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The Cincinnati Masters (currently sponsored by the Western & Southern Financial Group and called the Western & Southern Open〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.cincytennis.com/ )〕) is an annual outdoor hardcourt tennis event held in Mason, Ohio near Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The event started on September 18, 1899 and is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city.〔''From Club Court to Center Court'' by Phillip S. Smith, page 3 (2008 Edition; ISBN 978-0-9712445-7-3).〕 The tournament is the second largest summer tennis event in the U.S. after the U.S. Open, as its men's portion is one of nine elite Masters 1000 tournaments on the ATP World Tour and its women's event is one of five Premier 5 events on the WTA Tour.〔 == History == The tournament was started in 1899 as the Cincinnati Open and was renamed in 1901 to Tri-State Tennis Tournament, a name it would keep until 1969 (it would later be known by several other names, including ATP Championships),〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2010/12/Other/Cincinnati-Western-Southern-Open.aspx )〕 and would eventually grow into the tournament now held in Mason.〔(Follow the Bouncing Ball ), citybeat.com, August 2, 2001.〕 The original tournament was held at the Avondale Athletic Club, which sat on property that is now Xavier University, and would later be moved to several various locations due to changes in tournament management and surfaces. The first tournament in 1899 was played on clay courts (described in a newspaper article of the time as "crushed brick dust"), and the event was mostly played on clay until 1979 when it switched permanently to hardcourts. In 1903, the tournament was moved to the Cincinnati Tennis Club, where it was primarily held until 1972. In 1974, the tournament was nearly dropped from the tennis calendar but moved at the last moment to the Cincinnati Convention Center, where it was played indoors and, for the first time since 1919, without a women's draw. In 1975, the tournament moved to the Coney Island amusement park on the Ohio River, and the tournament began to gain momentum again. Between 1978 to 1989 it was a major tournament of the men's Grand Prix Tennis Tour and part of the Grand Prix Super Series. In 1975, the tournament reins were taken by Paul M. Flory, then an executive with Procter & Gamble. During his tenure, the tournament enriched its considerable heritage while donating millions of dollars to charity: to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Tennis for City Youth (a program to teach tennis to inner-city children), and to The Charles M. Barrett Cancer Center at University Hospital. Flory was honored with the ATP's Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award, enshrinement in the USTA/Midwest Hall of Fame and the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame, and was named one of the Great Living Cincinnatians by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Flory began his involvement as a volunteer with the tournament in the late 1960s and remained a volunteer until the end, never accepting a salary. Flory, who was born on May 31, 1922, died on January 31, 2013, remaining tournament chairman until his final day. In 1979 the tournament moved to Mason where a permanent stadium was built and the surface was changed from Har-Tru clay to hardcourt (DecoTurf II.). Later, two other permanent stadia were constructed, making the Cincinnati Masters the only tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slam events with three stadium courts – Center Court, Grandstand Court and Court 3. A new Court 3 was built in 2010, increasing the number of stadium courts to four, with the existing Court 3 renamed Court 9. The women's competition was reinstated in 1988 for one year, and then again in 2004 when the organizers, with the help of the Octagon sports agency, bought the Croatian Bol Ladies Open and moved it to Cincinnati. In August 2008, the men's tournament was sold to the United States Tennis Association, the owners of the US Open.〔(USTA buying Cincinnati men’s stop )〕 In 2002, the tournament was sponsored for the first time by Western & Southern Financial Group, with the company continuing its sponsorship until at least 2014. In 2011 the men's and women's tournaments were played at the same time making a joint tournament. As a result the name of the competition changed from the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Women's Open to the Western & Southern Open.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cincinnati Masters」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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