US Open (court tennis)

The US Open is an annual court tennis (also known as real tennis) tournament run by the United States Court Tennis Association. The event is open to top professional and amateur players from around the world. The location rotates each year between the Tennis and Racquet Club in Boston, the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo, New York, the Racquet Club of Chicago, the Racquet Club of Philadelphia. The event has also previously been held at the Racquet and Tennis Club in New York, but it was removed from the rotation due to its male-only policy.^[1] The women's rotation excludes Chicago but also includes Prince's Court in Virginia and the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Rhode Island. The men's event carrys ranking points and forms part of the qualification pathway for the Real Tennis World Championship.^[2] The women's event does not carry any ranking points.

The Open championship was first conceived as a challenge between the top amateur and top professional players in the country. The tournament was first contested in 1919 between the US Amateur Champion and former World Champion Jay Gould II and World Squash Champion and professional Walter Kinsella in a best of thirteen set challenge over three days at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia. Gould won all four sets on the opening day in a display reminiscent of his World Championship against Fred Covey.^[3] However Kinsella rallied on the second day, winning the sixth through eighth sets.^[4] Gould won two of three sets on the final day to become the first Open champion.^[5]

The title would next be contested in 1921, with a play-off tournament to earn the right to challenge Gould for the championship.^[6] In the final of the bracket, Jock Soutar beat Cecil Fairs on his home court of Philadelphia three sets to two. In the challenge against Gould, played as a best of 9 set match, Gould was dominant, winning five sets to one, making just eight unforced errors on the second day. At the conclusion of the match, Kinsella lodged a challenge for a further defense of the title, but it was refused as he did not participate in the earlier play-off.

The Open would not again be contested during Gould's career. The title would next be contested in 1934 in New York with an open field with three amateurs and ten professionals participating.^[7] Kinsella won the final in straight sets over Jack White in straight sets. Kinsenlla had barely played in the lead up to the tournament, his last competition being his challenge to Soutar for the 1927 US Professional title.^[8]

The next contest for the championship would be in 1951 in Boston. It was won by Alistair Martin over Philadelphia professional James Dunn in four sets of a best of five match.^[9]

Following the establishment of the United States Court Tennis Association in 1955, the Open championship would be contested annually. The first four editions were won by New York professional Jack Johnson,^[10] defeating a field of amateurs that included future World Champion Northrup Knox. A doubles draw was first contested in 1959. The 1960s saw the dominance of brothers Jimmy and George Bostwick, winning ten singles titles between them and three doubles titles as a pair.^[11] In the mid-1970s, the brothers gave way to Eugene Scott, who won five consecutive championships between 1973 and 1977.

The event would enter the modern era in the early 1980s following the movement of the British Open and Australian Open to annual events, and with the establishment of the French Open. The event transitioned from an annual meeting of the top US based professionals and amateurs to one stop on a global calendar featuring the top players from around the world. James Burke would be the last American to win the event for 25 years in 1978, while Barry Toates was the first Australian victor in 1979. Notably, Chris Ronaldson became the first player to win a calendar year grand slam in 1980 by winning the national Open in all four countries. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the dominant player was the Australian professional at New York, Wayne Davies, who won the event 9 times.^[12] In 1984, the US Ladies Open was held for the first time, albeit at a different date and venue to the Men's Open. It would regularly attract the top female players from Great Britain, with no American having won the title since 1999.

Despite having earlier won the US Open in 1993, it wouldn't be until the 2000s when long-standing World Champion Robert Fahey would make his mark on the championship, winning it seven times between 2000 and 2008.^[13] His only defeats came to American Tim Chisholm in 2003 and 2004. In 2009 Camden Riviere became the second American to win the title since 1978, shortly after his challenge for the 2008 Real Tennis World Championship. Riviere would then claim 12 consecutive titles between 2013 and 2024 to become the most prolific winner in the history of the event. Riviere and Chisholm would combine for 12 consecutive doubles titles over the same period. Over a similar time period, Claire Fahey dominated the women's draw, winning 11 titles between 2008 and 2025 without a match defeat.