NY Open tourney director happy with progress of unique LI tennis event

The New York Open at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum is in its third year, and tournament director Peter Lebedevs is pleased with its progress.

The crowds have been meager during the week, though that’s not unusual with an ATP 250 event, the lowest tier on the ATP pyramid. But the prospects of good crowds on the weekend and sponsorship inquiries for the future give hope to Long Island’s sole big time professional tennis tournament.

“We’ve improved in every area,” Lebedevs said Saturday. “Ticket sales are up, attendance is up, players reaching out to us wanting to play. Add in the local community things like the hiring expo and the women’s elevating experiences luncheon, the STEM event. We still have a lot of work to do, there’s no doubt about it.”

Name players like Nick Kyrgios and Milos Raonic contacted the tournament about playing this year. Kyrgios had to withdraw with a shoulder injury and Raonic, the No. 2 seed, lost his opening match, but he had good things to say about how the tournament was handled.

“As the players are leaving they are saying great, love it,” Lebedevs said. “Our setup of how close our hotel is, our venue and our practice courts [Carefree Racquet Club in Merrick]. They are saying this is a perfect setup for an indoor event.”

And how are they taking to the tournament’s unique black courts, which this year have been laid down over the ice used by the Islanders?

“Players like the courts. We are the home of the black court,” Lebedevs said. “They like seeing the ball and the ball shows up better. This is the first year we are on the ice. The colder the ball is, the ball bounces less. Nobody has said it favors one player or another. The big servers didn’t have an advantage. The word we love to hear is “fair.” The players say it’s a fair court. That’s my ultimate goal.”

Big servers certainly didn’t have the advantage this year. Defending champion Reilly Opelka was ousted in the quarterfinals by Jason Jung and No. 1 seed John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Raonic all were eliminated early.

The Nassau Coliseum is a big venue for this sort of event, so there are going to be a lot of empty seats no matter what. But Lebedevs, as is his job, is optimistic.

“Attendance, we are tracking about 20% ahead,” he said. “[Saturday] and Sunday are our best two days we ever had in the three years. We are over 3,000 on both of those days in sold tickets which is a great sign for us. Sundays are the days that sell the most when you don’t know who’s playing.”