Atlanta Tennis Championships

The Atlanta Tennis Championships (RCA Championships, Indianapolis Tennis Championships) is an annual men's tennis tournament that is played in the Atlanta area in the United States.

The tournament was held for the first time in 1988 in Indianapolis, Indiana as the U.S. Men's Hard Court Championships. It was a major tournament of the Grand Prix Tennis Circuit until 1990. It was renamed the RCA Championships and became a hard courts event after the Indianapolis Tennis Center decided to resurface its 18 clay courts with Deco-Turf II, the same surface as the US Open. (As a consequence, the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships was moved from Indianapolis to Charleston, South Carolina.)

The tournament's change in surface and name came with a change of date to be closer to the start of the US Open. The event gained the attention of the world's best players and became a premier warm-up stop for the US Open. In 2009 the Association of Tennis Professionals purchased the license for the tournament in Indianapolis owing to the lack of a title sponsor for 2007 and 2008, at which time its name was simply the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, and a subsequent struggle to attract top players, which led in turn to lower ticket sales. In December 2009 it was announced that the ATP had sold the license to a group in Atlanta, Georgia.

Prior to 2010 Atlanta had previously held a tennis tournament known as the Verizon Tennis Challenge from 1992 to 2001. The tournament, also held at the Atlanta Athletic Club, included Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and John McEnroe among its past champions. In 2011 the tournament moved to the Racquet Club of the South in Atlanta. The 2012 edition will be held in Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta. Temporary courts will be constructed around the retail and residential area's central park. The main court will seat 4,000 people. Also in 2012 the tournament gained BB&T as title sponsor for at least three years and changed its name to the Atlanta Open.

Read more about Atlanta Tennis Championships:  Records

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