Up and Coming Tennis Stars Commit to Dallas’ Showcase ATP Tournament

This Year's RBC Tennis Championships are Raising the Stakes (and Prize Money)

By Megan Ziots // Jan 16, 2019

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Ryan Harrison will again compete in the RBC Tennis Championship.

Kei Nishikori won the RBC Tennis Championships in 2018. He is now ranked No. 9 in the world.

23 year old Makenzie McDonald is an up-and-coming player on the ATP Tour. Courtesy of ATP Tour.

Reilly Opelka (right) just defeated John Isner (left) in the first round of the Australian Open. They are two of the tallest guys on tour, along with Ivo Karlovic in the middle. Courtesy of ATP Tour.

Bernard Tomic, an Australian player, is ranked 88 in the ATP.

For sports fans in Dallas, the RBC Tennis Championships at TBarM Racquet Club is an exciting opportunity to see some great tennis up close. The 21st annual tournament will take place from February 4th through 10th.

The tournament is an international men’s ATP Challenger 110 event and this year the stakes are higher. To boost its ATP Challenger Tour standing, RBC has increased its prize money and ATP points for the indoor hard court event.

Well known players, such as Kei Nishikori (2018 Champion and No. 9 in the world), Ryan Harrison, Steve Johnson, Kyle Edmund, Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Jack Sock, and many more have previously competed in the Dallas tournament. And both singles and doubles champions will be crowned in Dallas.

Many popular and up-and-coming players will be participating this year, including Americans Ryan Harrison (No. 83 ATP Ranking), Reilly Opelka (No. 97), and Mackenzie McDonald (No. 81). McDonald is only 23 years old and was a finalist in the Dallas tournament last year. He then made it to the Round of 16 in Wimbledon.

Opelka, who is 7-feet tall, just stunned Dallas’ own 6-foot-10 John Isner (No. 10 in the world) in the first round of the Australian Open. Bernard Tomic (No. 88), a great Australian player, and local Fort Worth product Mitchell Krueger, who grew up playing at TBarM, are also competing.

Each year, there are also wildcard tournaments several weeks beforehand that allow the winners to compete in the main draw in February. This year’s doubles wildcard entry will be Boris Arias and Ian Dempster, who defeated Hunter and Yates Johnson 6-4, 6-4 this past weekend. One of the singles wildcards is Evan Zhu, who had a tough win over Grey Hamilton by a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 score. The last wildcard spot for singles will be revealed later this week.

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Another important aspect of the RBC Tennis Championships is that the tournament supports local charities including Susan G. Komen, the Maureen Connolly Brinker Foundation and the Dallas Tennis Association’s Dallas Tennis and Education Academy.

Tickets are either $250 for General Admission for the entire week or range from $20 to $50 depending on the session.