More than 60 million people in 170 countries will be watching from August 10th through the 18th as the Western & Southern Open returns to the courts of the Lindner Family Tennis Center in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio. This part of the ATP World Tour was originally known as the Cincinnati Open and the event has been bringing the best tennis players from all over the world.
Started in September of 1899 it was originally played at the Avondale Athletic Club where Xavier University now stands. It also has the distinction of being the oldest tennis tournament to be held in its original city in the United States with historic winners like Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lindl, Boris Becker, Brad Gilbert, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Margaret Court and Lindsay Davenport. “Due to our status as an ATP Masters 1000 event and the Premier 5 event for the WTA, we are guaranteed the top 40 ranked men’s players and the top 20 ranked women’s players. It’s not every day you get to see top players like Roger Federer or Maria Sharapova in Cincinnati, other than at our tournament”, notes Will Sikes the Director of Marketing.
To attract top notch players you need to have a top notch facility and for the past four years a $23 million expansion has been in progress at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. The expansion of the grounds to nearly 20 acres includes additional bars, a flourishing food scene with 14 local cuisine options and 20,000 square feet of retail space. The 2013 Western & Southern Open also introduces the Robert Mondavi Wine Garden featuring nightly visits from celebrity chefs. Will Sykes also shares, “Our goal as a tournament is to provide our guests with amazing experiences, whether they occur on or off the court. Over the past few years we have expanded our site by more than 40% to give our visitors the best in food, drink, entertainment and tennis.”
Not only does this event give visitors the best of food, drink, entertainment and tennis; it gives back to the community. Since 1974, the tournament has contributed more than $8.7 million to beneficiaries Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical
Center, Barrett Cancer Center and Tennis for City Youth. “Paul Flory, our past chairman of the tournament, always had a heavy focus on charity. Over the past 30 or so years we have worked on increasing our involvement with local Cincinnati charities as we look to give back to our city.” Will says enthusiastically.
The Western & Southern Open and its players entertain with great tennis while impacting the local economy by $62.5 million (according to a recent study conducted by the University of Cincinnati) and also giving to several local charities which really does put the ball on our court.
