Tiffany & Co. and the U.S. Open: The Secret History of Its Iconic Silver Trophies Revealed

Cumberland and NYC are further connected by the U.S. Open Tennis Championship tournament. Currently underway at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y., this year’s men’s and women’s singles winners will receive sterling silver trophies that are made in Tiffany & Co.’s Ocean State workshop. Each of these prestigious (and astonishingly lustrous) commemorative objects requires 4.5 months to complete across all phases of production. From there, one imagines them being personally escorted to the tennis center by a team of soigné white-gloved handlers—and imposing guards—but for security reasons we can’t know the transport particulars for sure.

Tiffany & Co.’s relationship with the U.S. Open goes back to 1987, the 107^th edition of the event, when the imposing neoclassical-inspired silver creations, with their spiraling scrollwork handles and urn-shaped finials, were awarded to that year’s championship winners Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova. The latter athlete’s trophy was smaller; in fact, that disparity in size between the men’s and women’s U.S. Open trophies would endure until 2023. Now, at 18.5 inches tall, and weighing about 10 pounds, the cups are of equal stature and mass.

While that’s one little “secret” perhaps known only to tennis enthusiasts, there’s another that’s even more intriguing: U.S. Open victors don’t get to take home the trophy they receive and hold up (and sometimes kiss) upon winning the championship match. Instead, they are given keepsake trophies—one-to-one replicas of the “perpetual trophy,” as Tiffany & Co. calls it. Engraved with the names of previous U.S. Open champions, the perpetual trophy, property of the USTA, will later be updated with the names of the current year’s winners.

The replica trophies are likewise engraved with the current year’s winners’ names; for the second year in a row, a Tiffany & Co. silversmith oversees this detail onsite, immediately following the match, so that each champion will be able to leave the U.S. Open with their personalized keepsake trophy in hand (or carefully packed into a Gucci duffle bag as the case may be).

Speaking of which, replicas of the U.S. Open Men’s and Women’s Singles Championship trophies are currently on display at a Tiffany & Co. U.S. Open pop-up in the tennis center’s Fountain Plaza (visit now through Sept. 8). Presented alongside other novelties (like Augmented Reality experiences and Tiffany Blue tennis balls), the trophies shimmer with the gravitas of history. But if you become distracted by the one-of-a-kind diamond-studded Elsa Peretti tennis racket? Your secret’s safe with us.