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On Opening Night of the 2008 US Open, the USTA will kick off a two-week celebration commemorating 40 years of Open Tennis with a special on-court ceremony featuring past US Open singles champions. It was 40 years ago, in 1968, that tournaments opened their doors to professionals and amateurs alike, ushering in the Open Era and altering the course of tennis history. Since that time, Open tennis has changed the US Open in as many ways as the US Open has changed tennis. It paved the way for the equal participation and equal prize money, which the US Open awarded for the first time in 1973—the first Grand Slam to award equal prize money to men and women. In 1968, Arthur Ashe turned away Tom Okker to win the first official US Open. Ashe was the first African-American man to win the US Open/U.S. Nationals, just one of many firsts... [read full story]
