Tennis fans in Newport, RI were pretty disappointed that the Tennis Hall of Fame announced that 2024 was going to be their last year as an ATP 250 tournament. But fear not, tennis competition is not leaving the historic grass courts of the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF), and will remain a summer staple of the high Newport season. The Hall of Fame Open will now become ATP Challenger 125 and WTA 125 level tournaments. That’s right, women are coming back to Newport to compete at the Tennis Hall of Fame for the first time in decades.
A historic tournament in an historic place
“Patrick [McEnroe] made a very bold statement at that time before we even really talked about much of it,” said Dan Faber, ITHF CEO, alluding to ITHF President McEnroe’s hope of bringing competitive women’s tennis back to Newport, a hope he mentioned in his welcome event last fall. “He said there will be professional women’s tennis as part of the Hall of Fame in the future. And I’m happy to say that starting in 2025, we will be having both men and women’s professional tennis at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.”
Along with Faber, the Hall of Fame Open press conference on July 17 included McEnroe, Hall of Fame Open Tournament Director Brewer Rowe, Melissa Pine, Vice President, WTA 125 Operations, and Eric Lamquet, Director, ATP Challenger Tour.
“The Hologic WTA Tour is excited to return to Newport for the first time in nearly 25 years,” said Pine. “As one of tennis’ most iconic venues, the International Tennis Hall of Fame is the perfect location to extend the grass season for our players. We are proud to work with the ITHF on this incredible opportunity for both organizations.”
Scheduled for July 6-13, 2025, the Hall of Fame Open will become the first combined men’s and women’s 125-level event in the United States.
The WTA Challenger portion of the tournament will be the only grass court stop on the Hologic WTA Tour besides Europe. Equal prize money will also be offered. The ITHF has always been a champion of women’s contributions to the game of tennis: they have had two recent exhibits that reflect that, including their foremost WTA 50th Anniversary display that graced the main hall of the museum last year, and the digital tribute to the Original Nine who fought for parity in 1973.
“The International Tennis Hall of Fame is a global representation of the sport, and there is no better way to reflect that worldwide impact than to welcome women’s professional tennis back to Newport,” echoed Rowe. “We are pleased to welcome the Hologic WTA Tour in concert with our ATP partners and are thrilled to provide fans with double the tennis starting next summer.”
“The ATP is pleased to continue its longstanding relationship with the International Tennis Hall of Fame as the newest Challenger Tour venue,” said Lamquet. “Newport will continue to be a highlight of the grass season and provide a world-class experience for our players.”
New schedule for the Hall of Fame Open
While it will continue to be a summer event, the tournament will now move up a week to the middle of July, placing it at the same time as the second week of Wimbledon, the grass major. This is a very interesting choice, which Faber and McEnroe said they felt fairly confident that the new schedule wouldn’t be an impediment. They also said there would be plenty of players who might consider heading over to the Challenger tournament if they don’t make the second week of Wimbledon.
“We believe we can piggyback with that particular tournament and hopefully attract some players to go from there to here. We’re also excited about celebrating the sport of tennis during that time,” said Faber. “So there’s going to be more than just matches out there on our incredible grass courts. It will include other celebratory types of things around tennis, just really highlighting the game and highlighting what that means for the International Tennis Hall of Fame.”
Holding the event in Newport that week also places the competition within grass season, rather than just outside the end of it. Occurring just after Wimbledon in the past, it always proved challenging to get players to commit to the grass during a time when most were preparing for the start of hard court season.
Holding the Challenger even that second week of Wimbledon will also offer New England tennis fans some fun viewing events. Just like The Hill at Wimbledon, and The Hill in New York, ITHF will likely take advantage of their new jumbo screen out front to show Wimbledon matches live, according to Juliana Barbieri, ITHF’s Senior Vice President, Content & Partnerships. Perhaps there will be servings of strawberries and cream? (keeping our fingers crossed on that one)
Both the ATP Challenger and WTA 125 draws will consist of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams. The WTA event will feature an 8-player qualifying draw, with a 24-player qualifying draw for the Challenger Tour event . Matches will be played on five courts simultaneously for at least four days of action.
Separation of Hall of Fame Open and Induction Ceremony
Another revelation from the presser was the decision to detach the Hall of Fame Open from the International Tennis Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Celebration. The induction ceremony has culminated the final weekend of the Hall of Fame Open, with both events having outgrown each other for some time. With this in mind, ITHF made the sound decision to separate the two, with the induction ceremony now taking place sometime in August.
“We’ll have two large events in Newport. So we expect that we’ll be able to support the local economy two times over the summer, not just one week in July. We’ll be able to support you in late August when you may need some help with hotel rooms,” said Rowe.
More details about the future induction ceremony timing and activities will be forthcoming. Considering that some huge names have recently retired, are set to retire, and will probably retire, Newport will likely see tennis’s most elite players descend upon the area in the next 5-10 years, such as Roger Federer, the Bryan Brothers, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and potentially Andy Murray, Venus Williams, Rafael Nadal and perhaps Novak Djokovic. With such marquee names, the ceremony will likely expand into more than just a weekend of activities.
“We’re calling it the ‘Golden Era,’ said Faber. “I could argue that tennis has not seen something like this yet. Just the names that we know that are eligible coming up… So that’s going to draw a huge global vision and we’re going to need every inch of this facility in order to deliver a must-attend event.”
“We will be doing things all over the world leading into it,” he added.
The 2024 Infosys Tennis Hall of Fame Open is continuing on the grass courts of the ITHF throughout the weekend in its last year as an ATP 250. Vijay Amritraj, Richard Evans and Leander Paes are being inducted into the ITHF on Saturday, July 20.
