The Winston-Salem Open is a professional men’s hard court tennis event on the Association of Tennis Professionals’ circuit. It first began in 1981, and remained an exhibition event till 1989. It became a part of the professional tennis circuit in 1990 and is currently classified as an ATP 250 tournament.
One of the many tournaments that prepare the players for the US Open, the Winston-Salem Open has been previously hosted in Long Island and New Haven. It was in 2011 when the event shifted to Winston-Salem and discontinued the women’s event.
The tournament features a singles and doubles competition. A single elimination bracket is followed, wherein 48 players are slotted in the main draw. Four players make it from the qualifying draw, four receive wild card entry, whereas the remaining are based on their rankings position. The doubles main draw has a bracket for 16 pairs.
A match is won by a team or a player when they win in the best of three sets format. A set is won when the team or player win six games with a difference of two. In cases when the set score is six games for each player, a tiebreak ensues. The winner of the tiebreak is the one who is first to seven points with a difference of two. The rules for a deciding set in doubles is that it is played as a set tiebreak. When a team wins ten points with a difference of two, they are declared the winners.
The ATP 250 event offers 250 ranking points to its champion and 165 to the runner-up. As of 2024, the Winston-Salem Open has $779,780 up for grabs. Out of this, the singles champion receives $107,060, whereas the doubles champion receives $42,120.
Ivan Lendl hosts the record for winning the most singles titles (five) as of 2024. In doubles, multiple players have won the event twice. These include Oliver Delaitre, Martin Rodriguez, Jonathan Elrich, Andy Ram, Jean-Julien Roger, Horia Tecau, Nathaniel Lemmons, Jackson Withrow, Jonathan Stark, and Kevin Ullyet.
