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The U.S. Open Squash Championship began on New Year's Day, 1954 at the University Club in New York City and literally changed the sport of squash overnight. The event, which was first run as a hardball tournament for the top amateur and professional players in the world, crowned its first champion Henri Salaun, a French-American amateur player. At the end of the four-day event Open director Ned Bigelow presented Salaun the Open's $500 grand prize. Salaun's victory over Hasim Khan in the finals graced the front pages of major newspapers, including The New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, and the Washington Post, all of which were filled with photographs of the Open. New York was abuzz with the excitement.

The Open remained in New York for the next two years, but from 1957 to 1965, the event flitted across the country, quickly becoming a prominent tournament in the world of professional squash. It was hosted in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Indianapolis, and Atlantic City, and returned to the University Club in 1963 only to be shuttled off to Buffalo and then Wilmington the following years. During these early years the Open was dominated by the presence of the Khan family. Hasim Khan won three titles between 1956 and 1963, while his relative, Roshan Khan, also won three titles in the same decade.

In 1966 the U.S. Open merged with the Canadian Open, forming the North American Open, which remained a hardball event. It was not until 1985 that the U.S. Open was reinstituted as a purely professional event under the supervision of Tom Jones, but this time as a softball tournament. The North American Open continued running as a separate hardball event. Jones moved the Open out to San Francisco and was one of the first to experiment with the 17-inch tin and 15-point scoring format. Even on the West Coast the Open was received very well. In the 1970s and 80s the Khans continued to overwhelm the squash scene as Sharif Khan and Jahangir Khan won a combined total of 17 U.S. Open titles.

In 1986 Jones moved the Open to Houston, and the following year the venue was switched to the Palladium Night Club in New York City where a brand new, imported portable court from Europe was set up on the dance floor. The Open achieved enormous success that year and has continued to thrive amongst an eager American audience in Boston for years where players from across the world, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and France have all claimed championships.

We are very excited to bring the US Open back to its original home of New York City, where it will remain for the next five years. The Roseland Ballroom will be a thrilling venue when the best players in the world take the stage to compete for the largest purse in the history of the US Open.