Sports: Western & Southern Open

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One of the oldest and largest tournaments in tennis opens Saturday featuring competitions between some of the largest names in the game at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. Photo provided by CityBeat.
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Posted: 08/08/2012

By Jason Gargano for CityBeat

One of the oldest — and now biggest — tournaments in tennis opens Saturday (through Aug. 19), with most of the best players in the world competing for more than $5 million in prize money. Long known as an important warm-up to the U.S. Open, the Western & Southern has continued to evolve in recent years, reaching a high point in 2011 with the first-ever simultaneous running of the men’s and women’s events and an impressive expansion of the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason to include six new courts, a host of local food vendors, multiple special events and even live music.

But, of course, it’s the players that command most of the attention — everyone from defending men’s champion and recent Olympic gold medalist Andy Murray and current world No. 1 Roger Federer to recent Wimbledon/Olympic champion Serena Williams and current women’s world No. 1 Maria Sharapova will do battle.

INFO: For schedule and ticket information, go to 513-651-0303 or go to cincytennis.com . Lindner Family Tennis Center. 5460 Courseview Drive.