The DC Open, a fixture of the District’s midsummer calendar, will host several of the top tennis players in the world who are forgoing the Paris Olympics and choosing instead to prioritize the North American hard-court circuit.
The preliminary field, released Tuesday, includes nine top-20 players and a number of the sport’s biggest names. No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 10 Ons Jabeur, No. 13 Madison Keys and No. 16 Victoria Azarenka headline the women’s tournament. The men’s field features No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov and many notable Americans, among them No. 14 Ben Shelton, No. 21 Sebastian Korda and No. 29 Frances Tiafoe.
The tournament, in its 55th year, will take place at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park from July 27 to Aug. 4 — the same week that the Olympic tennis championships will be staged on the red clay of Roland Garros in France.
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Many players have opted to skip the Olympics and focus their attention on hard-court tournaments in D.C., Toronto and Cincinnati, which offer prize money, ranking points and preparation for the U.S. Open, the year’s final Grand Slam.
One such player is Tiafoe, a native of Hyattsville and a fan favorite who will make his eighth appearance at his home tournament after advancing to the quarterfinals the past two years. Tiafoe lost to Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set third-round match Friday at Wimbledon.
“I love what his story represents … the way someone can come from where he came from and now represent our community on stages all over the globe, wearing Commanders shirts in practice, wearing Wizards and Mystics shirts,” tournament chair Mark Ein said. “Every time he’s there, the electricity in the stands is palpable. So it’s always one of the things I most look forward to at the tournament.”
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Among the players heading to Paris: No. 2 Coco Gauff, the DC Open’s defending women’s singles champion, and three other American women ranked in the top 20: No. 5 Jessica Pegula (the 2019 Citi Open champion), No. 11 Danielle Collins and No. 17 Emma Navarro, who is coming off a win over Gauff at the All England Club.
Also returning to Paris is No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the clay-court virtuoso from Poland who is 35-2 all-time at Roland Garros and taking aim at another title on her favorite surface.
Dimitrov is the only top-10 player who is scheduled to compete in the men’s field. No. 1 Jannik Sinner, No. 2 Novak Djokovic and No. 3 Alcaraz, along with legends Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, are set to play at the Olympics, which released its entry list last week.
Injuries could play a factor in who ultimately arrives in D.C. Sabalenka and Azarenka, both former world No. 1s, withdrew from Wimbledon with shoulder injuries. Dimitrov, Keys and women’s No. 18 Anna Kalinskaya were forced to retire from their fourth-round matches.
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For now, the field includes five former Grand Slam champions in Sabalenka, Azarenka, No. 49 Sofia Kenin, No. 50 Sloane Stephens and wild-card entrant Emma Raducanu. No. 12 Daria Kasatkina, No. 15 (and 2022 champion) Liudmila Samsonova, No. 33 Elise Mertens and wild-card entrant Paula Badosa are also lined up for the women’s field. No. 22 Karen Khachanov, No. 24 Adrian Mannarino and wild-card entrant Denis Shapovalov are in the men’s field.
Stephens, the 2015 champion, and Kenin are among 14 Americans slated to appear. The group also includes Korda, whose father, Petr, won the tournament in 1992, and Reilly Opelka, who has battled injuries and not regularly played on tour since 2022.
Ein said 96 percent of tickets have been sold.
“We’re really excited about the player field that we have,” he said. “It’s a great mix of top players, fan favorites, people who’ve won the biggest championships in the world [and] people who have a connection to our tournament and to our region.”
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