‘Mubadala Citi DC Open’ Becomes Only Combined ATP-WTA 500-Level Tourney

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WASHINGTON, June 1, 2023 — MDE Tennis and IMG introduced that the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. is combining with the Mubadala Silicon Valley Basic to change into the Mubadala Citi DC Open starting in 2023. The transfer from San Jose elevates the DC ladies’s occasion from a WTA 250 stage to a WTA 500 stage, making the Mubadala Citi DC Open the one mixed ATP-WTA 500 match on the planet on the tour calendar. The transfer is topic to ATP Board approval.

The Mubadala Citi DC Open is the fifth largest professional tennis occasion in the US and can happen July 29 – August 6, 2023, on the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Heart in Rock Creek Park within the nation’s capital. The match was based in 1969 to assist Arthur Ashe’s imaginative and prescient of enjoying skilled tennis in a public park, making tennis accessible to everybody. Since MDE Tennis took over administration of the match in 2019 the occasion’s reputation has exploded, with report attendance of over 80,000 and whole sell-outs of each session for the final two years.

The Mubadala Silicon Valley Basic was based 52 years in the past by Billie Jean King as the primary occasion of the 1971 skilled ladies’s tour that has now change into the WTA. The match will make historical past as soon as once more when it strikes to the nation’s capital in August. The match will stay a 28-player discipline and presents a uncommon alternative for a mixed 500-level occasion the identical week, permitting WTA gamers to compete in entrance of a bigger viewers with a extra handy tour schedule in proximity to the subsequent main WTA occasions after which the U.S. Open in New York Metropolis later that month. Tennis followers, in the meantime, will be capable to benefit from the highest ranges of males’s and girls’s skilled tennis throughout the identical week.

Mark Ein, the Chairman of MDE Sports activities and the Citi Open, met not too long ago with Brian Lott, Chief Communications Officer for Mubadala Funding Firm, and Edward Skyler, Government Vice President, Citi, to launch the brand new co-title partnership and match.

“Since we took over the Citi Open in 2019, considered one of our high objectives was to safe the long-term rights to host an equal stage WTA 500 occasion together with our historic ATP 500 occasion that’s beloved by our group and that has been a spotlight of summers in Washington for 53 years. We’re thrilled to now make {that a} actuality and are deeply grateful to Mubadala, Citi and IMG for this distinctive and impactful partnership,” stated Mark Ein, Mubadala Citi DC Open’s Chairman. “Having the ability to showcase women and men on the identical highest-level occasions is without doubt one of the issues that makes tennis so particular, and this transfer solidifies the Mubadala Citi DC Open as one of many premiere skilled tennis tournaments on the planet.”

“We’d prefer to thank the Bay space for over 50 years of assist, enthusiasm and fervour. We’ve liked bringing one of the best in ladies’s tennis to the doorstep 12 months after 12 months,” said Josh Ripple, SVP of Tennis Occasions at IMG, the proprietor and operator of the WTA 500 occasion. “Whereas we’re unhappy to go, we’re additionally very enthusiastic about this new chapter within the occasion’s historical past as the one 500-level mixed occasion on the excursions within the U.S. We hope that by bringing this occasion to D.C. we will begin new traditions and convey that very same ardour for ladies’s tennis we noticed in San Jose to the capital.”

Brian Lott, Chief Communications Workplace for Mubadala Funding Firm stated, “Our relationship with ladies’s skilled tennis started in 2017, once we labored with the WTA to maneuver this match from Stanford College to San Jose State College, attracting new followers within the Silicon Valley space and increasing its timeline in Northern California by 5 years. We’re excited to construct on the heritage of those males’s and girls’s tournaments to create one thing new and historic in Washington, D.C. This new format will serve each gamers and followers alike and can construct on Mubadala’s sturdy assist {of professional} tennis – ladies’s tennis specifically – worldwide. We additionally sit up for working with the area people to develop the subsequent technology of tennis expertise within the D.C. space.”

Along with the brand new match in D.C., Mubadala additionally not too long ago hosted the first-ever Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open WTA 500, and the corporate not too long ago acquired the Rio Open ATP 500 match.

“Welcoming Mubadala on as a co-title accomplice is an unbelievable alternative to raise the occasion and can allow males’s and girls’s tennis to share the stage by changing into the one mixed ATP-WTA 500 match,” stated Edward Skyler, Government Vice President, Citi. “Now we have nice respect for Mubadala and all they’ve accomplished with the Silicon Valley Basic, and we sit up for bringing our shared ardour for tennis to the D.C. group in an much more impactful means.”

“We’re thrilled to host the Mubadala Citi DC Open within the Sports activities Capital. We’re additionally excited to make DC’s largest tennis occasion even greater,” stated DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. “For greater than 50 years, the Citi Open has entertained and impressed Washingtonians from throughout all eight wards and tennis followers from around the globe. And we sit up for many extra years of world-class tennis in DC. We’ll see you this summer time in Rock Creek Park.”

Steve Simon, WTA Chairman & CEO stated: “The Bay Space has performed host to so many unforgettable moments as one of many Hologic WTA Tour’s longest-running tournaments. The legacy of this much-loved occasion will stay on in its new house, in Washington D.C., the place I’m excited to see WTA and ATP stars competing collectively for the primary time on the 500 stage, creating new recollections for a lot of extra years to come back.”

Season tickets for the 2023 Mubadala Citi DC Open are already on sale at www.mubadalacitidcopen.com or by calling 202-721-9500. Greater than half of the decrease bowl is already offered and each session for the final two years has offered out with season ticket holders now comprising a big portion of the attendees. Particular person seats might be obtainable nearer to the occasion.