Miami open is pretty fun, the weather can be a bit unpredictable, but the venue is rlly nice and full of great restaurants. There are also a ton of practice courts that are easily accessible for viewing purposes and potentially interacting with players. The layout of the playing courts is also very tight, so u can jump between putter courts pretty easily without having to walk long distances. Miami also rocks as a destination outside of the tournament

Indian Wells is getting extremely expensive, but it lives up to its moniker of Tennis Paradise. Well-run, great practice court experience and access to players (it’s a lot of fun just hanging out by the lawn watching everyone come and go), decent (if extremely expensive) food.

I also went to Rome in 2022, before the tournament expanded to 2 weeks and got an upgrade on its facilities. Loved that one too—very atmospheric grounds with the umbrella pines in the distance. The Pietrangeli is probably my favorite show court in the whole world.

FWIW, having gone to AO the last 3 years for most if not all of the tournament, I’ve only experienced one day of 95F+ heat that I can recall. And it’s hands down my favorite tournament to go to in the whole world (I’ve been to all four slams). It is 100% worth the trip to the other side of the world imo.

I’ve attended all three U.S. Masters (Indian Wells, Miami, Cincinnati) once and Washington (now a combined 500) many times. (I live 3 miles/5 kilometers from the Washington tournament site.) Among those tournaments, Cincinnati, which is actually located 20-25 miles (32 to 40 km) northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, was my favorite. I like to call it the Happy Masters.

Cincinnati has a very relaxed and friendly vibe; there is a humility to it that doesn’t exist at Indian Wells (which has a great setting but is very hoity toity IMO) or to a lesser degree Miami. (As a side note, Miami truly is the Masters event for Latin America, even if it is located in the U.S.; lots and lots of people from Miami’s Latino community and both Central and South America attend.). I like to say Cincinnati is a tournament for both the masses and the classes.

The Cincinnati Open’s biggest strength IMO is it has the best outer courts among the three U.S. Masters events by a solid margin. (IW is decent in this way, while Miami, because it was built in a stadium parking lot, is weak in that regard.) Grandstand (#2 court) and the Porsche Court/Court 10 (#4 court) in particular are great courts to watch matches in Cincinnati/Mason. Only the U.S. Open is better with its outer courts among the big U.S. tournaments. Also, while being a big site, Lindner Family Tennis Center is still distinctly smaller than the USTA NTC (USO), Indian Wells Tennis Garden (IW), or Hard Rock Stadium (Miami), so it is a bit easier to move from one court to another.

I should say a word about Washington. DC is a very good tournament too, very intimate. Its grounds are MUCH smaller than Cincinnati, much less Indian Wells or Miami (or the USO). You likely will walk with within 6 feet/2 meters of players playing in the tournament when you walk on the east or south sides of the main stadium. The tournament organizers have done an excellent job providing amenities at the tournament, like water refill stations. (The USO and Indian Wells are also strong in this regard; Cincinnati and Miami aren’t so much.) You can also get more free (and useful) swag at Washington than you can at any of the three U.S. Masters; only New York is better in that regard. The big negatives with Washington are 1) an old and outdated stadium and 2) weather that often makes you feel like you’re attending an event held in an oven (plus it often rains too).

EDIT: I forgot to mention hotels with Cincinnati - there are some decent but unremarkable hotels nearby, but you can get either better hotels or better deals at some hotels only a few miles/kilometers south that are closer to the city of Cincinnati.

I loved Rome, the grounds are easy to get around, you can access the practice courts easily and the food was good!

Been to Rome a few times. First time it rained the two days I was there during third round but it turned out to be good because I got front row on Pietrangelli for every match with my grounds pass. Good times.

Then last year I went it was miserably hot and sunny and they obviously oversold the grounds passes. It was so incredibly crowded, and if you got up off a free court, you weren’t getting back in until the match is over. So best pick your spot and stay all day and have someone hold your seat when you need to go to the bathroom.

So my conclusion is I won’t go again unless I buy court tickets, so at least I know I’ll always have a seat.

"Probably the most American tournament"? Because there is a German car on display? Not sure I follow the logic here...

I really don’t know why they put a BMW on the court

Lol that guy in the car! So weirdly funny 🤣

German car though.

Don't honk the horn don't honk the horn don't honk the horn

French Open. It screams Summer is here for me. US Open is my second favorite. I like AO the least. The fucking time different always messes with my sleep.

Probably AO, the courts look super nice with the players in them it almost looks like a computer game lol

AO because I'm always in a tennis fueled sleep deprived haze for that entire month and it always makes even the most average matches hype as fuck

Monte Carlo

Either the AO or Indian Wells

Have they raised the money to even have the event?

Your best bet is the AZBilliards event calendar. Unfortunately, pool is really disorganized as a whole in the US, so there's no one place to get all this info.

Other than the US Open and the DCC, a few others off the top of my head

• most of the Matchroom events
• most of the Predator Pro Billiards series events
• all of the Joss Northeast Tour events, esp Turning Stone
• Texas Open
• International Open
• SBE Pro event

Several people mentioned Turning Stone, which is open but hard to get into. It fills up instantly when it opens for sign-ups. You need to contact him and get on the wait list and then hope you get a call the next time they run it. You may have to wait a few tournaments before you can get in and if he calls for your spot and you can't make that one you get bumped to the back of the list. Or at least that was the system as of a few years ago.

US Open and Derby City Classic are two of the largest.

Turning Stone is pretty good and open.

I live in Atlanta so I'm biased, but there are tons of playable courts and people to play with everywhere. ALTA alone makes it pretty amazing imo, with all of its various offerings. That and the weather - plenty of 60s/low 70s days in winter. We are far enough north and at a high enough altitude where the heat can be bad, but really only at most a week or two of August are unplayable (and even then you can still play - it's just tough).

The public courts could use some help re management, but overall I think it's great compared to anywhere else.

The others around the top of the list imo would be Florida and SoCal.

The top 3 are: Georgia (Atlanta area), Florida, and California

Any southern state that allows for near year-round outdoor play is good

You would probably need to look at specific cities instead of states.

Atlanta, GA is one area that comes to mind. Some areas on Florida and Southern California are also good for tennis based on weather and not needed to go indoors.

There are a number of clubs and tennis resorts on the coast in South Carolina.

The Washington DC area has a number of public courts and private clubs. But finding courts in the winter can be tough if you don't buy contract time for indoors or can't join a country club and it gets expensive.

Lol - I was differentiating between sweat and "I can see heat lines coming off the court and I'm dizzy after 15 minutes of playing doubles." Our club championship was a heat index of 107 or something like that.

It’s a nonstop sweat from May through October.

It's not that bad. I grew up playing in MD, and I think the summers are comparable (granted, I would play middle of the day in MD, and now I usually play after 5pm in GA)

Are there a lot of indoor courts there? I’d imagine you need them since you get a lot of rain throughout the year.

definitely not Washington lol

Hilton Head Island, SC is pretty good. In the winter there could be up to 14 3.5 men’s USTA teams on the island which is 12 by 5 miles. Comparable numbers for women and other levels.

The problem I see with the other majors is the empty seats. Wimbledon is full. Every day. Queues outside. People camping in the street in tents for the chance of getting in to see their stars play one time.

Sure, the us open has the biggest stadium but it's virtually never full. Such a shame.

Wimbledon. Shocked this is even a question tbh

Wimbledon > French > USO > Australian Open > YEC.

Wimbledon

French

US

Aussie

Wimbledon.

This mixed event has a pretty stacked/promising entry list, with a lot of points and money as incentives. Featured players include Nadal, Iga, Tsitsipas, Sakkari, Pegula, Kyrgios, Ruud, Zverev, Wawrinka, Garcia, and more. Most stacked teams are USA, Poland, and Spain.

It's a shame neither FAA nor Shapovalov entered which resulted in Canada not qualifying.

Absolutely hilarious that they created this tournament just to see Nadal/Badosa, Felix/Leylah, Hubiga, Fritz/Gauff, Murray/Raducanu and Tsitsipas/Sakkari playing mixed doubles together but ended up adding Doubles players as well because the Singles players just didn't want to sign up.

I really feel for Ruud, having to carry all of Norway on his back lol. At least Tsitsipas will have Sakkari to help.

Based on the entry list, USA, Poland, Spain, Italy and France should be the favourites.

Worth noting that this list has 16 teams, there are still 2 teams to be confirmed (likely Kazakhstan and Bulgaria).

playyourcourt.com imo is pretty good for that skill level. You'll find a few players (hopefully). I found a few people last summer I don't think I would have found otherwise.

If you are 5.0 you probably won't find anyone on there for you, but 3.5 is perfect. That seems to be the average rating

I imagine it’ll depend a lot on where you live, so you might wanna say which state/city area.

Thanks, we’re athletic but def not THE tennis family lol. But we did play a lot and got decent the past few years so I’m not a complete newb but Im also not sure how good I actually am compared to others since I’ve mainly played them

Sorry I’m still knew the the whole rating thing so I may be off, so I based it off these Videos. I’m pretty athletic and have played a decent amount the past few years. My back hand needs way more work, serving inconsistent and other techniques need work. I just wanna be able to find people my range and get better.

To be fair, the ntrp ratings are very qualitative and hard to judge without lots of tennis experience/context.

I have no idea how self-rating is ever accurate, honestly.

If you find a local club that runs competitions they'll usually grade you into one - grading days are still a thing IME, though less necessary now that so many people have UTR's

Not sure if this is still a thing, but when I was a kid, LOTS of cities around me had one summer public tournament. Not USTA sanctioned. But the quality of players could be pretty high. Cheaper and much better chance of meeting other players around your level in the first round, maybe even first two rounds.