Founded 1975 Category 250 series Draw 28S / 16Q / 16D Prize money 693,425 USD | Location Memphis, Tennessee Surface Hard / Indoor Website Official website Venue Racquet Club of Memphis | |
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The Memphis Open, is a professional tennis tournament founded in 1975 that has been held at the Racquet Club of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee since 1977. The Memphis Open is the only ATP event in the United States that is played on indoor hard courts and usually takes place in February. For part of its history it was a combined men's and women's tournament but as of 2014 it is solely a men's tournament.
The event was previously known under various sponsored names including the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, the Kroger St. Jude Championship, the Volvo Championships, the Cellular South Cup, and the Federal Express International and was for a period time part of the now defunct U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships.
The current singles champion of the Memphis Open is Ryan Harrison and the current doubles champions are Brian Baker and Nikola Mektić. The 2017 Memphis Open title was the first career for all three men.
History
In 1974, Memphis cotton merchant William B. "Billy" Dunavant Jr. purchased the Memphis Athletic Club and began a $7 M expansion to transform the facility into what is now the Racquet Club of Memphis. What is now known as the Memphis Open was first played in 1975 on indoor carpet as part of the WCT. In 1977, the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships moved to Memphis from Salisbury, Maryland and increased the event's prize money to $220,000. The Memphis Open had the distinction (until 2014) of being the only private indoor racquet club in the world to host a men's and women's professional tennis event. The tournament was played on indoor carpet into the 1980s, but the club eventually changed its surface to hard courts.
In November 2001, the Racquet Club of Memphis purchased the rights to the WTA event in Oklahoma City and moved it to memphis, where the tournament hosted both men's and women's events for 12 years. In 2008, the event was elevated to ATP 500 Series status. In 2014, the men's and women's events moved to Rio de Janeiro. Memphis then purchased the ATP 250 event in San Jose to keep professional tennis in the city. In late 2014, Tennis Rendezvous LLC, owned by the USTA and Golden Set Holdings LLC, purchased the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships and renamed it the Memphis Open. In 2015, the Memphis Open was sold again, purchased by New York-based financial management company GF Capital.
Over the years, the Memphis Open has counted nine ATP year-end No. 1 players among its winners: Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, and Andy Roddick. In 2016, Kei Nishikori won the event for a fourth consecutive time, tying Connors' record for the most overall Memphis titles.