US Open 2011 – US Open History on September 2

Written by: Staff on 2nd September 2011

US Open 2011 - US Open History on September 2

Roger Federer of Switzerland lines up a return to Santiago Giraldo of Colombia during their first round match on the first day of the 2011 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA 29 August 2011. The US Open runs through 11 September 2011. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT |

(Courtesy OF USTA)

Behind upset after upset, the young American women have become the story of Week 1 at the 2011 US Open. Two of these rising stars will be back on the court looking to slay another set of seeds, with Christina McHale, who upset No. 8 Marion Bartoli on Wednesday, taking on No. 25 seed Maria Kirilenko in the first match of the Night Session, and Irina Falconi, who defeated No. 14 seed Dominika Cibulkova in the second round, squaring off against No. 22 Sabine Lisicki.

On the men’s side, 2010 US Open boys’ singles winner and two-time reigning USTA Boys’ 18s national champion Jack Sock will attempt to join the upset parade when he takes on the standard-bearer of American tennis for the past decade, Andy Roddick, in a matchup of native Nebraskans with similar games. In all, seven Americans are among the 32 men in action in singles today, including a second all-American matchup between big-serving John Isner and 2005 US Open semifinalist Robby Ginepri. The Isner-Ginepri winner could potentially face another American in the third round if the resurgent Alex Bogomolov Jr. can take out lucky loser Rogerio Dutra Da Silva. The remaining two U.S. men will each need to conquer a seed to advance, with fan favorite James Blake playing No. 5 seed David Ferrer and Donald Young facing 2010 US Open quarterfinalist and No. 14 seed Stanislas Wawrinka.

ON THIS DAY IN US OPEN HISTORY – September 2

1924 – Bill Tilden wins his fifth straight U.S. men’s singles title with a 6-1, 9-7, 6-2 victory over Bill Johnston.

1970 – The tie-break makes its debut in Grand Slam tennis on the opening day of the 1970 US Open. A total of 26 tie-breaks (the nine-point sudden death tie-break) are played on the first day of the tournament, with Bob McKinley and Ray Ruffels both winning matches in fifth-set tie-breaks. Jimmy Connors plays his first match at the US Open on his 18th birthday, losing to Mark Cox, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

1971 – Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors win their first US Open singles matches. Playing in her first US Open, the 16-year-old Evert wins the first of her record 101 US Open matches, defeating Edda Buding, 6-1, 6-0, in 42 minutes. Playing on his 19th birthday, Connors comes back from a two-set deficit to defeat Alex Olmedo, 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, 7-5.

1977 – Using the eventually outlawed “spaghetti strings,” 22-year-old Mike Fishbach upsets No. 16 seed Stan Smith, 6-0, 6-2, in a best-of-three-set second round match. Fishbach uses a racquet he has strung with two interwoven layers of gut reinforced with fish test line, adhesive tape and twine that help him generate extraordinary amounts of spin.

1987 – Gabriela Sabatini finishes her 6-3, 6-3 victory over Beverly Bowes at 1:30 a.m. and is asked if she felt worried about starting her match just after midnight. Says Sabatini, “I wasn’t worried when I saw Beverly sleeping in the Players’ Lounge.”

1991 – Jimmy Connors turns 39 years old and comes back from a two-sets-to-one and a 2-5 fifth-set deficit to defeat 24-year-old Aaron Krickstein, 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6, in a four-hour, 41-minute rousing Labor Day round of 16 encounter.

1996 – Fifteen-year-olds Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, labeled as the women’s tennis superstars for the turn of the century, face the past two US Open women’s singles champions, Arantxa Sanchez- Vicario and Steffi Graf, with mixed results in the fourth round. Hingis, the No. 16 seed, upsets the fourth seed and 1994 champ Sanchez-Vicario, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, while Kournikova bows to defending champ Graf, 6-2, 6-1.

2000 – Five years after playing what is believed to be her last US Open match, Martina Navratilova is back and playing women’s doubles with Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in Arthur Ashe Stadium. With a second round match against Jennifer Capriati and Anna Kournikova, Navratilova becomes the only player to compete in all three main stadiums at the US Open: West Side Tennis Club stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium and Arthur Ashe Stadium.

2004 – Sargis Sargsian defeats Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu, 6-7(8), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4, in five hours and nine minutes in the second round, marking the second-longest match on record at the US Open. The match is 18 minutes shy of breaking the record for longest match, set in 1992 when Stefan Edberg defeated Michael Chang in 5:26 in the semifinals.

2009 – The US Open breaks from usual form by having the men play first in the Night Session. Roger Federer gets the honors, leading off with a 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Simon Greul, and Serena Williams plays the nightcap, defeating Melinda Czink, 6-1, 6-1.