As the ATP Infosys Hall of Fame Open caps a successful week, the leadership in Newport wants more improvements, including a women’s event.
“The entire leadership team is wholly aware that we want to be equitable in terms of promoting the sport, and that does include women,” said Tournament Director Brewer Rowe. “We do believe that we need to honor both professional men and professional women, and to only showcase one gender is not appropriate for this organization.”
The elegant grass court venue hosted a WTA tournament from 1971 to 1990.
With the WTA’s tournament lineup experiencing some turmoil, bringing a grass court women’s event to the stability of the International Tennis Hall of Fame would make sense. Just this past week, the WTA 250 in Hungary was marred by a controversy involving a line call and the retirement of Zhang Shuai. The tour has also struggled with human rights and monetary issues surrounding its tournaments in China.
In addition, Newport wants to explore moving to a date on the calendar before Wimbledon, if logistics would allow. Rowe said the current calendar date the week after Wimbledon makes Newport “sort of a misfit child.”
Amid plans of a re-vamped grass season, making Newport a Wimbledon warm-up would greatly help players based in the U.S. and Canada by giving them a place to prep for Wimbledon closer to home. That, in turn, would attract more top-ranked stars.
Other plans for the ATP Infosys Hall of Fame Open include building shade over fan sections around almost the entire show court. Shade sells tickets and keeps fans safe and cool.
This week’s tournament featured sell-out crowds and the Hall of Fame induction of Esther Vergeer and Rick Draney, two wheelchair tennis legends. It was the first time two wheelchair athletes were inducted in the same year.
