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The inaugural Cleveland Open drew almost 5,000 spectators at the Cleveland Racquet Club in Pepper Pike in 2019. It would also be one of only 10 WTA events in the U.S. The Cleveland Championships would be a WTA 250 event, putting it on the third rung of the tour's scale, which ranges from 125 to 250, 5.

'From a logistical standpoint, it's pretty good,' said Duvall, a prominent tennis agent who launched Topnotch in 2016, after he left LagardГЁre Sports to start his own firm. The tournament would be the week after the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, and the week before the U.S. 23-29, with the pavilion's open-air amphitheater serving as the main court and five temporary courts being constructed in a nearby parking lot. The Cleveland Championships would be held Aug.

Topnotch sports full#

The only thing holding the company back from going full speed ahead with the venture is a lack of firm commitments on sponsorships. Topnotch has deals in place with the WTA, the world's top women's tennis tour, and Jacobs Entertainment, which operates the Nautica Entertainment Complex, to bring the Cleveland Championships to Jacobs Pavilion on the West Bank of the Flats. Topnotch is planning to do just that, via a Women's Tennis Association tournament that, if it comes to fruition, would be the biggest pro tennis tournament held in Northeast Ohio in almost four decades. Topnotch's two-year run as the host of the Cleveland Open, which was part of the ATP Challenger Tour, proved to the company that it could do something 'on a much bigger scale,' said Sam Duvall, the Cleveland firm's president and founder. In 2019, Topnotch Management brought an Association of Tennis Professionals tournament to Cleveland for the first time in 34 years.