The top women’s tennis players in the world have taken center stage for the past few years in San Diego.

This year, a new era is underway. The Octagon-owned WTA 500 played at the Barnes Tennis Center at the end of February and the week before the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells has been taken off the WTA 2025 calendar. A new ATP 100 Challenger will take its place February 22-March 2, according to tournament director Ryan Redondo.

With the WTA event not returning, there was an opening at Barnes Tennis Center and USTA Southern California First Vice President Chris Boyer thought an ATP 100 Challenger would be a perfect fit for some of SoCal’s top young pros to get matches in so close in proximity and timing to the Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells.

Last year Boyer was named to the USTA Player Development Council put together to help re-imagine the USTA Pro Circuit and to help bring more pro circuit and ITF junior events to the States.

Boyer said that Italy, which is smaller in size to California, has more pro circuit events than the U.S. “In Europe, there are 723 tournaments, and that does not include Turkey, Tunisia or Egypt,” Boyer said. “Here in the U.S., we have 102. We are pretty far behind in terms of numbers of pro circuits, and we need to get better at that if we are to develop better players.”

Boyer said that large tournaments like the WTA 500 San Diego have a tough time turning a profit.

“Unless there is a unique sponsor opportunity it is really hard for them to make money,” he said. “When I heard about the ATP Challenger opportunity, I first thought it was a great date. I also thought it was a great opportunity for Barnes to host a tournament where the risk is so much lower to potentially lose money. It’s an opportunity to get some really good players and to sell some tickets and to make a little bit of money. I think Ryan made the right decision and he’s a great tournament director and manager of an event like this.”

Redondo said ticket prices for the ATP 100 for specified rounds have not been set, but will likely be on-sale for the quarterfinals on Friday, semifinals on Saturday and Sunday’s final at a reasonable rate. He also said there is an exhibition match being planned with some top players but nothing has been finalized yet.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the qualifiers at Indian Wells to play not too far from where they will be playing the following week and also get some matches in,” Boyer said. “This is a great opportunity for Ryan to have some very good players and one or two marquee players and a very strong field for an ATP 100.”

Boyer concluded by noting next year the ATP has said there is a chance the event could be upgraded to an ATP 125 with the potential for ever better players and a stronger field.