U.S. Open notes | 8-25-14

A look at the U.S. Open, the year’s last Grand Slam tennis tournament:

Surface: Hard courts.

Site: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

Schedule: The 15-day tournament begins Monday. The women’s singles final is Sept. 7, the men’s final Sept. 8. This is the second consecutive year that the tournament is scheduled to end on a Monday. Each of the previous five years, from 2008 to 2012, rain pushed back the men’s final from Sunday to Monday. The U.S. Tennis Association says the schedule will go back to a planned Sunday finish in 2015.

2013 men’s champion: Rafael Nadal of Spain. Nadal withdrew from this year’s tournament because of an injured right wrist.

2013 women’s champion: Serena Williams of the United States.

Last year: Nadal beat 2011 champion Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win his second U.S. Open title (the other came in 2010, also by defeating Djokovic in the final). Williams edged Victoria Azarenka in three sets in the final for the second year in a row, this time winning 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-1 for her fifth U.S. Open championship and 17th Grand Slam title overall. Now she will try to become the first woman to win three consecutive U.S. Open trophies since Chris Evert earned four in a row from 1975-78.

Key statistic: 8 — Years since Williams went an entire season without reaching at least one Grand Slam final. She hasn’t been past the fourth round at any major in 2014.

Prize money: Total payout to players is a tournament-record $38.3 million, up from $34.3 million a year ago. The men’s and women’s singles champions each will get $3 million, an increase of about 15 percent from the $2.6 million in 2013.

TV: CBS, ESPN, ESPN2

Online: usopen.org

The Associated Press