12-03-2024 10:14pm

CINCINNATI OPEN CELEBRATES IMPACT OF 2024 COMMUNITY OUTREACH INITIATIVES

Beth Callahan Editor

From Cincinnati Open News

MASON, OH -- In 2024, the Cincinnati Open undertook a number of initiatives within Greater Cincinnati in an effort to make a lasting impact on the area it has proudly called home for over 125 years.

From hosting its first-ever Community Day along with the ever-popular Kids Day to awarding grants to aspiring tennis players and celebrating local community service, the Cincinnati Open’s community outreach rose to unprecedented levels in 2024.

“The Cincinnati community has embraced this tournament for over a century and the deep bond between the event and the people who call this area home is truly special,” said Tournament Director Bob Moran. “Finding new ways to support our community was a priority we established last year. We are proud of the opportunities we had to make a difference in 2024 and look forward to deepening that impact through more initiatives in the coming years.”

This year, the Cincinnati Open debuted Community Day to benefit local charities and invite the community to experience the site prior to the official start of the tournament. The inaugural event welcomed more than 7,000 people and raised $227,500. Ticket sales were donated to Cincinnati Children’s, which was the tournament’s first charity recipient 50 years ago. Funds were also raised for several other local charities including Cincinnati Tennis Foundation, Inner-City Tennis Project, USTA Midwest Tennis and Education Foundation and RIDE Cincinnati, which received an additional $5,050 raised by tournament staff who joined the charity’s signature race in September. Community Day, headlined by a special exhibition match featuring Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, also saw fans donate more than 1,300 cans of food to the Mason Food Pantry, helping the organization restock its shelves to help local families.

Another new community initiative was 513 Serves, a program with cornerstone partner Fifth Third to recognize individuals who are making the Greater Cincinnati area a better place. Nine honorees were selected from 118 nominations, each recognizing individuals who have made an impact on the Cincinnati community through their service in the areas of education, children, sports, wellness or financial literacy. The first class of 513 Serves honorees, ranging from a Girl Scout to a doctor, have impacted thousands in the Greater Cincinnati community. Each honoree received a $5,300 donation to the charity of their choosing and was treated to a VIP experience at the tournament.

Four new $5,000 scholarship grants in the name of past champions Agassi and Lindsay Davenport were made by the tournament to deserving students from the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation (CTF). The two 9-year-olds, a Kilgour sixth grader and a Mason High School junior are all promising players. The tournament also made a $55,000 donation to the Foundation as its annual commitment to support the CTF’s indoor facility.

As a community event, the tournament aims to make tennis more accessible to a variety of groups. The annual Kids Day was again a popular event, with several hundred children taking part in on-court games and off-court fun with USTA coaches and appearances by tournament players. Adaptive clinics with ACEing Autism, Buddy Up and wheelchair tennis demonstrated how the sport can be played and enjoyed by all.

The tournament donated nearly $125,000 worth of tickets to eight organizations, providing access to world-class tennis for deserving members from a variety of groups ranging from an armed services association to tennis programs for diverse populations. Another $12,500 was donated to sponsor events for the Special Olympics, Bounce Children’s Foundation and USTA Midwest Tennis and Education Foundation Hall of Fame.

The heart of the tournament is its more than 1,500 volunteers who gave a friendly welcome to the players and more than 200,000 fans from around the world. Collectively, the volunteers dedicated 69,640 hours to the tournament and represented a combined 9,208 years of service to the Cincinnati Open.

In July, the tournament brought the Cincinnati community together when it turned Washington Park into a Wimbledon watch party for the first time, just weeks before those same players graced the courts in Cincinnati. The tournament also partnered with ArtWorks and its 16 local youth apprentices and teaching artists to create a new, permanent mural in downtown Cincinnati, celebrating the event’s presence in the area year-round.

The Cincinnati Open’s impact on the community will grow even more next year, when it will be the largest tournament in the event’s history. The singles fields will increase to 96 players – up from 56 – in both the men’s and women’s draws. The larger tournament will take place at the Cincinnati Open’s transformed campus that will nearly double in size and will result in the tournament expanding to take place over 14 days, with play scheduled Aug. 5-18, 2025.

About the Cincinnati Open

Founded in 1899, the Cincinnati Open is an ATP Masters 1000 and a WTA 1000 tournament that is proudly supported by cornerstone partners Western & Southern Financial Group, Credit One Bank, Great American Insurance Company, Procter & Gamble, Fifth Third and Kroger. The Cincinnati Open annually welcomes 200,000 fans who come from all 50 states and 40 countries and is seen by more than 126 million viewers in over 192 global markets. In 1974, the tournament began supporting local charities, with the first donations going to Cincinnati Children’s, which remains a tournament beneficiary today. Since then, the tournament has contributed more than $12 million to local charities that work with youth, families, education, health and wellness programs. In late 2023, Cincinnati Open owner Beemok Capital pledged to invest $260 million into site upgrades to improve the fan and player experience while committing to keep the event at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, for 25 years. In 2025, following a campus transformation project to add and upgrade player and fan facilities, the tournament will expand the men's and women's singles fields to 96 players and increase to 14 days. For more information, visit www.cincinnatiopen.com.