2005 US Open & US Open Series Preview
The 2005 US Open will be the 125th edition of the U.S. Championships since the event was first played in Newport, R.I., and could prove to be the most exciting and financially rewarding experience in the history of the sport.
Beginning this year, the US Open could put a player in position to win a record $2 million - the largest payout in the history of the sport. By virtue of winning the US Open Series Bonus Challenge, one man and one woman will be put in position to double their US Open prize money, which could lead to the US Open men's and women's singles champions' paycheck of $1 million being multiplied by two.
The US Open Series
The US Open Series, launched in 2004, links the 11 major men's and women's summer tournaments to the US Open, creating a cohesive summer hard court season. The US Open Series Bonus Challenge directly links players' performances at US Open Series events with their earnings at the US Open. In 2005, the men's and women's winners of the US Open Series will compete for double prize money at the US Open - a 100 percent increase from last year - with a potential to now earn $2,000,000 at the US Open. Second place and third place finishers will also earn additional prize money.
In 2004, the US Open Series Bonus Challenge offered up to $1.3 million in US Open bonus prize money to the top three men’s and women’s finishers in the US Open Series. Lindsay Davenport and Lleyton Hewitt were the inaugural winners of the 2004 US Open Series. By virtue of reaching the men's singles final at the 2004 US Open, Hewitt increased his runner-up paycheck of $500,000 an extra $250,000.
Davenport's 2004 US Open semifinal paycheck of $260,000 was increased 50 percent to $390,000. The potential $2 million pay day at the 2005 US Open would equal the record first prize payout at the Grand Slam Cup tournament in Munich, Germany in the 1990s.
The record breaking payouts for the US Open champions is a far cry from when the tournament began 125 years ago in 1881 on the storied lawns of The Casino in Newport, R.I. In the 125th year of the Championships, the tournament has grown from a 24-man tournament played over four days in front of a handful of fans and earning a post-event profit of $4.32 in 1881 to the international sporting spectacle of today with approximately 500 competitors, broadcast and covered in over 200 countries around the world, attended by over 600,000 fans - the highest annually attended sporting event in the world - and bringing in over $420 million in economical impact into the New York City metropolitan area.
Agassi and Davenport Return
While the drama in 1881 was whether anyone could stop Richard Sears, who won the first U.S. title losing only 22 games in five matches en route to winning the first U.S. singles title, intrigue on the courts at Flushing Meadows in 2005 will surround Davenport and two-time champion Andre Agassi, who both may be competing in their final US Open Championships. Agassi, who will be 35 during his 20th US Open championship, has kept quiet on retirement talk, but has the intention, will, and form to win a third Open championship to go with his 1994 and 1999 men's singles titles. In 2004, Agassi gave eventual champion Roger Federer his toughest test of the fortnight, extending the talented Swiss to five tight sets in the quarterfinals.
Davenport, who will be 29 years old at the 2005 US Open, had more or less made the decision during Wimbledon in 2004 that the following US Open would be her final major. But after winning the US Open Series with tournament titles at Stanford and Carson - to go with her title in San Diego, the 1998 US Open champion decided to continue on the tour with injuries not factoring into her play as earlier in the year. A semifinal loss to eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the semifinals ended Davenport's dream, but her final round showing at the 2005 Australian Open made the statement that Davenport will be a contender for the remainder of 2005.
The New Stars
In 2005, Federer will look to become the first player since Pete Sampras in 1995-1996 to repeat as the men's singles champion at the US Open. The 23-year-old native of Basel, Switzerland became the first man from his nation to win the Open title with a 6-0, 7-6, 6-0 thrashing of Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in the men's singles final. Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia will try to become the first woman to successfully defend her US Open title since Venus Williams won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001. Australian Open champion Serena Williams, the 1999 and 2002 US Open women's singles champion, leads a charge of American women who will look to put the U.S. Open women's trophy back in American arms for the first time since 2002.
In women's doubles, Virginia Ruano Pascal of Spain and Paola Saurez of Argentina will attempt to win their fourth-straight women's doubles title in 2005, the longest run of women's doubles titles since 1954, when Shirley Fry and Doris Hart won their fourth straight title.
