the first Grand Slam to use what to settle sets that reached 6–6?

For five years it used a sudden-death best-of-nine-points version before adopting the familiar 12-point format.

In 1973 the US Open became the first Grand Slam to do what?

John Newcombe and Margaret Court each collected $25,000 that year.

In 2006 the tennis US Open became the first Grand Slam to use which system for line-call challenges?

A 2004 quarter-final between Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati full of bad calls pushed the change through.

In 2018 the tennis US Open was the first Grand Slam to introduce what?

It was meant to speed up play, and by 2020 every Slam and tour event had one.

What was 'Super Saturday' at the tennis US Open?

Players hated the lack of rest and fans often left after the women's final; it ended in 2001.

The tennis US Open is the only Grand Slam that has been what?

Neither world war nor the pandemic stopped it; the 2020 edition simply went ahead without spectators.

Why was the 2020 tennis US Open played without spectators?

The Cincinnati Masters was moved to New York too, so both events could run inside one bio-secure bubble.

The 2025 tennis US Open's total prize money of $90 million made it what?

Singles accounted for about 70 percent of it, and wheelchair players shared $1.6 million.

The middle weekend of the tennis US Open coincides with which American holiday?

The event starts on the Sunday before the last Monday of August and runs for two weeks.

Which woman won a joint-record six US Open singles titles between 1975 and 1982?

She won on clay and then on hard courts, the only woman to win the title on two surfaces.

Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open in which year?

She was 17 and beat world number one Martina Hingis in the final.

In which year did Serena Williams play her final professional match, at the US Open?

She had described the decision as an 'evolution' away from tennis rather than a retirement.

Through 2025, which three men shared the Open Era record of five US Open singles titles?

Federer's five came in a row from 2004 to 2008.

Who ended Roger Federer's five-year reign by beating him in the 2009 men's final?

The Argentine also beat Rafael Nadal in the semi-final and it remained his only Grand Slam title.

Who became the youngest men's champion in 1990, aged 19?

He beat Agassi in the final and finished with 14 majors, five of them in New York.

Whom did Sampras beat in the 2002 final to win his 14th and last major before retiring?

It was their 34th and final meeting; Sampras never played another tour match.

Which American won the 2003 men's singles title, his only Grand Slam?

He lost four more major finals, every one of them to Roger Federer.

In 2018 which player beat Serena Williams in a stormy final to win her first major?

The final was overshadowed by Williams' row with umpire Carlos Ramos, and Osaka was in tears at the presentation.

Which British teen was the first qualifier to win an Open Era Grand Slam singles title, in 2021?

She won ten matches without dropping a set, beating Leylah Fernandez in the final.

Which Spaniard won his first Grand Slam title at the 2022 US Open, aged 19?

The win also made him the youngest men's world number one in ATP history.

Which American teenager won the 2023 women's singles title?

She was 19, and added the 2025 French Open two years later.

Which Belarusian won the women's title in 2024 and successfully defended it in 2025?

She beat Jessica Pegula in the 2024 final and Amanda Anisimova in 2025 for her fourth major.

Who reached all four major finals in 2025 but lost the US Open final to Alcaraz?

The Italian won the Australian Open and Wimbledon that year but lost both clay and hard-court finals to his rival.

Which body stages the U.S. Open golf championship?

The USGA also runs the U.S. Women's Open, the U.S. Amateur and the sport's rules in America.

The U.S. Open golf is scheduled to finish on which holiday?

It is the third Sunday in June, and the emotional winner-with-family scenes on the 18th green have become part of the tradition.

The first tennis championships (1881) and first golf U.S. Open (1895) were held in Newport, in which state?

The tennis was at the Newport Casino and the golf at Newport Country Club, a nine-hole course at the time.

How was the first U.S. Open golf championship of 1895 played?

Ten professionals and one amateur entered, and winner Horace Rawlins collected $150 plus a gold medal.

Who in 1911 became the first American-born U.S. Open golf champion, still the youngest at 19?

British-born professionals had won every edition before him.

Which 20-year-old amateur beat Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a playoff to win the 1913 U.S. Open?

He grew up across the street from The Country Club in Brookline and his win is often called the birth of American golf.

Which of these golfers won a record-equalling four U.S. Opens?

He shares the record with Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan, and started 44 consecutive Opens.

Who is the only golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Opens, from 1903 to 1905?

The Scottish-born pro also finished in the top five six years running and died at just 31.

Ben Hogan's 1950 win, sixteen months after a near-fatal head-on crash with a bus, became known as what?

Doctors had doubted he would walk again; he won a three-way 18-hole playoff on aching legs.

Who holds the record for most U.S. Open runner-up finishes, with six?

It is the one major he never won, leaving him one short of the career Grand Slam.

Tiger Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open by a record margin of how many strokes?

It is the largest winning margin in any major, and he was the only player under par at Pebble Beach.

Whom did Tiger Woods beat in sudden death after an 18-hole playoff at the 2008 U.S. Open?

Woods played on an injured leg, had surgery two days later and missed the rest of the season.

Since 2018, how is a tie after 72 holes at the U.S. Open golf settled?

Sudden death follows if it is still tied; the format has not yet been needed.

Which course has hosted the U.S. Open golf a record ten times?

The Pennsylvania course, famous for its Church Pews bunker, hosted again in 2025.

Who set the U.S. Open 72-hole scoring record of 268, sixteen under par, in 2011?

It was his first major, won by eight shots at Congressional two months after his Masters collapse.

Who is the oldest U.S. Open golf champion, winning in 1990 at 45?

He got in on a special exemption from the USGA and won a playoff against Mike Donald.

Who made the cut at the 1973 U.S. Open at the age of 61, the oldest ever to do so?

He tied for 29th, more than half a century after his professional debut.

The U.S. Open golf's $22.5 million purse in 2026 ranked where among the four majors?

The winner's share was $4.5 million; the first winner in 1895 took home $150.

An amateur may enter U.S. Open qualifying if their handicap index is no higher than what?

Roughly half of the 156-man field is exempt; the rest come through local and sectional qualifying.

Andy Zhang, the youngest ever U.S. Open golf qualifier, was how old in 2012?

He got in as an alternate when Paul Casey withdrew days before the tournament.

Sectional qualifying, 36 holes in one day, is billed on television as what?

It is played at several US sites plus one each in Europe, Canada and Japan on the Monday before the championship.

A U.S. Open golf champion is exempt from qualifying for the championship for how many years?

Winners also get five years in the other three majors and The Players Championship.

Which architect nicknamed the 'Open Doctor' is best known for toughening courses ahead of the U.S. Open?

His father Robert Trent Jones filled the same role a generation earlier.

Par at a U.S. Open golf course is usually set at what?

Short par fives are converted into long par fours, which is why so many winning scores hover around even par.

Which four-year run of non-American U.S. Open golf winners from 2004 to 2007 all came from where?

Retief Goosen, Michael Campbell, Geoff Ogilvy and Ángel Cabrera came from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.

In 2010 who became the first European to win the U.S. Open golf since Tony Jacklin in 1970?

The Northern Irishman won at Pebble Beach; three more Europeans won in the next four years.

Who holed a 15-foot par putt to win at Pinehurst in 1999, months before dying in a plane accident?

A statue of his famous fist-pump celebration stands behind the 18th green at Pinehurst No. 2.

Who won the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot as the only player under par in the final round?

He had bulked up dramatically that year and simply overpowered the course, winning by six.

Who won the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club?

It was the first U.S. Open on the course, and Fowler and Schauffele opened with record 62s.

Which American won the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, having considered quitting the tour a year earlier?

He holed a 64-foot birdie putt on the final green in pouring rain to seal it.

In the 1996 film Tin Cup, Kevin Costner's driving-range pro qualifies for which tournament?

Roy McAvoy makes the cut with a record round of 10 under, then blows the finish by refusing to lay up.

Which network took over U.S. Open golf television rights in 2020 after Fox handed back its contract?

Fox had signed a 12-year USGA deal in 2013 but struggled to fit the pandemic-delayed 2020 event around its fall sports.

The first U.S. Women's National Singles Championship of 1887 was held where?

Seventeen-year-old Philadelphian Ellen Hansell won it; men had competed alone from 1881 to 1886.

Which Black trailblazer won back-to-back US National singles titles in 1957 and 1958?

She had broken the colour line at Forest Hills in 1950 after former champion Alice Marble published an open letter shaming the tournament into inviting her.

Who won the 2009 women's title unranked, in just her third tournament back from retirement?

She needed a wild card to get in, became the first mother to win a major since 1980, and defended the title a year later.

Who is still the youngest US Open women's singles champion, winning in 1979 aged 16?

She was 16 years and 9 months old, beat the top two seeds to do it, and is also the youngest inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Who won the 2015 women's final, the first all-Italian singles final at a major?

She beat childhood friend Roberta Vinci, then announced she would retire at the end of the season while still ranked inside the top ten.

Who won the 2020 men's title, the first man born in the 1990s to win a major?

He came from two sets down against Alexander Zverev in a final settled by a fifth-set tiebreak, played in an empty Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Whose straight-sets win in the 2021 men's final denied Novak Djokovic a calendar Grand Slam?

Djokovic had won the other three majors that year, and the Russian was booed by the New York crowd for much of the fortnight.

Rod Laver sealed his 1969 Grand Slam by beating which fellow Australian in the final?

It remains the only men's calendar-year Grand Slam of the Open Era, and the Forest Hills final was settled in four sets.

Whom did Steffi Graf beat in the 1988 final to complete her calendar Grand Slam?

Only two women had done it before her, and the Seoul Olympic gold she won weeks later turned it into the first 'Golden Slam'.

Who in 1994 became the first unseeded man to win the US Open, beating Michael Stich?

He had slipped down the rankings after wrist surgery; the win launched a comeback that took him to world No. 1 the following spring.

Which Japanese player lost the 2014 final, the first Asian man to reach a major singles final?

He beat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, then lost in straight sets to Marin Čilić, who was also playing his first major final.

Who beat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the 2016 final for the third of his three major titles?

It was the only match all year in which Djokovic won the first set and still lost; the Swiss beat the reigning world No. 1 in all three of his major finals.

On his 39th birthday in 1991, Jimmy Connors came from 2–5 down in the fifth set to beat whom?

The match lasted 4 hours 41 minutes; Connors, ranked 936th a year earlier, reached the semi-finals and called it 'the best 11 days of my tennis career'.

Who in 2019 became the first Canadian, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam singles title?

She was 19 and beat Serena Williams in the final, having also beaten her in the Canadian Open final a month earlier.

Who won six straight US men's singles titles from 1920 to 1925?

He was also the first American man to win Wimbledon, in 1920, and in 1929 became the first player to reach ten finals at one major.

Which Norwegian-born player won a record eight US women's singles titles, the last in 1926?

She arrived in New York in 1915 to work as a masseuse, won the title that same year and took her last at the age of 42.

Arnold Palmer wiped out a seven-shot deficit in the 1960 final round at which Colorado course?

He drove the green at the par-4 1st, shot a 65 and held off a 20-year-old amateur who would become his greatest rival.

Who shot a final-round 63 at Oakmont in 1973, the first 63 in any major, to win the title?

He started the day six shots off the lead and later spent 29 years as NBC's lead golf analyst.

The 1974 championship, won at seven over par, became known as 'The Massacre at' which course?

Players suspected the USGA had toughened the set-up in revenge for the record 63 shot a year earlier; it was the second-highest winning score to par since 1945.

Who nearly collapsed in 100-degree heat during the 36-hole final day in 1964, yet still won?

A doctor walked the final 18 holes with him at Congressional; it was the last U.S. Open to finish with 36 holes on the Saturday.

Tom Watson's 1982 win at Pebble Beach hinged on a chip-in for birdie at which hole?

Told by caddie Bruce Edwards to 'get it close', he replied 'I'm going to sink it', and the ball hit the flagstick and dropped.

Which Iowa municipal-course pro beat Ben Hogan in a 1955 playoff, denying him a fifth title?

He did it with clubs made by Hogan's own company, and Hogan won just one more tour event in the rest of his career.

Dustin Johnson won the 2016 title despite a disputed one-stroke penalty for what?

He was told on the 12th tee that he might be penalised but would not know until after the round; he still won by three at Oakmont.

Why was the 2002 championship at Bethpage Black billed as 'The People's Open'?

Tiger Woods was the only player to break par, and a sign at the first tee still warns that the course is only for highly skilled golfers.

Who won at Chambers Bay in 2015, the youngest champion since Bobby Jones in 1923?

Dustin Johnson three-putted the 72nd green from eagle range to hand him the title by a stroke at the first U.S. Open held in the Pacific Northwest.

Needing a par at the last to win in 2006, Phil Mickelson missed the fairway and made what?

'I am such an idiot,' he said afterwards; Australia's Geoff Ogilvy won by one as Furyk and Montgomerie also failed to par the 72nd hole.

Bobby Jones won the 1930 title, the third leg of his Grand Slam, at which Minnesota club?

His 'lily pad shot' skipped across a pond at the 9th after two spectators ran onto the fairway mid-swing, and he got up and down for birdie.

Brooks Koepka's 2018 defence was the first back-to-back win since whom in 1989?

Since the Second World War only Ben Hogan in 1951 has otherwise managed it, and 1989 turned out to be Strange's last win on tour.

Who won the 1965 title to become the first non-American to complete the career Grand Slam?

He was 29 and beat Australia's Kel Nagle in an 18-hole playoff at Bellerive in St. Louis.

Who became the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Open, at Torrey Pines in 2021?

Two weeks earlier he had been pulled from the Memorial with a six-shot lead after a positive COVID-19 test; he closed with a 67 and birdied the last two holes.

Which Long Island club, a USGA founding member, hosted its sixth U.S. Open in 2026?

Its 1892 clubhouse, designed by Stanford White, is often cited as the first purpose-built golf clubhouse in America, and it is booked again for 2036.