The Hall of Fame Championships is an international tennis tournament that has been held every year in July since 1976 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Originally part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit from 1976–1989, it features a 32-player singles draw and a doubles tournament. Each year that the tournament has been held there is an induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame. The tournament is held on grass courts, and is the last grass court tournament of the season on the ATP tour and the only grass court tournament played outside of Europe. Up until 2011, when John Isner won the tournament, the top seed had never triumphed at Newport, a trait that has led to the moniker "the Casino Curse," due to the location of the Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino.
It is hosted in the week directly after Wimbledon, as such the tournament tends to get few top players competing in it; for example in 2008 its top two seeds were Mardy Fish and Fabrice Santoro, who going in to the tournament had world rankings of 41 and 57, while 8th seed Kevin Anderson was ranked outside the top 100, at 115. Arguably its three most famous champions are former World No. 4 Greg Rusedski, former two-time Grand Slam runner-up Mark Philippoussis, two-time Australian Open winner Johan Kriek.
Famous quotes containing the words hall, fame and/or tennis:
“Bernard always had a few prayers in the hall and some whiskey afterwards as he was rather pious.”
—Daisy Ashford (1881–1972)
“Alas, we are the victims of advertisement. Those who taste the joys and sorrows of fame when they have passed forty, know how to look after themselves. They know what is concealed beneath the flowers, and what the gossip, the calumnies, and the praise are worth. But as for those who win fame when they are twenty, they know nothing, and are caught up in the whirlpool.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)
“The boneless quality of English conversation, which, so far as I have heard it, is all form and no content. Listening to Britons dining out is like watching people play first-class tennis with imaginary balls.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)