The Top Five Night Matches in US Open History
In professional tennis tournaments, only two of the four Grand Slam competitions feature night matches; the Australian Open and the US Open. The US Open is still more popular for night matches, holding more of them than the Australian Open.
This year, the US Open 2010 signalled a series of records, one of which was achieved during the night match between Samantha Stosur and Elena Dementieva, which ended around three hours at approximately 1 am. This is the latest-running match to ever be played
between two women at the Arthur Ashe Stadium during the US Open. This list contains some of the most famous night matches to be played during the history of the US Open tournament.
The first night match to ever be played at the US Open was between Onny Parun from New Zealand and Stan Smith from the United States, on August 27th in 1975, where Parun emerged as the victor. This match was played in front of almost 4500 fans
at the West Side Tennis Club. In perhaps their most popular US Open match, American rivals John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors fought late into the night in a match which culminated in another victory for McEnroe. He beat Connors 6-4, 5-7, 0-6, 6-3, 7-6 at the semi finals to move on to the
title match. Washington Post journalist John Feinstein commented, “The two protagonists kept the enthralled 20,086 fans in Louis Armstrong Stadium not just on the edge of their seats but leaping out of them as the battle went into the night.”
In what has been heralded as possibly the greatest night match in all of US Open history, American Andre Agassi defeated fellow countryman James Blake on September 7th, 2005, after having been pushed down in two sets, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6.
The match began at approximately 10:16 pm. After his victory, Agassi addressed the crowd, saying: "1:15 in the morning, 20,000 people still here. I wasn't the winner, tennis was."
On the 7th of September at the 2007 US Open tournament, James Blake and Stefan Koubek could not commence their match till after 10 pm; the match scheduled before theirs, between Shahar Peer and Nicole Vaidisova, ran for over two and a half hours.
Blake defeated the Austrian Koubek 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1 in a match that ended after 1 am. James Blake spoke to the crowd after the match, saying: “There are a million things to do on a Saturday night in New York, so for you guys to stay out here until 1 a.m.
really means a lot to me. I feel like I’m at a party here.” On August 25th, the opening night of the 2008 US Open tournament was held. This night celebrated 40 years of US Open tennis, comprising of many musical performances and several previous champions putting in appearances. The night ended with a
match between two American players taking centre stage. James Blake upset 19 year old player Donald Young 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Tags: