The Memphis Open was a professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament that ran from 1975 to 2017. From 1977 onwards, the event was held at the Racquet Club of Memphis in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. The Memphis Open was the only ATP event in the United States which was played on indoor hard courts; it usually took place in February. For part of its history it was a combined men's and women's tournament, but for its final four years it was 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 U.S. National Indoor Championships was a tennis tournament that was last held at the Racquet Club of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The event was played on indoor hard courts and usually took place in February. For much of i ...

''. The last singles champion of the Memphis Open was

Ryan Harrison Ryan Harrison (born May 7, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. Harrison has won one career ATP title in singles at the 2017 Memphis Open to go along with four in doubles, including the 2017 French Open. Before turning 16, Harriso ...

and the last doubles champions are Brian Baker and

Nikola Mektić Nikola Mektić (born 24 December 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player who is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles. He is a two-time Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam champion, having won the ...

. The 2017 Memphis Open titles were the first career titles for all three men. As of 2018, the tournament has moved to New York as the new New York Open.

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

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 The ATP 500 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 500'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series Gold'', and ''ATP Championship Series'') are the fourth highest tier of annual men's tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tour ...

status. In 2014, the men's and women's events moved to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. 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. In April 2017 the ATP announced that the tournament will relocate to the

Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (or simply the Nassau Coliseum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, east of New York City. The Long Island venue is approximately east of the eastern limits of the New York City Borough of ...

in Long Island, New York in 2018 after the event failed to find a title sponsor in Memphis.

Finals

Singles

Doubles

Records

References

External links

Official website

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram
{{ATP World Tour 250 series Indoor tennis tournaments Hard court tennis tournaments in the United States ATP Tour ATP Tour 250 Sports in Memphis, Tennessee Tennis in Tennessee Recurring sporting events established in 1975