Sam Querrey 'blown away' by Cincinnati redevelopment

Cincinnati

Sam Querrey 'blown away' by Cincinnati redevelopment

Exclusive insight from the former World No. 11

Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour Cincinnati Open tournament director Bob Moran, Shelby Rogers, Alison Riske-Amritraj, tournament owner Ben Navarro and Sam Querrey. By Andrew Eichenholz

Sam Querrey, the former No. 11 player in the PIF ATP Rankings who has established a standout media career following his retirement from the ATP Tour, competed in the Cincinnati Open 14 times. Never did the American see the ATP Masters 1000 event like it is today following a groundbreaking $260 million transformation.

“Blown away. Every little detail is perfect here,” Querrey told ATPTour.com. “From the fan experience to the player experience to the locker rooms to the courts. Players are going to be blown away, and the fans are going to be blown away.”

The 10-time titlist recently visited the Lindner Family Tennis Center with Alison Riske-Amritraj and Shelby Rogers to have a look at the work done on the facility over the past year, and they were all in awe during their tour with tournament owner Ben Navarro, tournament director Bob Moran and COO Jansen Dell.

Querrey does not remember much from his tournament debut in 2006 besides believing it was “amazing”. Nearly two decades later, the event has taken several steps up.

“It was my first Masters series, and at that time, 2006, I thought it was awesome,” Querrey said. “But now, seeing how far it has come almost 20 years later, you can’t even recognise the two facilities. This is the new gold standard for Masters series around the world.”

When Querrey was a player, he enjoyed that the Cincinnati Open was an event where he would have a rental car and could drive to various chain restaurants, which made it feel like home. That is still the case, but now the on-site venue is at a whole new level.

“The food, dining area for the players now is going to be as good as it gets,” Querrey said. “A lot of these tournaments, even this one in the past, there would be one lounge where you could go hang out in, and it was fine at times. But this one now feels like it has five or six different lounge spaces in the locker room, in the restaurants, a designated lounge and the recovery spaces. [There are] so many options for players to go to and hang and chill.”

A winner of 385 tour-level matches according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, Querrey explained that the new aesthetics are also appealing. “It’s like it got a facelift in a perfect way,” he said.

“Every attention to detail, every little thing is upgraded here. It’s not like they’ve left [things and said], ‘Oh, here’s a bank of four practice courts that’s still here’. No. They’re all new. They all have stands. The player dining experience is all new, the locker rooms are all new. Not one square foot of land or building here is untouched.

“It’s exceeded my expectations. I expected just a general facelift, maybe a new building or two, not every single thing. So I’m just blown away.”

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