The U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships is an annual

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

. Founded in 1910, it has been held in nearly two dozen cities, and since 2001 has been held in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. It is the only remaining ATP Tour-level tournament in the

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to be played on

clay court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis is played. Clay courts are built on a foundation of crushed stone, brick, shale, and other construction aggregate, aggregate, with a thin layer of fine clay particles ...

s. The tournament began in 1910 when the Western Lawn Tennis Association (a section of the United States Lawn Tennis Association now known as the USTA/Midwest) persuaded the USLTA that a National Clay Court Championship would promote the construction of more clay courts in the West. Clay courts were cheaper to install and maintain than grass courts, and the hope was that these lower costs would accelerate the growth of the game's popularity. The first National Clay Court Championships were held at the Omaha Field Club; a crowd of 5,000 watched the finals. Participation and play on clay grew as a result of the event and others, and in 1914, the event was moved to the

Cincinnati Tennis Club The Cincinnati Tennis Club was founded in 1880 just five years after tennis was introduced in America, and is today one of the oldest active tennis clubs in the United States. History Stewart Shillito, the son of John Shillito, the founder of th ...

. It has since been played in numerous cities. Between 1970 and 1989 it was part of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour as part of the

Grand Prix Super Series The Grand Prix Super Series of men's tennis tournaments was part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit, Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis tours between 1978 and 1989, sometimes also referred to as the Super Grand Prix. They were held annually ...

of events (1974–1977). During the stint in Indianapolis, from 1969 through 1986, the tournament was a combined men's and women's event. From 2001 to 2007, the event was held at the Houston Westside Tennis Club. In 2007, after a few years being held on the same red clay used at the

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, the event switched to

Har-Tru A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis is played. Clay courts are built on a foundation of crushed stone, brick, shale, and other aggregate, with a thin layer of fine clay particles on top. Clay courts are ...

green clay. In 2007, the U.S. Tennis Association sought a new venue and entertained bids from

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;

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; and

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. But in May 2007, the USTA announced that the tournament would simply move downtown to River Oaks Country Club in the River Oaks neighborhood. The new venue has a stadium with seating for 3,000 with temporary seating for 500 for the second court. Its Har-Tru clay, of a maroon color, was renewed in 2005 and 2008.

Past finals

Singles

Bill Tilden William Tatem Tilden II (February 10, 1893 – June 5, 1953), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American tennis player. He was the world No. 1 amateur for six consecutive years, from 1920 to 1925, and was ranked as the world No. 1 professional by Ra ...

holds the record for most titles (7).

and Frank Parker share the record of most finals (8).

Doubles (open era)

Records

Men's singles

References

Sources

* References used for the Pre-Open Era locations and champions: ''United States Lawn Tennis Association Yearbook'' (1942–'44, '48–49, '51, '53. '55–56, '60, '64, '66 & '69), ''Spalding Lawn Tennis Annual'' (1916, '24–'28, '30–'31 & '39), ''Wright & Ditson's Lawn Tennis Annual'' (1911–'14, 1921, 1932–'33, '35 & '37), ''New York Times'' articles (1910–'14, '16, '18–'19 & '21–'22), ''From Club Court to Center Court'' by Phillip S. Smith (2007 Edition, page 67).

External links

*
ATP tournament profile

Video of 1958 tournament in River Forest, IL
{{coord, 29.753, N, 95.424, W, region:US-TX_type:landmark_scale:50000, display=title Tennis tournaments in the United States Clay court tennis tournaments Sports in Houston Recurring sporting events established in 1910 National and multi-national tennis tournaments