This year, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the US Open, we’re counting down the 50 most memorable moments in the history of America’s Grand Slam. Today, we take a look back at No. 2.
When the last US Open at Forest Hills concluded spectacularly in 1977 as Argentina’s immensely popular Guillermo Vilas toppled Jimmy Connors in the final on Har-Tru, the players and the public knew that the tournament was moving into another realm. The Open left the tony West Side Tennis Club – an elegant private club – for a new location not far away in the borough of Queens, New York. The preeminent tennis tournament in America went to Flushing Meadows, the site of the old World’s Fair.
Geographically, the shift in locations was small; in a larger sense the move was far-reaching and monumental. USLTA President Slew Hester’s vision and temerity were the twin motors of the successful transition to a public facility that took the event bravely into the future as few could have envisioned. No one thought that Hester could get it built in time for the historic 1978 US Open, but everyone thoroughly underestimated the man’s boundless determination and reservoir of pride and perspicacity.
They feel it belongs to them as well as to the great players who appear there during the US Open. That is a very worthy piece of tennis democracy.
The 1978 US Open was vibrant, groundbreaking and a gigantic step forward for tennis. British tennis critic David Gray assessed the Flushing Meadows move with clarity and insight. He wrote, “Flushing Meadows, on a 16-acre site leased from the city for 15 years, has a stadium court with 19,000 seats and a secondary court with 7,000. Altogether, there are 25 outside courts and there is also a large nine court indoor complex. According to their contract with New York, the USTA can use the stadium for 60 days a year for their own events and the rest of the time they will operate a public facility with the same scope as a private club. The whole aim is to involve the playing public as closely as possible with the stadium—so that they feel it belongs to them as well as to the great players who appear there during the US Open. That is a very worthy piece of tennis democracy.”
Fittingly, Americans Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert collected the singles titles; it was his third championship run on a third different surface, and her fourth crown consecutively. But the US Open itself was – more so than any of the players – the real victor. It was the start of something substantial and surpassing.
Now the US Open is indisputably the premier sporting event in the United States, transcending not only tennis but all of sports. It is a cultural extravaganza, a slice of American life unlike any other.
Join the celebration. Share your favorite on/off-court moments from the US Open using hashtag #USOpen50, and be sure to tag @usopen to be featured here.
