Legg Mason Tennis Classic
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The Legg Mason Tennis Classic is an annual late-summer men's tennis tournament played in Washington, D.C. as part of the ATP Tour. It was first held (as the Washington Star International) in 1969. In that year, it became the second open professional tennis tournament held in the United States, after the U.S. Open. It was later known as the Sovran Bank Classic. The tournament was played on a clay court until 1987, after which it swiched to hard. It has remained a hard court tournament ever since.
The Legg Mason Tennis Classic is now one of the US Open Series of hard-court tournaments leading up to the US Open in September.
The tournament is produced by Clear Channel Communications, a media company. Its lead sponsor is Legg Mason, a financial services company. Throughout its existence, the tournament has been closely associated with Donald Dell, founder of ProServ International, who was instrumental in creation of the tournament. The location of the tournament in Washington D.C. was chosen at the urging of Arthur Ashe, an early supporter.
It is held at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, a U.S. national park.
[edit] External links
- Satellite image from WikiMapia, Google Maps or Windows Live Local
- Street map from MapQuest or Google Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image from TerraServer-USA
- Live daily tennis blog from the tournament