San Diego Open September 27 to October 3
San Diego has a storied tennis tradition. Maureen Connolly emerged out of Balboa Park to win the Grand Slam in 1953. For decades, world class women players competed at the La Quinta resort in Carlsbad in a fabulous WTA tournament, The Davis Cup has been played in La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club by the sea, and downtown at the Padres’ Petco Park.
Now, a bit of a tennis miracle is happening. Due to COVID in China, almost out of nowhere a much-coveted spot opened up on the ATP calendar. It was an almost unheard of opportunity, and San Diego leaders and officials at the Barnes Family Tennis Center jumped on it.
The stars aligned. The tournament would be perfect warm-up for the BNP Paribas Open, which starts a week later and would be led by the experienced tournament director Ryan Redondo, who heads the Barnes Center. Veteran promoter Bill Kellogg said the obvious: “This has been amazing.”
Never mind that the tourney has been in place for just over a month – a dazzling field of top players will be coming to town for the San Diego Open September 27 to October 3. The field, which has a cutoff at No. 42 and may be the strongest ATP 250 ever, will include three-time Slam champ Andy Murray, who was a Davis Cup star in San Diego, and a couple of cool Canadians: 2021 US Open semi-finalist Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, the No. 12 player in the world. There’ll be hot Italians, Lorenzo Sonego and Fabio Fognini, who boasts the best swagger in the game.
Andrey Rublev, who is No. 5 in the world, will be the top seed, and his countryman, Aslan Karatsev, “Russia’s secret weapon,” who came out of nowhere to reach the 2021 Aussie Open semis, will also be on hand. The field will be crowded with other appealing notables: Argentina’s 5’ 6” giant-killer, Diego Schwartzman, the fast-rising Norwegian Casper Rudd, the Polish Miami Open champion Hubert Hurkacz, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitorv, Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Britain’s Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie.
As for Americans, the tallest tale in the game, seven-footer Reilly Opelka, who reached the fourth round at the US Open, will be playing.
There’s also good news for local fans. Taylor Fritz, No. 39, who’s from the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe, will be at the Barnes Center, along with San Diego’s summer star, Brandon Nakashima, who many feel is headed to the top of the game. Plus, qualifying is packed with stars such as Frances Tiafoe, Seb Korda, Jenson Brooksby, Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey.
Tickets for this incredible pop-up tennis event – one that might just become a tennis tradition – can be purchased at BarnesSDopen.com
