The Citi Open is an ATP and WTA 500 hard court tournament held in Washington, DC, United States. For sponsorship reasons, the event is called the Mubadala Citi DC Open. However, it is also sometimes referred to as the DC Open. Before its current name of the Citi Open, the event had several names.
When the competition first launched in 1969, it was called the Washington Star International. Other previous names include the Newsweek Tennis Classic and the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. But in 2012, the competition changed its name to the Citi Open, which it has retained ever since.
Currently, the men’s and women’s event takes place at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Washington DC, in Rock Creek Park. However, the women’s competition was initially held at College Park, Maryland, for one season before it joined with the men's tournament in DC in 2012.
To date, the Citi Open is one of the longest-running US-based tennis competitions and the fifth largest in the nation. In addition, the tournament is the longest-running professional tennis event held in a public park.
Because of the Citi Open’s history and nostalgia, top players often compete in the tournament. During the one-week event, the men’s singles event of 48 players takes place, while 32 women compete in the WTA singles draw. At the same time, male and female 16-team doubles tournaments take place.
Several ATP greats have won the Citi Open since 1969, including Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, and Juan Martin Del Potro. However, Andre Agassi has the most Citi Open wins in history. The former world number won the title five times between 1990 and 1999.
In the women’s draw, only two players have won the Citi Open more than once. Magdalena Rybarikova won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013. More recently, former Russian player Ekaterina Makarova won the event twice in 2017 and 2018.
