Williams: Here's idea for Lindner Family Tennis Center if Western & Southern Open moves

MASON, Ohio − Greater Cincinnati tennis fans constantly peppered staff and volunteers at the Western & Southern Open last week with one question.

Is the tournament leaving?

The 2023 W&S Open ended in grand fashion on Sunday, with crowd-fave Novak Djokovic winning the longest match in tournament history to take home the Rookwood Cup. Official word on the event's future home is expected sometime in September or October. But South Carolina-based billionaire tournament owner Ben Navarro seems likely to move the event to Charlotte.

The burning question now should be: What’s next for the Lindner Family Tennis Center?

'This is unbelievable': Coco Gauff's stellar summer continues with W&S Open title

Williams: Time to prepare obit for Cincinnati's tennis tournament

Behind the scenes, some are wondering if the facility could land another tennis tournament if this one leaves town − albeit a lower-level professional event. No one is going to talk publicly about it right now, as local leaders continue to put on the it's-not-over-yet face.

The USTA has declined my multiple requests for comment on whether Cincinnati could be considered for another event, though American tennis' governing body has sold most of its major professional tournaments to private owners. It sold the W&S Open to Navarro last year.

It'd make sense to bring another professional tennis tournament to Greater Cincinnati.

The Lindner Family Tennis Center is still one of the best facilities in the U.S. And it’s far and away better than the facilities that host lower-level, summertime ATP tournaments in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta.

Could Western & Southern CEO John Barrett and other local business, political and tennis leaders convince the owner of the Mubadala Citi D.C. Open or the Atlanta Open to relocate to Mason?

It’s going to take unified and aggressive leadership from Greater Cincinnati leaders to figure out what’s next for the Lindner Family Tennis Center, whether it’s a tennis tournament or major annual pickleball event – or both.

It’s going to take forgetting about the embarrassment of losing a 124-year-old tournament. Move forward. Get what you can get for the venue, which fans love.

And the forward-thinking should start now, though the W&S Open will be here at least next summer and potentially another couple of years. Cincinnati-based Western & Southern Financial Group's naming right deal runs through 2024. In Charlotte, local government incentives have been approved for a new tennis center but ground hasn't been broken.

'Every bite was a delight': Skyline Chili gets thumbs-up from global media at W&S Open

Cincinnati is an ATP 1,000 tournament, one step below the Grand Slam events. There are nine 1,000-level tournaments worldwide, with three in the U.S. (Cincinnati, Miami, Indian Wells, California) The W&S Open essentially draws all the top men’s and women’s players in the world.

For perspective on the tournament’s top-notch status, this year’s Wimbledon winner (Marketa Vondrousova) and the French Open champion (Iga Swiatek) faced each other in a women’s quarterfinal match here on Friday. That could’ve been a finals match.

Such a matchup is unlikely to happen in a lower-level tournament. But the lower-level events still feature some top-ranked players and could entice the small-but-supportive Cincinnati tennis community to still buy tickets.

But it probably wouldn't draw high interest from as many out-of-towners like the W&S Open does. Some 60% of tickets sold to this year were to fans who live outside of Greater Cincinnati, according to tournament officials.

Still, fans could see good tennis here. The D.C. Open, an ATP 500-level tournament played at a national park, has often drawn some of the top American men’s and women’s players.

Past men’s champions include: Andre Agassi, Michael Chang and Andy Roddick. This year's W&S Open women's champion Coco Gauff, ranked fifth in the world, also won the D.C. Open a few weeks ago.

The Atlanta Open is an ATP 250 event, the lowest-level men's tournament. American Taylor Fritz, ranked No. 9, won the men’s-only Atlanta tournament last month. The tournament is basically played in a city park with temporary grandstands, so the Lindner Family Tennis Center would be a huge upgrade. The Mason facility has four courts with permanent seating to accommodate 2,000 or more fans, including the 11,400-seat Center Court.

I asked a tennis official whether a new tournament could be created for Cincinnati. The tricky part would be balancing the players’ schedules with other tournaments during the warm-weather months.

Maybe it won’t work out. But there’s always pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport.

Contact columnist Jason Williams by email at  jwilliams@enquirer.com and on Twitter @jwilliamscincy.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Here's idea for Cincinnati if Western & Southern Open moves