U.S. Pro Tennis Championships

U.S. Pro Tennis Championships
Defunct tennis tournament
Event name	U.S. Pro Tennis Championships (1927-99)
Tour	USA Pro Tour (1927-69), Grand Prix circuit (1970-89), ATP Tour
Founded	1927
Abolished	1999
Location	Multiple

The U.S. Pro Tennis Championships (also for a period known as the World Pro Championships) was the oldest professional tennis tournament played until its final year of 1999 and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927–1967 until the advent of Open Era. Pancho Gonzales holds the record for most wins with eight. The tournament only had a men's draw.

American's first prominent professional player, Vinny Richards, arranged what became the first U.S. Pro by negotiating with Doc Kelton to have a tournament played on the Notlek courts, located at 119th Street and Riverside Drive in Manhattan, New York, on September 23–25, 1927. Richards, tour pro Howard Kinsey and teaching pros from the eastern U.S. comprised the field, with Richards defeating Kinsey in the final in straight sets.

The tournament was subsequently held annually at various locations including the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York City, the South Shore Tennis Club in Chicago, in Rye, New York, at the Terrace Club in Brooklyn, the Chicago Town and Tennis Club in Chicago, at various clubs around Cleveland, Ohio, and Cleveland Arena in Cleveland. Its final permanent home was the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, where it was held from 1964 to 1999. It became part of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour shortly after the advent of open tennis in 1968. Between 1970 and 1977 it was a major tournament of the Grand Prix Super Series. It then became a tennis event within the ATP Tour with reorganization of the top tier of pro tour tennis.

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