A groundskeeper laying chalk lines on one of the United States Open courts in front of the Tudor-style clubhouse at the West Side Tennis Club.CreditCreditRobert Walker/The New York Times

Editors’ Note: The West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, hosted the United States Open from 1915 to 1920 and then annually from 1924 to 1977. By then, the club was thought to be too small for a Grand Slam event and a new tennis center was under construction in Flushing Meadows, a few miles away. Dave Anderson wrote the following column about the final day at Forest Hills, when Guillermo Vilas defeated Jimmy Connors for the men’s singles title. It was originally published on Sept. 12, 1977.

Jimmy Connors had hit balls for a few minutes, had a massage, took a shower, used a hair dryer and put on his usual tennis clothes with the blue-and-red stripes across the shoulders of his white shirt. Now, wearing a blue jacket with “United States” on the back, he appeared outside the upstairs door to the men’s locker room at the West Side Tennis Club and hurried down the winding green staircase. Suddenly, the people on the veranda of the old Tudor clubhouse stopped talking and drinking. Continue Reading ›