D.C.’s Citi Open merging with Silicon Valley Classic to improve WTA occasion

Washington’s Citi Open is combining with California’s Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, elevating the week-long match’s place on the tennis calendar and ushering in a brand new identify.

The rebranded Mubadala Citi D.C. Open will nonetheless happen on the similar time, from July 29 to Aug. 6 in Rock Creek Park, however now each the ATP (males’s) and WTA (ladies’s) tournaments will likely be 500-level occasions. MDE Tennis, the group led by Washington-area investor and entrepreneur Mark Ein that runs the D.C. match, made the announcement Thursday.

The match’s improve comes on the WTA aspect, as D.C. will merge with the Silicon Valley Classic, beforehand held in San Jose, California. Held most not too long ago at San Jose State University, it was based by American tennis legend Billie Jean King in 1971 and was the longest-running ladies’s-only tennis match on the planet.

Combining that WTA 250 occasion with Washington’s WTA 250 occasion elevates the play on the ladies’s aspect to the 500-level, matching D.C.’s current ATP 500 occasion. 

“Since we took over the Citi Open in 2019, one of our top goals was to secure the long-term rights to host an equal level WTA 500 event in combination with our historic ATP 500 event that is beloved by our community and that has been a highlight of summers in Washington for 53 years,” Ein mentioned. “We are thrilled to now make that a reality.” 

The D.C. occasion is now the one mixed ATP and WTA 500 match on the planet, and can probably make Washington a extra enticing cease for gamers throughout the North American hard-court season main as much as the U.S. Open. For tennis followers, it means extra gamers ranked within the high 30 globally will likely be in Washington’s draw, in addition to ladies’s matches being given equitable remedy by way of courtroom choice and begin occasions.