The ** U.S. Pro Tennis Championships** (for a period from 1951 to 1962 billed as the Cleveland International Pro or Cleveland World Pro Tennis Championships ) was the oldest professional tennis tournament played until its final year of 1999 and is considered to have been a professional major from 1927–1967 until the advent of Open Era. In 1953, 1955, 1956, and 1960, the Cleveland World Pro had a women's draw, with Pauline Betz winning the first three of these, and defeating the reigning U.S. women's champion Doris Hart in the 1956 final. Althea Gibson defeated Pauline Betz in the 1960 women's final.

History

American's first prominent professional player, Vincent Richards, arranged what became the first U.S. Professionals by negotiating with Doc Kelton to have a tournament played at the Notlek Tennis Club, 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, a victory which earned him $1,000 first-prize money. The tournament was 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 the L.A. Tennis Club in Los Angeles; at various clubs around Cleveland, Ohio and Cleveland Arena in Cleveland. In 1951, two U.S. Pro events were held, one at Cleveland won by Frank Kovacs and another at Forest Hills won by Pancho Segura. In 1954, the USPLTA authorized Kramer to hold the U.S. Pro Championships at the L.A. Tennis Club in California, Gonzales winning the event, and the Benrus Cup (emblematic of the U.S. Pro) was awarded to Gonzales. There are two U.S. Pro events listed here for both 1951 (Cleveland and Forest Hills) and for 1954 (Cleveland and L.A. Tennis Club). Gonzales won two U.S. Pro titles in 1954. 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. From 1970 to 1977, it was a prominent 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. The tournament was later played on Har-Tru clay courts and was initially an important tune-up event for the US Open. But when this Grand Slam tournament moved to hardcourts in 1978, the U.S. Professionals did not follow suit, electing instead to hold its tournament during the US clay court season in early summer instead of during its hitherto pre-Open Era (late summer) time slot. Remaining a clay event into the 1990s, it was a non-ATP exhibition event from 1990 through 1995. During the last stint of the tournament, from 1997 to 1999, it was again an ATP event and was played on hardcourts. Pancho Gonzales holds the record for most wins with nine, two of those wins in the multiple year of 1954.

Past finals

Singles

Notes:

<!-- THESE NOTES HAVE BEEN COPIED UP INTO THE TABLE ABOVE AS PART OF TAGS AND ARE AUTOMATICALLY DISPLAYED WITH HYPERLINKS USING THE TEMPLATE ABOVE. THEY ARE LEFT HERE WITHIN THESE COMMENT TAGS PURELY AS LEGACY MARK-UP FOR EASY REFERENCE: a This tournament, the first pro event open to amateur players, is considered by some as both the U.S. Pro Tennis Championship and first "U.S. Open" event (then the U.S. Open was again held from 1938 to 1941 at Greenbrier but as a separate event from the U.S. Pro held in Chicago or in L.A). b These tournaments from 1951–1962, were billed as the International Pro or [World Pro Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-pro-championship). In 1951, a U.S. Pro was held at Forest Hills authorized by the USPLTA, and an International Pro was held at Cleveland. There was no USPLTA U.S. Pro event held in 1952 or 1953, but the International Pro was held at Cleveland in those years and was regarded as the U.S. Pro. In 1954, the USPLTA authorized Kramer to hold the U.S. Pro at L.A. Tennis Club in Los Angeles (this was the successor tournament to the 1951 U.S. Pro at Forest Hills and Segura was the defending champion). The International Pro and World Pro events at Cleveland from 1951-62 were not authorized by the USPLTA to be the U.S. Pro, and were not billed as such. The USPLTA were an organisation of teaching professionals and the touring professionals did enter U.S. Pro events in this period. In some interviews in the 1950s, Gonzales and Segura referred to the Cleveland World Pro as "the National" or the "U.S. National Professional Championships". There were many newspaper and magazine articles in the 1950s that also referred to Cleveland events as U.S. Pro or U.S. National Pro. The official Cleveland tournament brochure used the term "Cleveland World Pro Championships". The promoter of the Cleveland tournament, Jack March, made legal claim to "Cleveland World Pro Championships" as the title. r For 1951, the tournament was played with a round robin format with Segura 4–0 and Gonzalez 3–1 as final standings. x The Cleveland promoter, Jack March, had applied to the USPLTA (an organization of teaching professionals) in 1952 for their sanction of the Cleveland tournament as the U.S. Pro, but was not successful, and would use the term International Pro and, from 1953, World Pro for his Cleveland tournament. In 1954, the USPLTA authorized Kramer to hold the U.S. Pro Championship at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, Gonzales winning the final over Segura in five sets. The Benrus Cup was awarded to Gonzales. This tournament was the successor event to the 1951 Forest Hills U.S. Pro, and Segura was deemed to be defending champion of this version of the U.S. Pro, but there were U.S. Pro events held at Cleveland in 1952 and 1953. v For 1955–56, the matches were played under [Van Alen](https://bliptext.com/articles/jimmy-van-alen) scoring system. c From 1990 to 1995, the U.S. Pro was an exhibition event and not part of the ATP tour. -->

Doubles

Source: