The Washington Open is an annual hard courttennis tournament played at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C. The Washington Open is part of the ATP World Tour 500 and WTA International circuits. The Citi Open, formerly the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, has been part of some of the most innovative changes in tennis, including blue courts, instant replay/video boards in the stadium, US Open Series, Sunday Main Draw start and, starting in 2009, an ATP "500" level tournament. The DC based tournament part of the US Open Series, a series of North American events leading into the last Grand Slam tournament of the season, the US Open. After the 2014 edition, the Washington Open dropped out of the US Open Series, showing frustration over US Open Series broadcaster ESPN providing little coverage of the tournament on television. As of 2019, the Washington Open has rejoined the series, but still maintains the broadcast agreement it had reached with Tennis Channel.
History
The tournament was first held on the men's tour in 1969, known as the Washington Star International between 1969 and 1981, as the Sovran Bank Classic from 1982 to 1992, as the Newsweek Tennis Classic in 1993, and as the Legg Mason Tennis Classic from 1994 to 2011. Competition was held on outdoor clay courts until 1986, when it switched to the current hard courts. Throughout its existence, the tournament has been closely associated with Donald Dell, founder of ProServ International, who was instrumental in its creation, as well as John A. Harris, founder of Potomac Ventures Investments. The location of the event in Washington, D.C. was chosen at the urging of Arthur Ashe, an early supporter. The women's event was first held in 2011 in College Park, Maryland as the Citi Open, and for the 2012 season, the ATP and WTA decided to merge their Maryland and Washington spots into a joint tournament, with the women's event moving to the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center, and Citi taking over Legg Mason as title sponsor of the joint event. In 2015, the Washington Open dropped out of the US Open Series. Due to its ownership of rights to the US Open beginning that year, ESPN began holding exclusive domestic broadcast rights to all US Open Series events. However, the network only promised that a minimum of four hours of coverage would be aired on ESPN2, relegating the remainder to ESPN3online streaming. Donald Dell criticized ESPN for using ESPN3 to acquire sports rights without any intent to broadcast them on television, stating "If you're running a tournament, and it's two million dollars, and sponsorship money in the six million to eight million dollar range, you've got sponsors that don't want to be having only four or six hours on television." As a result, the Citi Open withdrew from the US Open Series so it could establish a new broadcast rights agreement with Tennis Channel. The four-year, $2.1 million deal included 171 hours of television coverage spanning the entire tournament, and funding for additional amenities. In 2019, the tournament was acquired by businessman Mark Ein, and returned to the US Open Series. Tennis Channel reached a five-year extension of its media rights.
Tournament Beneficiary
A portion of the proceeds from the Citi Open benefit the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation. The WTEF seeks to improve the life prospects for DC area youth, particularly those from lower-income communities, through tennis, educational and community-based activities that teach discipline, build self-esteem and improve academic performance. If you are interested in learning more about how you can support the WTEF, please call 291-9888 or visit www.wtef.org
