Female Tennis Player, US Open 2011

Six years after the men's nationals were first held, the first official U.S. Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in 1887, accompanied by the U.S. Women's National Doubles Championship (not held for the next two years) and U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship (not held in 1899). Between 1890 and 1906 sectional tournaments were held in the east and the west of the country to determine the best two teams, which competed in a play-off to see who would play the defending champions in the challenge round.
The open era began in 1968 when all five events were merged into the US Open, held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York. The 1968 combined tournament was open to professionals for the first time. That year, 96 men and 63 women entered the event, and prize money totaled $100,000 ($631,286 today).
In 1970, the US Open became the first of the Grand Slam tournaments to use a tiebreak at the end of a set. The US Open is also the only Grand Slam that continues to use the tiebreak in the 5th set. All the other three grand slams play it out with service games in the 5th set.
Jimmy Connors is the only individual to have won US Open singles titles on all three surfaces, while Chris Evert is the only woman to win on two surfaces.