By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
After 2024, the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, the only grass court pro tennis tournament outside of Europe, will be no longer.
The ATP Tour announced on November 8, 2023 that the long-time annual tournament held on the historic grounds of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. will be “retired” in a new-look ATP Tour schedule. Basically, with the events in Canada and Cincinnati going from one-week events to two week events, tournament weeks needed to be sacrificed. Newport, held the week after Wimbledon, and the Atlanta Open, played the week after Newport, were the sacrificial lambs.
In announcing their tournament’s upcoming swan-song in 2024, the International Tennis Hall of Fame labeled its email blast press release “New era of professional tennis to begin in 2025 for International Tennis Hall of Fame.” The Hall of Fame’s press release stated in its first sentence, “The International Tennis Hall of Fame will be introducing new professional tennis events in Newport in 2025” and then stated. “The ITHF is also in the process of reimagining professional tennis in Newport with the expectation that beginning in 2025 a new era of pro tennis on the historic courts will begin.”
Dan Faber, the new Hall of Fame CEO, said in the press release, “World-class tennis has been part of the fabric of Newport for nearly 150 years and will continue to have an ongoing presence at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The ITHF is actively exploring the opportunities to host new professional tennis events in Newport. In addition, we will continue to strengthen our digital programming, museum and visitor experience, worldwide presence, and presentation of the Ultimate Honor in Tennis – induction into the Hall of Fame.”
Newport is undoubtedly one of the most historic and treasured venues for tennis. A major part of promoting tennis (or any type of event) is promoting its history and tradition. High-level tournaments have been held at the Newport Casino since 1881 when the first edition of the modern-day U.S. Open was held there. The site hosted the U.S. Championships until 1914 and continued to host annual events in the summer grass court events on the “Eastern Circuit” as well some Davis Cup matches among other special events.
So what event will replace the officially sanctioned ATP Tour event? The Hall of Fame could go “full circle” and have an exhibition event, which is exactly what the inaugural edition of the Hall of Fame Championships was in 1976, when Vijay Amritraj won the title. At the time, in only the eighth full year of pro tennis in the “Open Era,” the event was not an ATP sanctioned event but was labeled an exhibition event. It was actually then held in September after the U.S. Open and not in the current July date. To boot, the semifinal and final-round matches were best-of-five set matches with Amritraj beating Brian Teacher 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a four-set final. (The ATP, retroactively, recognized this, among other events during this nebulous era of pro tennis, as an “official” event for the sake of player’s historical records.)
In 2025 and 2026, there will still be an open week after Wimbledon on the pro tennis calendar and, presumably, before the start of the Washington, D.C. combined ATP and WTA tournament, which could allow for some ATP and WTA pros to play some sort of Newport exhibition event – perhaps an eight or 16-player mini prize money tournament – that would not conflict with an ATP or WTA tournament that week in North America. This would be, presumably, the week where the traditional ATP clay-court events are held in Gstaad, Switzerland and Bastad, Sweden, as part of a mini clay-court circuit that also includes the 500-level event in Hamburg, Germany. This is also the week where the new Hopman Cup was played in Nice, France on clay in 2023. Could perhaps the Hopman Cup find a new home in Newport for this week after Wimbledon?
During the 2023 Hall of Fame Open, a “Ultimate Tennis Showdown” event was held in Carson, California, that was won by U.S. No. 1 Taylor Fritz over Wu Yibing in the final. Could this event slide into the Newport week? This event featured an experimental format (read more here https://www.uts.live/) which would be in the spirit of the Hall of Fame’s founder, Jimmy van Alen, who hosted several events at the Newport Casino with experimental formats, including tiebreaker matches (which were not implemented in official tennis until 1970) and matches where players had to serve from farther behind the baseline than normal.
Some have speculated that perhaps the Hall of Fame Championships could continue as a WTA event. The Newport Casino did host a women’s Virginia Slims event from 1971 to 1998 as you can read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Slims_of_Newport It could also continue as an ATP Challenger event, one rung below the ATP Tour level. If one analyzed some of the draws of past ATP editions of the Hall of Fame Championships have you would see that the fields were not unlike some Challenger level events, minus one or two higher-ranked players who likely accepted guarantees to play the event. In 2023, Alex Michelsen, with a ranking of No. 250, gained a main draw entry into the tournament, which is about as low as a ranking as one can remember receiving a direct entry into an ATP event and is more on par with a Challenger event. Despite the relatively weak field by ranking, the tournament in 2023 featured sold out crowds most of the week, which is indicative how popular this event was in Rhode Island and the New England area, regardless of the ranking quality of the field. A Challenger-level event would feature a similar-level field, minus a few top 40 or so ranked players.
More speculation has included a “senior” tennis event to replace the Hall of Fame Championships. The Newport Casino, in recent years, have hosted a separate senior event on the former Outback Champions Series tour, run by Jim Courier’s company InsideOut Sports & Entertainment. In 2008, it received added attention when John McEnroe was defaulted from his match, as documented here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RMnT_-AjRo. This was first held separately from the Hall of Fame Open as a stand-alone multiple-day event in August, but later was held in conjunction with the event as a four-player one-day event that was held before the Sunday singles final. However, this tour, most recently branded as the PowerShares Series, is on pause and not currently hosting any tournaments.
While the Hall of Fame decides on what type of event will replace its ATP tournament, the organization does look forward to many years of blockbuster Hall of Fame inductees, including likely first-ballot inductees such as Maria Sharapova and Bob and Mike Bryan in 2025, Roger Federer in 2027 (with perhaps Serena Williams, who has yet to officially announce her retirement technically, joining him) and then Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka to follow when they finally officially hang up their sneakers.
