WTA Returns To Washington D.C. This Summer – Tennis TourTalk

WASHINGTON, Could 27, 2022 (by Michael Dickens)

The Citi Open has been a Washington, D.C., establishment since 1969 and has grown to develop into the fifth largest tennis occasion in the USA. On Friday, the Citi Open introduced that after a two-year absence, it should as soon as once more host a WTA match along side its present ATP occasion.

The Citi Open, which shall be held from July 30 by way of August 7 at Rock Creek Park Tennis Middle in northwest Washington, will develop into one in all solely 5 mixed tour occasions within the nation. It can function competitors from each the ATP (a 500-series occasion) and WTA (a 250-series occasion) excursions.

“Our Washington, D.C. neighborhood has embraced skilled girls’s tennis since World TeamTennis first got here right here in 2008 and the Citi Open match hosted its first WTA occasion in 2011,” Citi Open Chairman Mark Ein stated in a press release. “Our metropolis and occasion attendees are avid girls’s tennis followers, and tennis, uniquely amongst professional sports activities, showcases each genders on its largest levels. Presenting a mixed match with males’s and ladies’s gamers has at all times been the purpose for the Citi Open.

“For the previous two years, we’ve labored tirelessly to carry the Hologic WTA Tour again to our occasion and we’re thrilled to announce each its return to D.C. this summer season, in addition to one other large professional match coming again to the USA.”

In reviving the Citi Open WTA 250 occasion, it should have fun its tenth version this summer season with a discipline of 32 singles rivals and 16 doubles crew, and a pre-tournament 16-draw singles qualifying occasion.

The inaugural WTA occasion was staged in close by School Park, Maryland, in 2011 and moved to the nation’s capital metropolis in 2012. Previous champions embrace present World No. 11 Jessica Pegula, 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens and the doubles crew of Coco Gauff and Caty McNally.

“I’m delighted the Citi Open is returning to the WTA tennis calendar this summer season,” Steve Simon, WTA Chairman and CEO, stated in a press release. “The match and the Washington neighborhood have a wealthy historical past on the Hologic WTA Tour, with most of the sport’s largest names gracing the courts in earlier editions within the nation’s capital. I’m grateful to the match organizers for his or her help and for offering the world’s finest girls’s tennis gamers the chance to showcase their expertise.”

For greater than 50 years, the Citi Open has performed host to high tennis expertise in Rock Creek Park. The match was based to help Arthur Ashe’s imaginative and prescient of enjoying an expert tennis occasion in a totally accessible public park. Beneath Ein’s stewardship, which started in 2019 when MDE Sports activities acquired administration rights of the Citi Open from the Washington Tennis & Academic Basis (WTEF), the Citi Open has continued to construct and increase the occasion, with a purpose of “positively impacting the Washington neighborhood and creating top-of-the-line tennis occasions on the planet.”

The WTEF, a longtime beneficiary of the Citi Open, capitalizes on the match annually for fundraising and has raised tens of millions of {dollars} for youth packages within the Washington space.

Planning and participant commitments are underway for the 2022 Citi Open. The defending males’s champion is Jannik Sinner, presently ranked World No. 12. The newest girls’s champion is Pegula, who received the title in 2019. Final 12 months’s Citi Open, which featured 21-time main champion Rafael Nadal, was probably the most profitable within the occasion’s historical past. It shattered earlier attendance information and bought out all periods all through the occasion.

Citi Open notes

Full match packages are on sale now and could be bought through electronic mail at tickets@mdetennis.com or by phone at (202) 721-9500. Further details about the match, together with ticket choices, participant fields, occasion insurance policies and extra could be discovered at citiopentennis.com.