TDF Talks to Citi Open Tournament Director Sam Duvall

With the inaugural Citi Open beginning this Saturday in College Park, Maryland, the WTA Tour returning to the Washington, DC area for the first time since 1991.

The previous event, the long-defunct Virginia Slims of Washington, was a prestigious indoor event that boasted champions such as Margaret Court Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova (TEN times), Chris Evert, Tracy Austin (twice), Hana Mandlikova, Steffi Graf, and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. 

While the 2011 Citi Open doesn't boast nearly as prestigious a field, having a WTA-level tournament return to the nation's capital after a two-decade absence is a tremendous thing for Washington's huge base of tennis fans.

Back in June, I talked with tournament director Sam Duvall about the challenges of running a new tournament, including attracting players, being concurrent with the larger tournament that same week in Stanford, and more.

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TDF: Who's idea was this tournament? What was the genesis of it?

Sam Duvall: Well, I'm not sure if you know the history of our company [Lagardere], but we've managed the Legg Mason since its inception.  Our group's president is Donald Dell, and he's managed the tournament since it started, over forty years.  We've been in the market to bring a women's tournament to the area, because tennis has a rich tradition here and is usually well attended.  We felt like there was a need for a good-sized WTA event.

TDF: Did you think about making the Legg Mason a combined event? Or did you always want to keep them separate?

Sam Duvall: For now, the goal is to keep it as two seperate events.  It was the easiest way to get women's tennis here--to bring an event, rather than to ATP and get them to approve a combined event at that site.  That wasn't going to happen.

TDF: Did the ATP issues also influence your decision not to host this event at the Fitzgerald Tennis Center where the men's event is? Did you need to keep this at a different place?

Sam Duvall: Originally we were planning to have the event in Howard County, in Elkridge, Maryland.  They're planning to build a $30-40 million tennis and multi-sport facility there, and given the economic climate that was pushed back a year.  This year we're gonna host the event--we wanted to keep it in Maryland, so the next best site was the Tennis Center at College Park, where the University of Maryland's teams play.  There's a pretty big following over there with the USTA Regional Training Center.

TDF: This tournament is going to be the same week as another WTA tournament in Stanford.  It's pretty rare for there to be two WTA tournaments in the same country in the same week.  Does that present any problems in terms of attracting players, publicity, or anything like that?

Sam Duvall: Sure, it's not ideal, not having the tournament all by ourselves in the States.  But if you look at tournaments going on right now, there's two tournaments within a two or three hour flight of each other [ed. note: Eastbourne and 's-Hertogenbosch], so at least we're at opposite ends of the country from Stanford.  At the end of the day, I think people just want to watch high-level tennis.  Sure, we're definitely competing for players, and Stanford's a much bigger tournament, so they have a much easier crack at it.  We'll see, I guess.

TDF: How does the process of trying to attract players to play at an inaugural tournament work? Do you try to look at who hasn't played Stanford before? How do you determine which players to target, to woo to come Washington?

Sam Duvall: A lot of it is our city in general.  Washington is obviously a pretty big tourist destination, and a lot of international who are living in the States, at least females, never get the chance to come to DC because they're traveling all the time.  If you're gonna market Washington, DC vs. Stanford, California, I think I'd much rather come to DC.  There's other things to do.  Especially for Europeans, its easier to travel--a lot of direct flights here, things like that.

TDF: I haven't seen any sort of entry list for the tournament yet--do you have any confirmations of who is definitely coming, or who might be coming?

Sam Duvall: You'll know this week, it's our entry deadline.  We've been advertising Shahar Pe'er, who's arguably the greatest Israeli athlete in any sport today.  We feel like there's a very big Jewish following in this community.  Then Melanie Oudin, who is pretty recognizable from her US Open run.  We also have a girl named Sloane Stephens, who a lot of people think is going to be the next Venus and Serena.  She's actually an Under Armour athlete, ranked around No. 120 in the world now, so she'll be here as well.

TDF: The US Open Series will be going on at the same time as your tournament, but your event isn't part of it.  Did you guys try to get into that promotion at all?

Sam Duvall: Yeah, it's a good question, I think it's definitely something that we'll look at for next year.  I think with the timing, with the site being up in the air...frankly we got off the ground a little bit late because of the site.  We never really expected to be part of the US Open Series in Year One anyway, so...

TDF: Is there anything else you're planning in terms of promoting the event locally, through advertising or otherwise?

Margaret Murton (Senior Events Manager at Lagardere): As soon as we announce our title sponsor, we're certainly going to get into advertising.  There will be lots of community outreach, and lots of special events surrounding it.  Mainly for us, though, we want to establish this as an event seperate from the Legg Mason, and something that's really good for the community.

The 2011 Citi Open will run July 23-31 at The Tennis Center at College Park.  Follow the tournament on Twitter @CitiOpen , and our in-depth coverage here at The Daily Forehand and on Twitter @DailyForehand .