The Washington Open is a professional tennis tournament that is held during the US Open hard courts swing of the men’s and women’s tour. The tournament began in 1969 as a men’s only event and was played on clay courts till 1986. It switched to hard courts in 1987 and introduced a women’s event in 2011.
A notable moment in the tournament’s history took place in 2023, when the event was upgraded as a WTA 500 event on the women’s tour. This made the Washington Open the first ever professional tournament at a 500-level that was played for both men and women.
The draw size of the men’s singles event is 48, out of which six slots are available for players who made it through the qualifying draw of 24. The men’s doubles event on the other hand has a draw size of 16. Both men’s singles and doubles events have additional slots (less than five) available for wild card entrants.
In the women’s event, the singles draw size is of 32, with four spots available for qualifiers and four for wildcard entrants. The women’s doubles features a bracket size for 16 pairs, with two spots available for wild card entrants.
The tournament is played in a single elimination knockout format. Each match is played in the best of three sets format. A player who is first to six games wins a set. If the set score is tied at six games apiece, then a tiebreak is enforced. The player who is first to seven points with a difference of two wins the set. In doubles, if a deciding set is reached, then it is decided through a match tiebreak. The team who wins ten points with a difference of two points wins the match.
The winners of both the men’s and women’s events in both the singles and doubles events earn 500 ranking points. The runners-up of the men’s events and the women’s events get 330 and 325 ranking points respectively. The prize pool of the men’s tournaments is $20,13,940. However, the prize pool for the women’s events is $780,637. The singles champions in the men’s and women’s events get $368,585 and $142,000 respectively. The doubles champions in the men’s and women’s categories receive $129,010 and $40,100 respectively.
As of 2024, The most successful men’s singles player at the event is Andre Agassi, who has won a record five titles at the event. The Bryan brothers (Bob and Mike), and comaptriot Marty Riessen have won a record four men’s doubles titles at the Washington Open.
In the women’s singles category, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Magdalena Rybakrikova have won two titles each. Japan’s Shuko Aoyama has been a part of the champion doubles team on a record four instances.
