The Cincinnati Open will be bigger this year, yet still in a place that feels comfortably small

Some jobs are too important to do from far away. For Bob Moran, debuting a new facility at a Masters 1000 is one of them.

The Cincinnati Open’s tournament director put down roots in South Carolina a while ago, but these days he pulls them back up and spends the late spring and summer in Western Ohio. From that vantage point, he has been able to watch the Lindner Family Tennis Center rapidly gobble up the fields that surround it along Route 71.

“We went from 20 acres to 40 acres in 11 months,” Moran says, with a laugh of amazement.

The digging and hammering may continue right up until the gates open on August 5, but Moran says “everything is ready to go.”

“We just want to make sure we’re perfect.”

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There’s a lot to perfect. This year the tournament will expand from its traditional nine days to 15, and from 56 to 96 players in each singles draw. Accommodating all of the new competitors and their entourages means making room for roughly 600 more people in the player areas alone.

To that end, the tournament has created a new player building from scratch, with a dining area and two lounges, and renovated the old one to expand the locker rooms and gym.

“The new building is absolutely beautiful, and the total space is dramatically expanded,” Moran says.

More days and players also means more fans on the grounds, and they’ll see their share of upgrades as well. Last year the event installed backs on seats in the main stadium, and that process continued in 2025 with 5,000 more of them in the Grandstand. There’s a new sunken court, and 12 new practice courts.

All of which is likely music to the ears of tennis lovers in the middle of the country. Two years ago, the event, which has been a fixture in Ohio since 1899, seemed destined to head south. Moran’s employer, Charleston-based Beemok Sports and Entertainment—owned by Ben Navarro, father of Emma—had a new site lined up in Charlotte, N.C. But Buckeye State officials saw the economic influx that the tournament brings each August, and offered a $135 million package—half of the expansion costs—to keep it where it is: Mason, Ohio, population 36,046.

“We have great support from the city of Mason, Warren County, and the state of Ohio,” Moran says. “Which was really helpful to get done the things we need done.”

“We built pickleball courts, we built padel courts,” he says of the renovation of Lindner, which is a public, year-round facility and host of junior, college, and other pro events. “We want to be the heart of tennis for the midwest.”

“The team here, the volunteers, it’s a really passionate group; the whole community cares.”

We want to be the heart of tennis for the midwest. Bob Moran

Cincy is the fourth 1000-level event to expand in the last two years. In 2024 Madrid and Rome went longer, and this year the National Bank Open in Montreal and Toronto did the same. The new calendar calls for Canada and Cincinnati to divide a three-week window between them. The two tournaments will overlap in the middle of this week.

The expansion also comes with more prize money. Cincy will up its purse by $5 million in 2025, for a total of $14 million—$9 million for the men, $5 million for the women.

But bigger doesn’t always mean better among the players. They’ve balked at the extra time commitment involved, and the number of days that early-round losers have to wait before they can find another tournament to compete in. Moran is aware of the growing pains.

“You lose early, where do you go?” he says. “We’re definitely trying to figure it out by putting some events in the second weeks of those two-week events, to give some relief to those players.”

“From the Cincinnati point of view, our prize money is going up by $5 million. That’s a significant number, and you’re in one place, so I think there’s positive and negatives. We all just need to continue to talk to make sure we’re helping each other.”

From Moran’s perspective, the biggest upside is the most obvious one:

“It just enables us to provide more opportunities for people to see great tennis.”

While the extra days in between matches may not be popular among the big names, they give fans more chances to watch them, and possibly interact with them, on the practice court. The expanded Masters also provide more exposure, and funnel more money, to players ranked outside the Top 50. The early days of these longer tournaments aren’t as jam-packed with matches as they once were, but that lets the spotlight shine a little longer on players that fans don’t normally get to see.

“We always hear, ‘Everyone wants to see the Top 10,’” Moran says. “But I challenge you to go find the 50th best person in the world and what they do, and you tell me that’s not worth seeing?”

“I don’t care what you do for a living, if you’re the 50th best in the world at it, you’ve gotta be pretty darn good.”

Growth it the watchword for all American businesses, and that includes tennis. In this case, the Cincinnati Open was allowed to grow without leaving behind its old home, and the fans who helped build it with their love for the sport. The tournament and its facility will be bigger this year, but they’ll still be in a place that feels comfortably small.