The US Open Tennis

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The US Open Tennis

The US Open Tennis Championship take place this year (2010) from the 30th August to the 12th September. It is one of the grand slam tournaments. It was played on grass until the early 1970's. The court surface then changed to American
clay and then to a hard court which is still used today.
The tournament takes place at Flushing Meadow in New York City. It started in 1881
in Newport, Rhode Island before it moved to Forest Hills, New York in 1915. The US National Lawn Tennis Association would only allow clubs that were members of their Association to take part it was also just men who played. The women's Championship didn't begin until 1887. It was held in Philadelphia. In 1935 both events were held in
the same place.
It was one of the first grand slams to have equal prize money and introduced this in 1973. Because matches could last for an infinitely long time. They were the first to have a tie break to decide who wins the set. Unlike other tournaments that don't have a tie break in the final set the US Open does.
In 1979 the American tennis player Tracey Austin became the youngest ever to win the women's championship at the age of just 16. The first African - American woman to
win was Althea Gibson in 1957. She also won Wimbledon that same year and went on
to hold both titles in 1958. She won the French Open in 1956 but never won the
Australian Open, so never won all 4 grand slams. It was another 11 years before
Arthur Ashe became the first African American man in 1968. He didn't manage to win
all 4 grand slams either as he was unable to win the French Open.

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