We traveled to Newport, Rhode Island to watch the Hall of Fame Open! It’s the only grass tournament to be played outside of Europe, and the WTA returns after a 30+ year hiatus. Will the historic New England charm put this up there with the likes of Wimbledon? Watch on to find out!
About us
We’re Teddy and Aki, a couple of tennis nerds. We created Touring Tennis to document our experiences going to tennis tournaments across the globe and with the goal of sharing our honest reviews of these experiences with the tennis community.
Check us out
If you enjoyed what you watched, please consider liking and subscribing to our channel! Your support means the world to us!
You can also check us out here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/touringtennis/
Substack: https://touringtennis.substack.com/
Our Complete Guide to the Hall of Fame Open: https://touringtennis.substack.com/p/your-complete-guide-to-the-hall-of?r=5dpoc2
Did we miss anything? Drop your questions down below in the comments, and we’ll do our best to respond!
#tennis #tennistournament #halloffameopen #internationaltennishalloffame #grass #newport #rhodeisland #touringtennis
0:00 Intro
0:20 About the Hall of Fame Open
1:09 Qualifiers
2:20 Qualifiers action!
3:20 Hat time 🧢
4:10 Qualifiers action (cont)
4:52 Museum at ITHF
6:00 End of Day 0
6:28 How to get here!
7:41 Start of Day 1
8:38 Rain delay ☔️
9:33 Back in action!
10:20 Tournament recap
12:47 Should you go??
Hey everyone, it’s Teddy on tour, with Touring
Tennis. Today we’re in Newport, Rhode Island. We’re here for the Hall of Fame Open. Why is it called the Hall of Fame Open? It’s because Newport is home
to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, where Roger Federer
will be set to get inducted next year. Newport is also home to the only grass
tournament to be played outside of Europe. Newport this year is home to an ATP
Challenger event and for the first time in 30 years, will play host to a WTA event, specifically a WTA 125. Some say the grass courts here are just as good,
if not better, than those at Wimbledon. Will this tournament lay claim to the best
grass tournament there is? Let’s go find out. Okay, so in terms of scheduling,
we’re actually here on day zero. Day zero being qualifying. So the tickets were actually
a lot cheaper. I think we played around
like 30 to 40 USD. For each ticket. It also seems like all the,
all the seating is available. So we’re actually here, like in, you know,
what would typically be a box seat basically front row,
to the courts. I guess this is what they call Center Court. But there’s actually two courts. Which one is the center court? But you know, there’s an ATP Challenger match on the one side
and then the WTA 125 match on the other. We have this, like, nice little canopy
tent, provides some really nice shade here. If you want to watch, both courts equally, you might have to sit in the stands
over there, which, do not have shade. But, you know, I think we’ve been sunburned
enough, already this weekend. So, we’ll sit in the shade for a bit. Maybe move over there a little later. All right. So got to get a hat at every tournament. Ended up on this green, green hat that says Hall of Fame Open
for the Van Alan Cup. It was the only hat at the store
that mentioned, you know, the Open itself. Like, there were other hats that made mention
to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Those were all really good hats, but,
you know, wanted to get one that, specifically mentioned
the tournament itself. I love the green color,
and I love the way that it fits. You know, on my head.
What would I give this hat? I’ll give it, I’ll give it a 6.5 out of 10. I did pay like, $35 for this,
which I think is like a little bit on the higher side. So, yeah, 6.5 out of 10. Okay, so we’re here at the museum
at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. They just renovated this space,
but it carries so much history. There’s memorabilia from past stars like Suzanne Lenglen or Pete Sampras,
but also more modern day icons like Roger Federer, Serena Williams,
even Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. So it’s been really cool
so far to look at all the, the memorabilia, all the
artifacts of tennis history. And remember, entrance to this museum is free
with your ticket to the Hall of Fame Open. So definitely check it out. Okay, so this is it for day zero for us, at qualifying here
at the Hall of Fame Open. We’ll be back here tomorrow for day one
of the actual tournament. You know, it was a really great time. I didn’t know many of the players
coming in beforehand, right. But I think we watched
a lot of competitive tennis, a lot of, you know, pro level tennis. We will definitely be seeing much more, more great tennis tomorrow. We’re on the way to the grounds, for day two for us or day one of round one. So while we are driving here to Newport
today, it’s important to note
there’s some transportation options. I think if you live in Newport,
it makes sense to bike. And they’ve been encouraging,
biking to the tournament instead. But I think for most people,
you’re going to want to drive here. Parking is very, very limited, here in Newport. But they do have, like, a parking garage. I guess they have some sort of agreement
with the town or, or the town itself has a program
where you can take the RIPTA trolley. So, specifically the number 67 trolley,
it will, pick you up at the parking garage,
which we’re going to right now. So you just have to, you have to take your ticket
to get into the parking garage. Then you take a rider voucher
from the trolley operator, and then you get parking,
not free parking, but parking for the whole day for $5. So, something to keep a note of. All right,
so we’re in our third rain delay. Shout out to the grounds crew. They’ve been working really, really hard. We’re not even done
through the first set of matches, today. So we’ll see how long, this goes. Our seats are, like, right on, level with, with the grounds right next to the court
itself. So, it’s a little bit of a cramped space. It’s still a very super cool experience being that close. You get, like,
a really good feel of how fast the ball is moving,
how fast these players are moving. It was about maybe 70 USD
we paid for those tickets. To me, I think it’s worth it. But, you know, we’ll see. We are in a rain delay, so we might not
get to see that much tennis. But we’ll see. All right,
so that’s it for day two for us. Day one of the actual tournament. It’s got a lot of charm,
and it’s very pretty. It feels like, you know,
a quintessential grass tournament. You can get in rather cheaply. And you don’t have to go through
the Wimbledon queueing, the Wimbledon hoops. So today we did buy the courtside seats. But to be honest,
we prefer the stands. You know, they are cheaper tickets
and I do think you get a better view, better overall
view of the two courts on center court. The only con really is
that, there’s no shade in those stands. Right. So if it’s a particularly sunny day
or even like a rainy day, kind of like today, you will you will face the elements. The outside courts, no real seating area. You kind of have to stand along the fence. Which I mean is a nice, experience in itself. But, you won’t be able to sit
on the outside courts. The food here feels reasonably priced. It’s not cheap, but it’s also not
your typical American stadium pricing. It’s also helpful to note
that you can exit the venue and come back. You can take that opportunity to go out
and try actual, local Newport food. All right. So some cons, a lot of the courts are right
next to each other with no physical
barrier separating them. So, it is easy
for one court to interfere with the other. The mics of the chair umpires,
can also make it a little confusing. Another con is the bathroom
situation here. The main bathrooms are in these,
like trailer park type of units, so there’s like two sets
of men’s, two sets of women’s. You do have to climb stairs. There is a handicapped one, but for the most part
you do have to climb stairs. Last thing, we’ve never been to a Challenger tournament,
so we don’t quite know what to expect. To be honest, I think if you didn’t
put up any signage to say that this was a Challenger tournament and you just said this
is some sort of ATP event, I’d believe you. You know, it’s
got all the infrastructure in place. I think it’s a really, really fun environment and a lot of props
go to the tournament organizers for that. It feels like a very worthwhile experience
and I’m super happy that that we were able to come here
and attend, you know, especially given that
this is the first year in over 30 years that the women have been playing
here. We’ll do some more analysis. But in the meantime, let’s go home. So we
just got back home from the tournament. So what are our thoughts? Some important information about how
we got there and where we stayed. We did drive a car from New York City
to Newport. Commute was about 3.5 hours. We also did end up staying approximately a
30 minute drive from Newport. It was July 4th weekend,
so prices were a bit higher in the Newport area,
so we opted to stay a little bit outside just to save a little bit. For three nights
we paid approximately $670 for it. Keep in mind this was July 4th weekend,
so prices may vary. Overall, going to the Newport
Open was such a great and worthwhile experience. Especially if you live
in the United States, Newport is such a great town to visit. It has great food and during the summer,
excellent weather. Overall, we definitely recommend going to the Hall
of Fame Open, but what do you think? Drop your questions down below
and we’ll do our best to answer them. This is Teddy, signing off. Until next time, cheers!