Flushing Meadows wasn’t always hard

ANDY Murray last night began his quest for the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

The New York Grand Slam is the only tennis major to have experimented with all three court surfaces; the first 93 years of the tournament were on grass, before a brief stint on clay. In 1978, the Open moved to Flushing Meadows where the surface is hard court. Jimmy Connors is the only player to win the Open on all three surfaces; on grass in 1974, on clay in 1976 and three times on the hard courts at Flushing Meadows in ’78, ’82, and ’83.