The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens and has been the home of the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament played every year in August and September. Operated by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) since 1978, the facility has 22 courts inside its 46.5 acres (0.188 km2; 0.0727 sq mi) and 11 in the adjoining park. The complex's three stadia are among the largest tennis stadia in the world, with Arthur Ashe Stadium topping the global list with a listed capacity of 23,200. All 33 courts have used the DecoTurf cushioned acrylic surface since the facility was built in 1978.
Located near Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, the tennis center is open to the public for play 11 months out of the year (closed during inclement weather and in August/September due to the US Open), barring tournaments the USTA holds (such as junior and wood-racket competitions).
On August 28, 2006, the USTA National Tennis Center was rededicated as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Famous quotes containing the words king, national, tennis and/or center:
“If the king is in the palace, nobody looks at the walls. It is when he is gone, and the house is filled with grooms and gazers, that we turn from the people, to find relief in the majestic men that are suggested by the pictures and the architecture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching. Our splendid physique as a people is entirely due to our national stupidity.”
—Oscar Wilde (18541900)
“The boneless quality of English conversation, which, so far as I have heard it, is all form and no content. Listening to Britons dining out is like watching people play first-class tennis with imaginary balls.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)
“Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, thats done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.”
—John Donne (15721631)