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Tennis in the United States
Tennis in the United States
	Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2010
Country	United States
Governing body	United States Tennis Association
National team(s)	United States Olympics team
National competitions
	US Open
International competitions
	Davis Cup; Summer Olympics; Wimbledon; French Open; Australian Open

Tennis was first played in the United States in 1874. In 1881, the National Lawn Tennis Association was founded in order to organize all tennis activities in the country. The first major tennis tournament was called the US Open Championship and was also first played in 1881.

History

The first tennis clubs in the United States were formed in the mid-1870s. Mary Ewing Outerbridge allegedly introduced the sport to the United States after seeing tennis being played in Bermuda and demonstrated it to people on Staten Island in 1874. Soon tennis clubs were established across the country amongst the upper classes, including in New Orleans and San Francisco.^[2] The New Orleans Lawn Tennis Club was founded in December, 1876.^[3]

In 1887 the Philadelphia Cricket Club, hosted a National singles Championship. In 1888 a women's tennis tournament was soon set up. In 1900, the Davis Cup was created and held in Massachusetts.

Governing Board

United States Tennis Association was national board for tennis in the United States. The organization original name was the National Lawn Tennis Association this was changed to its current name in 1975.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] They are responsible for the promotion and development of tennis athletes in the United States.

Tournaments

There are 15 total active ATP, WTA, and Grand Slam tennis tournaments held in the United States. Twelve events are held on hard courts, two on clay, and one on grass. Six are ATP only, four are WTA only, and five tournaments are combined events. The US Open is one of four Grand Slam tennis tournaments.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12] It is played in late August to early September at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York. The Indian Wells Masters, Miami Open and Cincinnati Masters are part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 and the WTA 1000. In 2025, the Dallas & Newport ATP 250 events will merge licenses with Dallas being upgraded to a 500 and Newport being phased out.^[13]^[14]

Active ATP / WTA Tennis Tournaments Held in the United States
Number	Title	Location	Tour	Level	Held	Surface	Founded
1	Dallas Open	Dallas, TX	ATP	250 (2024) 500 (2025)	February	Hard	2022
2	Delray Beach Open	Delray Beach, FL	ATP	250	February	Hard	1993
3	Southern California Open	San Diego, CA	WTA	500	February - March	Hard	1971
4	ATX Open	Austin, TX	WTA	250	February - March	Hard	2023
5	BNP Paribas Open	Indian Wells, CA	Both	Masters 1000	March	Hard	1974
6	Miami Open presented by Itaú	Miami, FL	Both	Masters 1000	March	Hard	1985
7	Credit One Charleston Open	Charleston, SC	WTA	500	April	Clay	1973
8	U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships	Houston, TX	ATP	250	April	Clay	1910
9	Infosys Hall of Fame Open	Newport, RI	ATP	250	July	Grass	1976
10	Atlanta Open	Atlanta, GA	ATP	250	July	Hard	2010
11	Mubadala Citi DC Open	Washington, D.C	Both	500	July - August	Hard	1969
12	Cincinnati Open	Cincinnati, OH	Both	Masters 1000	August	Hard	1899
13	Tennis in the Land	Cleveland, OH	WTA	250	August	Hard	2021
14	Winston-Salem Open	Winston-Salem, NC	ATP	250	August	Hard	1981 2011
15	US Open Tennis Championships	Queens, NY	Both	Grand Slam	August -September	Hard	1881

Players

Men's

American male tennis players used to be amongst the best in the world and produced many Grand slam winners for much of the 20th century. The number of male tennis inside ATP rankings has declined since the 21st century.^[15]^[16]

Women's

Helen Wills Moody won 31 Grand Slam titles in the 1920s and 1930s. She helped to popularize the overhand serve for women during the 1940s.^[17] Alice Marble is another important influential American tennis player. In 1939, she was a triple champion at Wimbledon. Her style of play was characterized as masculine because of her aggressive pursuit of the ball during serves and volleys. Like Helen Wills Moody, others would go on to copy her style of play.^[17] Maureen Connolly won the four Grand Slam singles tournaments in 1953.^[18]

Althea Gibson was the first African American woman to win a Grand Slam tournament.^[19] She claimed the singles title at the French Championships in 1956, and at Wimbledon and the US Nationals in 1957 and 1958.

In the Open Era, the United States has produced some of the most influential and successful players including Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova (defected from Czechoslovakia), Monica Seles (defected from Serbia and Montenegro), Venus Williams, and Serena Williams. The arrival of the Williams sisters is credited as the ushering in of a new era of power and athleticism on the women's tour and 23 time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams is considered by many to be the greatest women's player of all time.