Stck.exchng: egoforall
Court
The US Open is played on hard courts, similar but not exactly the same as the Australian Open (French is on clay and Wimbledon famously on grass, or dirt, depending on how far along the tournament is!)
There are several different ways you can construct a hard court, the US Open surface is called DecoTurf, whereas the Australian surface is Plexicushion Prestige (resurfaced from Rebound Ace in 2008). It looks very similar, but there’s a technical difference in how the ball bounces (see court surface article). This is why you’ll notice some players always winning certain tournaments that fit their style of play. Of course I’m sure it’d make no difference to my tennis, but at the professional level these things do matter!
Prize money
In 1968, when the Open Series started, the prize money totaled $100,000. The total prize money for 2009 will be around $21.6 million, increased by $1 million from last year. Winners of the singles (men and women’s) will earn $1.6 million each. However there is also a special “Olympus US Open Series” bonus prize for singles only. This means that they have the opportunity to win an additional $1million if they come in as a first place finisher in the US Open series for 2009, $500,000 for second place and $250,000 for third place. Both singles champions also win a Lexus convertible (not too shabby for a couple of weeks of (very hard!) work!
Read about the history of the French Open
Read about the history of Wimbledon
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