By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
It appears a combined men’s and women’s Challenger-level is poised to replace the International Tennis Hall of Fame Open ATP tournament in Newport, Rhode Island, starting in 2025.
Patrick McEnroe, the co-President of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, said on the Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast recorded from Indian Wells that the plan was for the storied grass tennis courts at the Newport Casino to host a combined men’s and women’s Challenger level tournament (the highest level of “minor league” tennis) during the second week of Wimbledon. This would be a week earlier than the long-running ATP Hall of Fame Open that was traditionally held the week after Wimbledon from 1976 to its final edition in 2024. As part of the restructuring of the ATP Tour and to make way for two-week events in Cincinnati and Canada, the Hall of Fame Open was “retired” from the calendar and its sanction was sold to the Dubai Open.
“First of all, we’re going to still have professional tennis in Newport, so let me say that,” said McEnroe to Shapiro when discussing the sale of the Hall of Fame sanction to Dubai. “In fact, I just sent a screenshot today to the rest of our Hall of Fame leadership staff with the draw of the (Challenger) tournament in Phoenix this week. Eight players seeded are in the top 80 in the world. I think the cutoff was like in the high-80s to get in the tournament. That’s way stronger than the 250 that we had. So our model going forward is going to be second week of Wimbledon, men’s and women’s Challenger event. It’s going to be great. We’re going to get players that lose in the first week of Wimbledon. Chris Eubanks is the number one seed. We’re going to get some people like that. You got guys like (Fabio) Fognini, (Stan) Wawrinka playing in it. (Andy) Murray and (Gael) Monfils played at Challengers last year. So we will have professional tennis.”
As reported earlier this year here https://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/22539 in the article “What Is Next For Newport After The Hall of Fame Championships “Retirement”?” the singles cutoff for the ATP Hall of Fame Open in 2023 was No. 250 Alex Michelsen (who happened to have an amazing run to the singles final). Some keen observers of the Newport tournament have compared the traditional strength of the field as that of a Challenger-level event, except for a Top 30 player or two. Despite the relatively weak singles fields from an ATP 250 perspective, the Hall of Fame Open always attracted strong crowds, drawn the beauty and charm of Newport and the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the history and nostalgia with its surroundings.
McEnroe also said that the induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame would not be held in conjunction with the event. This is largely due to the fact that most of the Hall of Famers and tennis industry officials would be at Wimbledon during the staging of this tournament. One can speculate that the Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies could be held the weekend before the start of the U.S. Open in late August.
Regarding the sale of the tournament sanction, which was met with dismay among many long-time loyal tennis fans in New England, McEnroe said, “The bottom line… the ATP is trying to get rid of some of the 250s, make the bigger tournaments bigger, make the 500s bigger, have less 250s. Newport was going to go away as a 250 whether we liked it or not at some point. The opportunity in front of us was presented to us, and in fact, when we first took this job, Dan Faber and I, who’s my boss and the new CEO, we went to Paris, it was our first trip, and someone approached us in Paris and said, ‘I’d like to have a meeting with you. I understand you’re selling your tournament.’ We’re like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ Little did we know what was already going on behind the scenes with the ATP.
Continued McEnroe, “So we got a great deal. We got a deal that we couldn’t pass up. Remember, the Tennis Hall of Fame is not-for-profit. It was too much, too good of a deal for us to pass up. We have to improve the museum, which is amazing. We have to improve the grounds, some of which are not in great shape. We have to do a lot outside of just the tournament, but the tournament itself is going to be the second week of Wimby, it’s going to be a great success, it’s going to be men and women, it’s going to be a festival, and the induction ceremony is going to be a different week from when this tournament takes place. So I think it’s a win-win for the Hall of Fame.”
