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US Open Tennis Championships 2001
Flushing Meadows, Queens
First day of the 2001 Open, Aug 27th. 2001 US Open
Flushing Meadows
Famous Tennis Players:
Andre Agassi
Roger Federer
Lleyton Hewitt
Rafael Nadal
Marat Safin
Martina Hingis
Maria Sharapova
Lindsay Davenport
Justine Henin
Serena Williams
Famous Tennis Players:
Andre Agassi
Roger Federer
Lleyton Hewitt
Rafael Nadal
Marat Safin
Martina Hingis
Maria Sharapova
Lindsay Davenport
Justine Henin
Serena Williams
Back to the 2001 US Open History Copyright USTA Web site 1968 Arthur Ashe wins the first ever U.S. Open men's singles crown, defeating Tom Okker of the Netherlands 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the final. Because of his amateur status, the 25-year-old Ashe, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, was ineligible to receive the $14,000 first prize in the $100,000 event - at the time the richest tournament in tennis history. Instead, the resident of Richmond, Va. collects $280 in expenses, at $20 per diem for 14 days, including two days of practice. Ashe is the first American to win the U.S. Open men's singles title since 1955. He also is the first African-American to win a men's singles title at a Grand Slam Championship. The New York Times calls Ashe's victory "the most notable achievement made in the sport by a Negro male athlete." Virginia Wade of Great Britain upsets top-seeded Billie Jean King for the women's title. Wade collects the first prize check of $6,000. 1969 Australian Rod Laver completes his second Grand Slam and the fourth in the history of tennis, defeating countryman Tony Roche 7-9, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 for the championship. Because rain delayed the final until Monday, the historic singles final was only viewed by a crowd of 3,708. Soggy weather further delayed the Monday final by one hour and 35 minutes while a rented helicopter flew into the stadium court at the West Side Tennis Club and dried off the grass playing surface. After he failed to win the first set serving at 5-4, Laver makes a strategic switch from sneakers to spikes to help his footing on the slippery grass surface. With the spikes, Laver wins 20 of the next 29 games. In women's play, Margaret Smith Court captures the women's singles title with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Nancy Richey. Court also wins the mixed doubles title with Marty Riessen, but fails to win the first U.S. Open triple, losing in the women's doubles final with Virginia Wade to Francoise Durr and Darlene Hard. 1970 The tie-break makes its Grand Slam debut and Margaret Smith Court defeats Rosie Casals 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the women's final to become only the second woman to win the Grand Slam. Her U.S. Open victory also marks the second straight year a Grand Slam was completed at the U.S. Open, achieving the same feat Rod Laver accomplished in 1969. Court did not stop with her singles triumph, winning the first U.S. Open triple crown by claiming the women's doubles title with Judy Dalton and the mixed doubles title with Marty Riessen. Her total prize money for all three events equals $9,500. In men's play, 35-year-old Ken Rosewall wins his second U.S. Open singles title - 14 years after his first triumph - defeating Tony Roche in the final 2-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3. Rosewall withstands the loss of the first set, three break points at 5-6 in the third set, a tight third set tie-break (the first-ever in a Grand Slam final) and a cracked frame in his favorite wooden racquet which he continued to use because of its marvelous touch. 1971 A sixteen-year-old Chris Evert makes her U.S. Open debut reaching the semifinals, where she is defeated by eventual champion Billie Jean King. King, who sat out the 1970 U.S. Open due to knee surgery, up-ends Rosie Casals 6-4, 7-6 for the championship and the $5,000 first prize check. Less than a month later, King would become the first woman to ever exceed $100,000 in prize money for a year. Stan Smith's victory in the men's championship gives the U.S. a sweep of the men's and women's singles titles for the first time in 16 years. It also marks Smith's first Grand Slam singles title after claiming two Grand Slam doubles titles with Bob Lutz. Wimbledon champion John Newcombe loses in the first round to Jan Kodes becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose in the opening round of the U.S. Championships since 1928. 1972 In a dramatic comeback, Ilie Nastase thwarts Arthur Ashe's bid for a second U.S. Open title, defeating the 1968 U.S. Open champion 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in a final viewed by what was a record crowd of 14,696. Nastase at one time trails two sets to one and faces break point serving at 1-3 in the fourth, but battles back to attain his greatest achievement in his professional career. Nastase, who also trailed by a service break in the fifth set, earned $25,000 for the championship. Billie Jean King becomes the first player in the Open era to repeat as singles champion at the U.S. Open, defeating Kerry Melville 6-3, 7-5. 1973 Another hallmark achievement in tennis history is again recorded at the U.S. Open as men and women players receive equal prize money at the U.S. Open. Margaret Smith Court and John Newcombe are each awarded first prize checks of $25,000 for their respective singles championships. Newcombe avenges his loss to Jan Kodes in the first round of the 1971 U.S. Open, defeating the Wimbledon champion in a five-set final. Court wins her fifth U.S. Championship with a 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Evonne Goolagong. 1974 In the final U.S. Championships played on grass courts, 22-year-old Jimmy Connors crushes 39-year-old Ken Rosewall in 78 minutes 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 in the most lopsided final in the history of the U.S. Championships. It marked the first of five U.S. Open titles for Connors, who would again win in 1976, 78, 82 and 83. Billie Jean King notches her fourth singles title at Forest Hills, defeating Evonne Goolagong 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Goolagong ends Chris Evert's 56-match win streak in the semifinals. 1975 Night tennis makes its debut in Grand Slam tennis at the 1975 U.S. Open - the first of three U.S. Opens played on clay courts. The lights at the West Side Tennis Club shine on one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history as Manuel Orantes saves five match points and comes back from being down two sets to one and 0-5 in the fourth set to defeat Guillermo Vilas 4-6, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 in the semifinals. Less than 18 hours after defeating Vilas, Orantes pulled off an equally impressive 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 upset of top-seeded and defending champion Jimmy Connors in the final for the men's singles title. Chris Evert makes the most of the first U.S. Open played on clay courts by defeating Evonne Goolagong 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 for her first U.S. Open singles title. The victory over Goolagong was Evert's 85th in her 125-match win streak on clay. Eighteen-year-old Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia makes world-wide headlines as she announces her defection to the United States. 1976 In the 200th year of American independence, two Americans claim singles titles at the 1976 U.S. Open - Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert. Evert wins her second straight U.S. Open title by defeating Evonne Goolagong for the second consecutive year. The loss to Evert was Goolagong's fourth straight in a U.S. Open final. Connors and Swede Bjorn Borg play a memorable final highlighted by the 1 hour and 10 minute third set, which ends in a thrilling tie-break won by Connors 11-9 after the 1974 champion saved four set points. Connors would go on to a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 triumph for his second U.S. Open title. 1977 In the last U.S. Open played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, U.S. Open crowds get their first look at Tracy Austin and John McEnroe. Austin, the 14-year-old tennis sensation, upsets No. 4 seed Sue Barker and reaches the quarterfinals. McEnroe, from nearby Douglaston, N.Y. earns three victories, before bowing to 1975 U.S. Open champion Manuel Orantes. Guillermo Vilas shocks defending champion Jimmy Connors in a dramatic four-set final, while Chris Evert wins her third straight singles title, defeating Wendy Turnbull in the final. With the 1978 U.S. Open moving to the hardcourts of the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, N.Y. Evert's victory, combined with her two victories in 1975 and 1976, gives her the distinction of being the only woman to win a U.S. Open singles title on clay courts. Forty-two-year-old transsexual Renee Richards loses in the first round to No. 3 seed Virginia Wade, but reaches the doubles final with Bettyann Stuart. Mike Fishbach's spaghetti racquet earns him a second round upset of Stan Smith. 1978 Spearheaded by United States Tennis Association President W.E. "Slew" Hester, Jr., the U.S. Open moves to the hard courts of the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows N.Y. Bjorn Borg and Bob Hewitt play the first match ever on the stadium court on Tuesday night, Aug. 29. Sixteen-year-old Pam Shriver, armed with 110 square inch oversized racquet, reaches the singles final, where her run is stopped by Chris Evert. The victory gives Evert her fourth straight U.S. Open title, which equals the record set by Molla B. Mallory (1915-18) and Helen H. Jacobs (1932-35). Jimmy Connors, playing in his fifth straight U.S. Open final, dispatches of Borg in straight sets for his third U.S. Open title. The victory on the Deco-Turf II hard courts gives Connors the distinction of being the only player to ever win the U.S. Open on three different surfaces (Grass - 1974, Clay - 1976, Hard - 1978 and later 1982-83). Total attendance at the 1978 U.S. Open exceeds 275,000 setting a new tournament record. Total tournament prize money exceeds $500,000. 1979 Tracy Austin becomes the youngest U.S. Open champion at the age of 16 years, eight months and 28 days, defeating four-time defending champion Chris Evert Lloyd 6-4, 6-3 in the final. En route to the title, Austin defeats 14-year old Andrea Jaeger in the second round and No. 2 seed Martina Navratilova in the semifinals. Austin's win breaks Evert Lloyd's 31-match win streak at the U.S. Open. Kathy Horvath, five days past her 14th birthday, becomes the youngest woman to play in the U.S. Open, losing in the first round to Dianne Fromholtz 7-6, 6-2. In men's play, Roscoe Tanner's serve breaks the net and breaks Bjorn Borg's chances at a U.S. Open title in 1979, as he upsets the top-seed in a quarterfinal match played under the lights. Four American men reach the semifinals for the first time since 1950 and two New Yorkers, John McEnroe and Vitas Gerulaitis, reach the men's singles final, with McEnroe claiming his first Grand Slam singles title with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 victory. 1980 Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe play one of the all-time great U.S. Open Championship matches, as McEnroe fends off Borg in five sets 7-6, 6-1, 6-7, 5-7, 6-4 for his second straight U.S. Open title. Borg was vying for his third straight come-from-behind victory in the tournament, having trailed Roscoe Tanner two sets to one in the quarterfinals and unseeded Johan Kriek by two sets to love in the semifinals. After taking a three-month sabbatical from tennis earlier in the year, Chris Evert Lloyd wins her fifth U.S. Open title in the last six years, defeating Hana Mandlikova 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in the final. Evert avenged her 1979 final-round loss to Austin in the semifinals. At the age of 15 years, three months, Andrea Jaeger becomes the youngest U.S. Open semifinalist defeating Barbara Hallquist in a quarterfinal match viewed by a then record crowd of 18,606 - the largest paying crowd to attend an Open match. The 1980 U.S. Open attracts 364,370 fans, which sets a new world tournament record. 1981 At the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Men's Championships, Americans claim both singles titles and the men's and women's doubles titles. John McEnroe wins his third straight U.S. Open title, equaling a feat last achieved by Bill Tilden in 1920-25. McEnroe defeats Bjorn Borg in the final 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3, in the Swede's final Grand Slam appearance. Borg leaves the 1981 U.S. Open, a loser in four U.S. Open finals (1976, 1978, 1980, 1981). McEnroe teams with Peter Fleming to win the doubles title. Eighteen-year old Tracy Austin wins her second U.S. Open title benefiting from Martina Navratilova's double-fault on match point in the final set tie-break for a 1-6, 7-6, 7-6 decision in the final. Navratilova, who upset defending champion Chris Evert Lloyd in the semifinals, appears in her first U.S. Open final. 1982 Chris Evert Lloyd captures the last of her six U.S. Open singles titles, defeating Hana Mandlikova in the final 6-3, 6-1. Pam Shriver's stunning 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 quarterfinal upset of reigning French and Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova is the match of the tournament on the women's side. The top-seeded Navratilova, an overwhelming favorite for the title, leaves the court in tears as her Grand Slam hopes are dashed. Jimmy Connors, who last won the U.S. Open in 1978, also returns to the winner's circle, defeating first-time finalist Ivan Lendl in a crowd-pleasing four-set final. Lendl ends John McEnroe's 26-match U.S. Open win streak in the semifinals. Billie Jean King plays makes her final singles appearance at the U.S. Open, losing in the first round to Susan Mascarin. Total tournament prize money exceeds $1 million. 1983 In her 11th U.S. Open appearance, Martina Navratilova breaks through to win her first U.S. Open women's singles title. Navratilova, playing in only her second U.S. Open final, routs six-time champion Chris Evert Lloyd 6-1, 6-3. Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl play in the men's singles final, with Connors snatching the last nine games of the match in his 6-3, 6-7, 7-5, 6-0 victory. The championship was Connors' fifth at the U.S. Open - making him the first male player to win five U.S. singles championships in 59 years, dating back to Bill Tilden's six titles from 1920-25. Tracy Austin withdraws from the 1983 U.S. Open citing injuries that would later derail her career. Sixteen-year-old USTA National Junior Champion Aaron Krickstein streaks into the fourth round, defeating Vitas Gerulaitis in the third round. The U.S. Open winner's purse exceeds $100,000 for the first time as Navratilova and Connors each receive checks for $120,000. 1984 Saturday September 8 - probably the single greatest day in tennis history - highlights the 1984 U.S. Open. Each of the four superb matches played on the stadium court extends to the maximum number of sets, beginning at 11:07 a.m. with Stan Smith defeating John Newcombe 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the senior men's semifinal. Ivan Lendl then saves a match point in defeating Pat Cash 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 in the first men's semifinal. Next, Martina Navratilova captures her second straight U.S. Open singles title, defeating six-time champion Chris Evert Lloyd 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors end the day's play at 11:13 p.m. with McEnroe eliminating the two-time defending champion 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. The men's final proved to be anticlimactic next to the preceding day's events as McEnroe straight sets Lendl 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 for his fourth U.S. Open singles title. 1985 After suffering through three straight U.S. Open final-round losses, Ivan Lendl breaks through to win his first title at Flushing Meadow, defeating John McEnroe 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Hana Mandlikova's third U.S. Open final is a charm, as she defeats two-time U.S. Open champion Martina Navratilova 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 in the final. McEnroe, the top-seed, avoids a major upset bid by Shlomo Glickstein in the tournament's opening round, surviving in the fifth-set tie-break. Mary Joe Fernandez, at the age of 14 years and eight days, becomes the youngest person to win a match at the U.S. Open, when she defeats Sara Gomer in the first round 6-1, 6-4. A tornado strikes the USTA National Tennis Center in the late afternoon of Aug. 30, causing serious damage to the grounds, including downed power lines, major flooding and uprooted trees. Thanks in part to the staff of the Tennis Center and the United States Tennis Association, the tournament resumes the next day as if nothing had occurred. 1986 In the year of the all-Czech singles finals, Ivan Lendl defeats Miloslav Mecir for the men's crown and Martina Navratilova defeats Helena Sukova for the women's title. All four players in the singles finals where born in Czechoslovakia. Navratilova, however, is an American citizen and Lendl is a resident of Greenwich, Conn. Mecir, seeded No. 16, is the lowest-ranked finalist since unseeded Jan Kodes reached the 1971 U.S. Open final. John McEnroe suffers his earliest exit from the U.S. Open, losing to Paul Annacone in the first round. Jimmy Connors' streak of 12 straight semifinal berths is ended by Todd Witsken in the third round. Tim Wilkison is the lone American man to reach the quarterfinals. 1987 Ivan Lendl three-peats as men's singles champion, equaling the accomplishment John McEnroe achieved from 1979-81. In a four hour and 47 minute final played on Monday due to rain, Lendl defeats Mats Wilander of Sweden 6-7, 6-0, 7-6, 6-4. On the 100th anniversary of the first women's championships, Martina Navratilova wins the U.S. Open triple crown - the first sweep since Margaret Smith Court in 1970 - defeating Steffi Graf for the women's singles title, teaming with Pam Shriver to win the women's doubles crown and pairing with Emilio Sanchez to win the mixed doubles title. Chris Evert's streak of 16 straight U.S. Open semifinal appearances is ended by Lori McNeil in the quarterfinals. McNeil's victory also ensures that Evert will not win a Grand Slam title in a calendar year for the first time in 13 years. Michael Chang, at the age of 15 years, six months and 10 days, becomes the youngest male player to win a match at the U.S. Open, defeating Paul McNamee in the first round. Ivan Lendl defeats John McEnroe 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in a quarterfinal night match viewed by 21,016 fans - the largest crowd to match a night match at the U.S. Open. First day of the 2001 Open, Aug 27th. 2001 US Open
Flushing Meadows
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