US open trivia : 8 interesting facts

Spectator shot at the US open in 1977

An 18 year old McEnroe was making his debut at the US open, when the third round match was stopped for a while as speculation and commotion broke out that a spectator was shot!

Dibbs and McEnroe didn’t want to stick around to find out. As McEnroe later recalled, when an umpire told them what happened, Dibbs announced, “I’m out of here.” Then the story was coincidentally revised: the fan hadn’t been shot, he’d gone into shock. The match eventually resumed with McEnroe beating Dibbs two sets to one. Only later did they learn that it had indeed been gunfire.

The only grand slam to have had three different surfaces

US open, has been played on all the three surfaces-grass, clay and synthetic courts.

Clay and grass courts at Forest hills and hard courts at the Flushing Meadows. Jimmy Connors has won the title here on all the three surfaces and so has Chris Evert.

Prize money equalized

Both men and women are given equal prize money at the US open, and it was the first slam to do so. This year the total prize money is to be $50.6 million, with the singles winner taking home $3,500,000, while the doubles and mixed doubles winners get $625,000 and $150,000 respectively.

Fifth set tie-breaker rule 1970

US open is the only grand slam to enforce a tiebreaker in the decider of the match. There has been heated debate around this topic for years, as the rest of the slams have opted out of the rule. While this rule reduces the longevity of a match, some believe that it is an unfair rule to be incorporated at a grand slam.

The first tournament to use hawk-eye

US open, in 2006, became the first tournament to put the hawk-eye technology to test. As the rest of the tournaments followed suit, this technology has implanted itself permanently in most of the tournaments (except for clay court matches).

Five set women’s final!

The finals of the women’s singles would be the best of five sets between the years 1887-1901. As hard as it may seem in today,’s scenario the women back then has to actually go the distance if they managed to reach the finals of the tournament.

Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang-The longest match

The longest match to have been played at the US open occurred on Sept. 12, 1992, between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in the semis of the US open. Stefan Edberg went on to win the match in what stands to be one of the epics to remember, the match lasted 5 hours and 26 minutes. He of course went on to win the title that year (defeating Pete Sampras in four), which would be Edberg’s second and last title at the flushing meadows.

Roger Federer’s streak

Federer has won five titles here consecutively- a feat no one has dared to surpass for so long. It has been nine years since Roger Federer won the last of his five consecutive US open titles, but after a massive 2017 year, he looks to be in prime contention for the title.