Dallas Open Moving from SMU to Frisco
The Dallas Open tennis tournament is growing in stature. And it’s also leaving the cozy confines of SMU for a new location about 20 miles north of, well, Dallas.
The men’s professional event will move from University Park to The Star in Frisco beginning in 2025 — the same year it advances to the more prestigious ATP 500 level in the sport’s tournament hierarchy.
The ATP 500 designation means enhanced purse money and likely a more elite field of players for the tournament, which has been held at SMU’s Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex since its inaugural event in 2022, when it moved from New York.
The 2024 tournament, set for Feb. 3-11, will be the last played at the 45,000-square-foot hard-court facility on the SMU campus and the last at the ATP 250 level.
The upgrade was contingent upon finding a new venue. So tournament officials secured a partnership with the Dallas Cowboys to hold the tournament at the team’s expansive indoor practice facility moving forward.
The Dallas Open was one of three tournaments among a pool of 17 — all in February or April — to receive upgrades from the ATP, along with events in Doha, Qatar, and Munich, Germany, as part of an effort to consolidate the calendar and boost prize money.
Event operator GF Sports & Entertainment chose to push the Dallas Open for ATP 500 status over its other event, the Atlanta Open, which will cease after next year. Tournaments in Lyon, France, and Newport, Rhode Island, also will be cut.
The upgraded ranking affords players the opportunity to gain more ATP ranking points in the Dallas Open competition. The Dallas Open, which is the only indoor annual ATP event in the United States, will be one of 16 global tournaments at the 500 level.
Its new status puts the Dallas event, which begins about a week after the conclusion of the year’s first major tournament, the Australian Open, as the first of those 16 and just one of two in the U.S., along with Washington, D.C.
Officials said that despite the changes, the event will continue to offer a main-draw wildcard spot each year to the top men’s tennis player from SMU.
