The Silicon Valley Classic was a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

held on the campus of

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. Started in 1971, the tournament was the oldest women's-only tournament in the world and was played on outdoor

hardcourt A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the s ...

s. It was the first women's tournament in the annual US Open Series. The tournament started out as the British Motor Cars Invitation in 1971 on the Virginia Slims circuit. Prior to 1978, the tournament was known as the Virginia Slims of San Francisco. The tournament was sponsored by

Bank of the West Bank of the West was an American financial institution headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. It had more than 600 branches and offices in the Midwest and Western United States. It was founded in 1874 in San Jose, Californi ...

from 1992 to 2017 (branding it as the Bank of the West Classic), and held on the campus of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

from 1997 to 2017, and run by

Dick Gould Dick Gould is an American tennis coach. He was the Men's Tennis Coach at Stanford University for 38 years from 1966 to 2004. His Stanford men's tennis teams won 17 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships, and 50 of his players won All-American honors ...

. The event moved to

in 2018 and received a new sponsor,

Mubadala Investment Company Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (), or simply Mubadala, is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Developme ...

, branding the tournament as the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...

won the tournament a record five times (1979–1980, 1988, 1991, and 1993). BankofTheWestClassic

On June 1, 2023, it was announced that the tournament would merge with the pre-existing Washington Open and move permanently to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

The Washington tournament thereby went from being a WTA 250 event to being a WTA 500 event. The Silicon Valley Classic thus held its final tournament in 2022.

Past finals

Singles

Doubles

Date, name and venue history

References

External links

* {{navboxes, title=Previous women's tournament categories (1990–2020) , list1= {{WTA Premier tournaments {{WTA Tier II tournaments Women's tennis tournaments in the United States Hard court tennis tournaments WTA 500 tournaments Stanford University US Open Series Recurring sporting events established in 1971 Sports in Stanford, California 1971 establishments in California Former WTA Tour tournaments Defunct tennis tournaments in the United States