The event started on Long Island's
Jericho hamlet as a four-player singles exhibition in 1981, the event, first known as the
Hamlet Challenge Cup, developed into a larger draw competition, and saw winning numerous top players in the 1980s, including
Ivan Lendl and an eighteen-year-old
Andre Agassi in 1988. In 1990, the Long Island tournament became part of the tour as it entered the newly created
Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP)
Tour, being sponsored by numerous companies including; Norstar Bank in 1990 and 1991,
Waldbaum's from 1992 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2000, and
TD Waterhouse from 2002 until the move to New Haven, adding names like
Stefan Edberg,
Yevgeny Kafelnikov,
Magnus Norman,
Paradorn Srichaphan and
Lleyton Hewitt to its list of champions. In 2005 the USTA decided to purchase the men's tournament of
Long Island,
New York and merge it with the Women's event at
New Haven. This move created the first large joint
ATP–
WTA tournament leading to the
US Open. The tournament remained a joint event until 2011 when the men's and women's events became separated, and the men's tournament relocated to Winston-Salem. The tournament ignored its history with the ATP calling it a new event. ==Tournament==