Dallas Open Q&A with Tournament Director Peter Lebedevs
Previously the New York Open, the Dallas Open is one of the ATP’s longest-running U.S. events and the only indoor ATP Tour event in the country.
The tournament wanted to have a recognizable and distinctive court identity, married with the highest-grade materials, suitable for elite international matches, according to Tournament Director Peter Lebedevs, who sat down with us for a Q&A.
Tell us about your career in tennis. How did you become a Tournament Director?
I played tennis as a young kid, although I started relatively late at 12. I fell in love with the game, and then at the end of high school in Australia I wanted to come to the U.S. to play college tennis.
At the end of the four years, I realised that I was not going to make a lot of money as a tennis player myself and got into the coaching and administration side of the game. I joined a professional event in Memphis, where I started out with various responsibilities; transportation, ball kids, and player services, and in 2009 the opportunity came up to become the Tournament Director for combined ATP and WTA events. I’ve been a Tournament Director ever since, for various events.
What is the role of a tournament director? How do you judge a tournament as a success?
At the end of the day, every tournament is judged by the board and by its financial success, but we also evaluate the fan experience, the feedback from the fans, and the players and the tournament sponors.
On this event, my responsibility as Tournament Director was first and foremost about finding a venue. So it was my job to travel around the U.S. to find a venue, a city and a business base that met all of our needs.
And then when you find the city you’ve got to design the stadium and the flow of the event. You’re pricing out the tickets, developing a premium ticketing strategy and then a general admission strategy.
“At the end of the day, every tournament is judged by the board and by its financial success, but we also evaluate the fan experience, the feedback from the fans, and the players and the tournament sponors.”
Then you’re working on all your vendors to make sure you’ve got people who can build it. You have security, you have volunteers, and then at the same time you’re working with the ATP to make sure that you meet all the rules and requirements. With Covid-19 over the years those rules have been fluid and changing, so we had to adapt to those. On top of that we’re reaching out to the players, encouraging them to come and play Dallas. So that’s what a Tournament Director is responsible for, as well as putting together a team that handles all of those pieces for you.
I have a fantastic person that helps with our Operations, our volunteer base and we’re very lucky in Dallas to have an ATP player in John Isner, who lives in the city. He is the host of our event, and he was able to be in the locker room at a few events last year, liaising with players, which helped us put a great field together.
Why is the Dallas Open such an important tournament and what makes it unique? What makes you excited about it?
The number one reason is that we are the only indoor ATP event in the United States, which makes us unique. Number two is the fact that professional tennis actually started in Dallas, with World Championship Tennis, which was played on the Southern Methodist University (SMU) campus, at Moody Coliseum. In 1972, one of the greatest matches ever was here: Ken Rosewall versus Rod Laver.
So Dallas is a very strong tennis city and they love their tennis. When we went on sale with the tickets, our boxes sold out in 30 days and our premium RBC 40 Love Suite tickets in seven days. This shows that the city is a really strong tennis city. What also makes us unique in the U.S. is being held on a college campus. Through the joint venture between the university and the tournament we provide opportunities for the men’s tennis team at SMU to play professional tennis. No other event does that.
What was the most memorable moment of this year’s event?
I’d say having President George W. Bush doing the coin toss for the final between Reilly Opelka and Jenson Brooksby. We had him on the front page of the Dallas Morning News, tapping Reilly on the head because he’s six foot, 11 inches. Having a former president at an event is very exciting.
What do you look for from a court surface? What are your performance criteria?
We need to have a surface that is fair to all players, number one. Consistent bounce and speed across the courts, whether they are the practice courts or the match courts, is key. Whether the court plays fast or slow, we want it to be even. And the fact that we had a big server (which is always an advantage indoors) versus a baseliner in the final, shows that our surface was fair and that either style of player had an opportunity to do well at an indoor event.
And at the end of the day we want the players to say that it was fair: that’s an important proof point for a successful court.
Have Laykold courts made an impact on player performance and the spectator experience?
Laykold has been terrific for us in creating a specific and unique court color whenever we have wanted to do that. At the New York Open, we had an all-black court and everybody remembered that, and then when we came to Dallas, again, we wanted to do something different.
We wanted to pay our respects to SMU and Dallas, with the red and blue colors. We’re the only U.S. event that’s ever had those colors and it was unique. When the players walked out there, it gave everybody a feeling of ‘Wow! This is cool. We’ve never seen anything like this.’ And that was our goal, to wow the fans. Laykold came in and worked with us on those colors and created that wonderful visual when you first walked in and laid eyes on the court.
As President Turner of SMU said to me, ‘I didn’t know the venue could look like this.’ I think it was a combination of things we had built inside, as well as the court, which adopted the SMU colors that made it so visually impactful for the fans and players. We were very excited with how it turned out.