How The US Open Stayed In Queens

By Reed Albergotti, MICHAEL SPINNER and DAVID OATS

It was a giant leap forward for tennis in Queens, but a equally large leap backward for the West Side Tennis club, when in 1978, the U.S. open moved to Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

In the 1970s, The United States Tennis Association was looking to reconstruct its image — make it bigger, broaden it, beef it up and put tennis on the map with mainstream sports like baseball, basketball and football.

The West Side Tennis Club was a symbol of the old guard in Tennis. It was small, intimate, and exclusive. That didn’t fit what the USTA was trying to accomplish.

Virtually any city would have bent over backwards for the chance to welcome Tennis greats like Arthur Ash, Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors, who would soon be saying goodbye to Forest Hills.

Fortunately for the borough, Queens had a man on the inside.

It was W.E. “Slew” Hester, president of the USTA, who didn’t want to see the Open leave New York. In 1977, contract negotiations with the West Side Tennis Club were becoming increasingly strained, and Hester could have sent his tournament anywhere.

But Hester had his eye on Queens – Louis Armstrong Stadium, to be exact.            Negotiations with the Parks Department began immediately, and to the surprise of many involved, Hester and Parks closed the deal. New York would keep its tournament.

Rapid construction commenced on Louis Armstrong stadium, and the 1978 U.S. Open was scheduled for Flushing for the first time in its history.

And what a tournament it was.

Chris Evert topped Pam Shriver to claim her fourth consecutive title and Jimmy Connors beat Bjorn Borg. According to reports at the time, the tennis matches were more popular than the Mets playing next door.

A Washington Post article at the time said there were only 9,256 people at the Mets game, while a crowd of 20,000 packed into the stadium to watch Tennis.

And one of the USTA’s most loyal subjects, The West Side Tennis Club, was over night cut out of that spectacle.

It hosted its last professional tournament – the Tournament of Champions – in 1989. That is, its last until 2003.

Though club recently hosted the first ever Forest Hills Tennis Classic. It was minor compared to the matches that used to be played at the club, but it is still pretty good tennis, part of the USTA’s Pro Circuit.

And for the real tennis fans, who miss the intimacy of the old U.S. Opens in Forest Hills, the tournament was an opportunity to see some near-top-notch tennis up close. The stadium didn’t get used, but the club’s clay courts surrounded by the well-kept greenery, saw some real action.

The headliner at the tournament was Michael Chang, once one of the world’s premier players. Chang is on a farewell tour of sorts, as he finishes out his final season of pro tennis.

And so professional tennis continues to have a home in Queens . . . in a venue that attracts the world to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and in an intimate setting reminiscent of an era gone by.