Wait and see.
That’s the best if only option for tournament organizers looking to jumpstart their 2021 season with some of Southern California’s most popular events on the annual spring calendar. But countless questions remain on just when things will get back to normal throughout the tennis world as we approach a full twelve months in the shadow of a relentless pandemic.
All those who put on tournaments – especially ones annually scheduled around the first part of the year – continue to work with governing bodies and city and county officials to deem when it will be safe to return to the way things used to be, forecasting the immediate the fate of their early 2021 events.
First, the good news. The USTA has posted Pro Circuit events calendars on their website (Men and Women) and several Southern California events are slated. They include men’s events at Rancho Santa Fe Country Club (25K, March 15); Barnes Tennis Center (25K, March 29), and women’s tournaments at Rancho Santa Fe CC (60K, March 1) and Newport Beach (25K, March 1 and March 8).
Southern California’s largest tennis event is the BNP Paribas Open, and organizers made the decision two weeks ago to move the iconic Indian Wells Masters event to a later date on the 2021 ATP and WTA calendar, and many others have followed suit.
“With everything going on with COVID right now there was no way USC would have been able to host the (Pro Futures) tournament last week, like we did in 2020,” said USC Men’s Tennis head coach Brett Masi of the $25k event that merged several Pro Circuit events last January. “If we can possibly reschedule it in the future, great. But at this time there are no plans to do that. If there is an opportunity to hold the tournament next year, we’d love to do it again.”
Morgan Run Director of Tennis Sue Whiteside is hopeful the Club’s $25k Futures, originally slated for February, can return in the future. “At this time we do not have a plan to bring this tournament back,” she said. “Things change day to day but for this year and most likely next year, we are not planning on hosting this tournament.”
For the last several years the Bakersfield Racquet Club and tennis director Mark Fredriksz have hosted the Bakersfield Tennis Open, a men’s $25,000 Futures that is part of the USTA Pro Circuit. That was followed by a similar event at the Calabasas Tennis & Swim Club’s directed by Jeff Richards.
Richards said earlier this week that he received a call from Fredriksz, who proposed to the USTA moving his event to the middle of October, and wondered if Richards would be interested in doing the same the following week. That call Richards made to the USTA was received favorably and both events appear to be headed for new dates in 2021.
“It’s different for us because we are a public facility owned by the city,” Richards said. “So we would still have to get the necessary approvals. But our hope is we can postpone the tournament to later in the year. For years our club members and local fans have looked forward to seeing tomorrow’s stars in our tournaments and we want to be able to provide them that opportunity once again.”
The 120th Ojai Tennis Tournament will not hold Community College or Independent College divisions, but The Pac-12 Championships, CIF, junior and open divisions are still planned for April 21-26 at various venues around Ojai in Ventura County. Fans will likely not be able to attend matches, but no official decision has been made at this time.
That brings us to the summer, where Orange County and San Diego fans have enjoyed watching exciting World TeamTennis matches hosted by the Breakers in OC and the Aviators at La Costa in Carlsbad. There have been reports of a scaled back season in 2021 with all nine WTT teams playing at one venue outside SoCal, as was the case last summer in West Virginia.
In a nutshell, the best advice for fans and players is the same for those who operate tournaments across Southern California – wait and see.
Steve Pratt’s columns appear weekly at USTAsocal.com.