Rio Open Explained

Rio Open
Type:joint
City:Rio de Janeiro
Country:Brazil
Founded:2014
Editions:10 (2024)
Venue:Jockey Club Brasileiro
Surface:Clay (outdoors)
Website:rioopen.com
Men's Singles: Sebastián Báez
Men's Doubles: Nicolás Barrientos
Rafael Matos
Atp Category:ATP Tour 500
Atp Draw:32 / 16 / 16 / 4
Atp Prize Money: (2023)
Wta Tier:WTA International Tournaments
(2014 - 2016)[1]
Wta Draw:32 / 24 / 16
Wta Prize Money: (2016)

The Rio Open, also known as the Rio Open presented by Claro for sponsorship reasons, is a tennis event on the ATP Tour and former WTA International Tournaments event. The tournament is played on outdoor clay courts at the Jockey Club Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the only ATP Tour 500 event in South America and the only ATP Tour event in Brazil (since 2020).[2]

History

There have been a number of precursor tournaments to this one held in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio de Janeiro International was a combined men's and women's event played on outdoor clay courts as part of the ILTF South American Circuit from 1947 to 1967 at the Rio de Janeiro Country Club. Later, the Rio de Janeiro Open was played on indoor carpet courts from 1989 to 1990 and was the first ATP World Series event played in Brazil.[3] [4] The licence for the men's event was taken over from the U.S. National Indoor Championships which did continue but was downgraded from an ATP 500 to an ATP 250 tournament.[5] [6]

The first edition in 2014 was headlined by former world number one, Rafael Nadal and fellow Spanish player David Ferrer. Both of them are well known clay court specialists.

The women's tournament was discontinued and replaced by Hungarian Ladies Open after the 2016 edition.[7]

Prior to the 2019 edition, there was talk of moving the tournament from the clay court surface of Jockey Club Brasileiro to the outdoor hard courts at the Olympic Tennis Centre, which hosted the tennis events of the 2016 Summer Olympics situated in Barra Olympic Park.[8] The reasoning was to attract more world-class players to the tournament such as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray who consistently declined to play the event. Juan Martin del Potro once mentioned to the Rio Open director Luiz Carvalho that he would enter the Rio Open when the surface changes.[9] This change never occurred.

Past finals

Men's singles

YearChampionRunner-upScore
6–3, 7–6(7–3)
6–2, 6–3
6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–4
7–5, 6–4
6–2, 6–3
6–3, 7–5
7–6(7–3), 7–5
style=background:2021 Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic
6–4, 6–2
5–7, 6–4, 7–5
6–2, 6–1

Men's doubles

YearChampionsRunner-upScore
6–4, 6–2
7–6(7–3), 6–4
Juan Sebastián Cabal (2)
Robert Farah (2)
7–6(7–5), 6–1
6–4, 5–7, [10–8]
5–7, 7–5, [10–8]
6–7(3–7), 6–3, [10–7]
6–4, 5–7, [10–7]
style=background:2021 Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic
7–5, 6–7(2–7), [10–6]
6–1, 7–6(7–3)
6–4, 6–3

Women's singles

YearChampionRunner-upScore
6–1, 4–6, 6–1
7–6(7–2), 6–1
2–6, 6–2, 6–2

Women's doubles

YearChampionsRunner-upScore
6–2, 6–0
3–0, ret.
Verónica Cepede Royg
María Irigoyen (2)
6–1, 7–6(7–5)

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rio Open exclui torneio WTA para 2017 - Tenis News . 2016-11-03 . 2016-11-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161104065343/http://tenisnews.band.uol.com.br/76210/rio-open-exclui-torneio-wta-para-2017 . dead .
  2. Web site: Tournaments | ATP Tour | Tennis.
  3. Web site: Tennis: Steffi Graf beat Arantxa Sanchez 6–3, 6–2 and... . Chicago Tribune . 16 April 1989 . 2013-09-23.
  4. Web site: Mattar, Sznajder Reach Rio De Janeiro Tennis Final . Seattle Times . 8 April 1990 . 2013-09-23.
  5. Web site: ATP approves event in Rio beginning in 2014 . Long Island Tennis Magazine . 25 April 2012.
  6. http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/3122958/title/rio-open-added-to-2014-calendar Rio Open Added To 2014 Calendar
  7. Web site: Para crescer, Rio Open 'empresta' WTA e terá apenas ATP 500 . 2019-01-10. Globo Esporte. pt-BR.
  8. Web site: Parceria avança, e Rio Open deve mudar para Parque Olímpico em 2019. 2019-01-10. Lance!. pt-BR.
  9. Web site: Rio Open hoping to move to Olympic Tennis Centre, surface change possible. 2019-01-10. Ubitennis. 7 December 2017.