New pro tennis tournament for men, women to debut in Bay Area this summer

Northern California has a new professional tennis tournament.

The Golden Gate Open, which will be played at the Taube Tennis Center on the campus of Stanford University from Aug. 12-19, will be the latest tournament to grace the area.

Professional tennis has been around the Bay Area for years. Sport icon Billie Jean King was a member of the group that founded the Virginia Slims circuit in the 1970s, which brought professional tennis to the area for the first time.

From there, more high-end tournaments found a home in the Bay Area. The 2000 Sybase Open was played on the indoor hard courts in San Jose. The SAP Open was founded in 2009 at what is now the SAP Center in San Jose. The tournament was abolished in 2013.

On the women’s side, the ever-popular Bank of the West Classic started in Oakland, then moved to the Stanford campus before moving to San Jose in 2017. The most recent version of the tournament, called the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, was held on the campus of San Jose State. That tournament has now moved to the nation’s capital.

So how will the Golden Gate Open be different?

Unlike the others, it will be the first-ever combined men’s and women’s pro tournament in the area and the first 125-level event (the sport’s second-highest tier) to offer equal prize money for both men and women.

The U.S. Open became the first tournament to offer equal pay in 1973. No tournament has followed suit, until now.

“Growing up in Northern California, I was inspired by watching professional tennis events here in the Bay Area,” tournament CEO and founder Pablo Pires de Almeida said. “I wondered why there wasn’t a combined professional tournament in Northern California.”

After reaching out to Stanford coaches Paul Goldstein, Brandon Coupe and Lele Forood, Pires de Almeida proposed a combined event that offered equal pay in its inaugural year, something never done before.

Stanford agreed to host a Challenger-level tournament, and the professional tours — the ATP and WTA — were on board right away, Pires de Almeida said. Tour officials were eager to showcase the depth of the pro tour and to better incentivize the top players both new to the tour and seasoned pros aiming to work their way back into the top 20, he said.

“I want the Golden Gate Open to set an example for all combined tennis tournaments around the world,” he said. “Combined tournaments with equal pay are the future of tennis.”

Pires de Almeida is a veteran of the sport with Bay Area ties.

In a 20-plus-year career spanning both coaching and competing, he reached a pro ranking inside the world top 900 and had wins on the ATP tour against players ranked in the top 100 in singles and doubles. He played tennis collegiately at the University of San Francisco from 2001-2005.

He later returned to his alma mater to become the head coach, a position he held for 14 seasons. During his time on the Hilltop, he cofounded the Battle in the Bay Classic, a men’s and women’s NCAA Division I tournament. Hosted at the California Tennis Club, the tournament celebrated its 13th year in 2022.

Pires de Almeida also has an extensive coaching history in the youth ranks. He has developed countless juniors to play at the Division I-III levels, including former Northern California No. 1s and top International Tennis Federation players Mackenzie McDonald and Cici Bellis.

Most recently, he founded Mighty Tennis, an organization offering adult and junior tennis development. Mighty Tennis’ goal is to bring combined, equal-pay tennis events to Northern California and beyond.

While players for the Golden Gate Open will be confirmed in the coming weeks, there is one big name who has already committed — Kei Nishikori.

The former U.S. Open finalist was ranked No. 4 in the world at one point. He is the second Japanese man to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles, and the only one to do so in the Open era.

You can reach Staff Writer Kienan O’Doherty at 415-887-8650 or kienan.odoherty@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kodoherty22.