The third annual Dallas Open is in the books, and there's no denying that things are looking up. One year after Taylor Fritz, the highest-ranked American on the ATP Tour, played in the tournament, the 2023 field includes three of the top four American men — all ranked in the top 20 — as well as another top-20 player on the ATP Tour. Professional tennis player Adrian Mannarino. . That's a seismic jump from the inaugural event just two years ago, where the intended headliner – former Prime Minister Grigor Dimitrov – was a late scratch, leaving 36-year-old John Isner to foot the lead bill.
All of this has laid the foundation for what is to come in 2025, when Dallas will join tournaments in Munich and Doha to move from an ATP 250 event to an ATP 500 event. There are only 16 such events worldwide, and with that increased cachet comes more prizes. Finance and rating points. This in turn means incentivizing more of the biggest names in tennis to appear in North Texas, further cementing the Open as a staple event on the Tour.
This is the big good news. What's less cheerful is the realization that none of that glow will happen in Dallas.
We covered the Open's impending move to Frisco in November and how it's the latest step in Frisco becoming the most powerful sports suburb in America. This seems logical. Why doesn't the Open eagerly move on to The Star, which promises to be a massive upgrade over SMU's Styslinger/Altec tennis complex in everything from aesthetics to (presumably) functional climate control? (Take it from someone who was there in the quarterfinals: Airflow no Tennis complex strength.)
More importantly, why not move a major sporting event to a city that has spent the past two decades assembling a thriving sporting ecosystem, away from a city that shows little comparable proficiency?
That's the result as it stands now in Dallas, where the only supporting properties — the Stars and Mavericks — are the same ones that have been here for decades. You are of course invited to discuss professional sports He should Standing on the city's priority list. What's indisputable is that these matters are so important to Mayor Eric Johnson that he formed the Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Athlete Recruitment and Retention nearly two years ago to combat Dallas' loss of professional sporting teams and events to the suburbs, a topic he has winged about a time or three.
This committee is currently failing. A healthy part of that was inevitable. The mayor is well aware that the prime real estate is all up for grabs, give or take the supposed casino for the upcoming Mavericks resort could possibly be booked for Irving.
But Dallas losing its biggest recent coup just three years after reaching the Open was hardly a fait accompli. Thus the greater the event, the greater the scourge that the city let escape. Because while more professional sports are coming to town — next up is the National Cricket League, which will host its tournament in South Dallas in May — there's no clear opportunity on the horizon that can replicate what the Dallas Open represented as a new event tied to a major, established sports brand. It is the material from which local traditions are made.
It would be an understatement to say that the entire tennis world was focused on SMU over the past week, or that much of Dallas was. What's not debatable is that there's ample reason to believe the event could reach that kind of fame in time. If that happens, Dallas will be just a footnote in the story. Like many other things, the Open was made here. Her future should not be made brighter by deciding to leave.
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Mike Bellucci
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Mike Bellucci is Dr. MagazineSports Editor. He is a former employee of The athlete And DeputyAnd independent…
