The U.S. National Championships first seeded players in the draw in 1922. Seeding was introduced to keep the strongest competitors from meeting in the opening rounds.
Before seeding, a completely random or largely blind draw could place leading players against one another immediately. That threatened to eliminate prominent contenders early and made the tournament less representative of the expected competitive hierarchy.
The 1922 championships were held at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia. Bill Tilden won the men's singles title, while Molla Mallory won the women's singles championship. The event was still called the U.S. National Championships; the name “US Open” became standard only after the tournament entered the Open Era in 1968.