The Mexico City Open will bring professional tennis back to the nation’s capital with a tournament ATP Challenger Tour from April 4 to 9 at the Chapultepec Sports Center (CDCH). With players within the 241 ranking led by the Argentine Facundo Bagnisthis tournament will award 125 points to the winner and the prize pool will be $159,360.
“Having many high-level events gives movement to such an important city. The universe of tennis players in the city is also a fundamental part: the reactivation of tennis as a show, for children as a motivation to be better and eventually be participants and professional tennis players and not to mention for the amateur tennis player who likes to have it in his city and having it live, makes a very big difference to just being able to see it on television,” he said. Adhemar Rodriguezdirector of the event in an interview with The Economist.
This will be the second edition of the Mexico City Open, after a week before the start of 2020 it was canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic. It was also not held in 2021 due to the problems that the ATP encountered in organizing the circuit around the world. However, with the help of the Association, this year Mexico will have a spring circuit that begins in the Mexico City and will continue on San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes and Morelos.
“It is an important week because it is the week of ‘no activity’ between the transition of tennis players from America to Europe. They switch from hard court to clay. This was very interesting to the ATP, that clay tennis was established this week in Mexico City,” said Jorge Nicolín, general director of the CDCH, at a press conference.
The Challenger Tour combines the youth of rising tennis players, since it is the gateway for professional tennis players to the ATP circuit, and experience, since the greatest tennis players seek to stay current through these tournaments. Rodríguez stressed the attractiveness of the list of players, since the first eight participants are among the 150 best in the world, while the last one is ranked 241st in the ranking.
Nicolín explained that after the CDCH had sheltered the Mexican Youth Open of the ITF class A, in 2018 they associated with the company Mextenis to carry out the 2019 edition “with the idea that CDMX would have the third most important tournament in the Mexican Republic (after the ATP 500 in Acapulco and the ATP 250 in Mexico). Los Cabos) for being the capital of the country and having a deeply rooted tennis tradition in CDMX”.
This year, the Mexico City Open operates receiving advice from mextenis and its sponsors are Wilson, Gatorade, ticketmaster, Chapultepec Sports Center, mega cable, E-pure and Royal Road Hotel.
Ticket prices will start at 175 pesos up to 330 pesos for the events from Monday to Wednesday and from Thursday, when the quarter round will start, they will be between 300 and 450 pesos. The qualification will be on Sunday, April 3 with entry free.
The Chapultepec Sports Club has recently been affected by international conflicts, because days before the Davis Cup was held, the ITF prohibited the participation of Belarusian athletes, who were already in Mexico to face the national teams in this headquarters. Afterwards, they were going to have a collaboration in the exhibition event between Andrew Rublev and Daniel Medvedev which was canceled weeks earlier due to flight restrictions in the United States.
