Western & Southern Open kicks off in Mason, but will it stay?

MASON, Ohio (WXIX) - Tennis is back in Mason with tournament play underway in the Western & Southern Open, but the future of the tournament at the Lindner Family Center is still up in the air.

Beemok Capital bought the rights to the Western & Southern Open in 2022 for around $250 million and is currently deciding if the tournament should stay in Mason or if it will move to Charlotte, North Carolina.

The company is evaluating whether to bring the Western & Southern to Charlotte as part of a proposed $400 million tennis complex.

“To be honest with you, I like coming to Cincinnati. Charlotte is a great place to watch a professional sport but it’s just nice to go away and do something different,” Paula Sneed of Wilmington, North Carolina, said.

For siblings Neil Bruss and Karen Carle this has become a tradition over the last two decades and they say they’d hate to see it move.

“I love that it’s here and I’m holding out hope that it will still be here. I love all the renovations that they did and the crowd that was here, it’s the biggest crowd that I’ve seen on a qualifier weekend in a long time,” Carle said.

“I want to see Carlos Alcaraz, I want to see ... Berratteni is playing today,” Carle said.

“Early in the week you get to see a vast group of players and you get to see the upcoming talent,” Bruss said.

The tournament has been located in the Cincinnati area for 124 years.

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