The Washington Open traces to 1969, when Donald Dell, John Harris and Arthur Ashe founded it in Rock Creek Park as one of the first open professional events in the United States. It was contested on clay through 1986 before switching to hard courts — the surface it still uses, slotting into the heart of the North American summer hard swing in late July, the on-ramp to the Masters 1000 stops in Montreal (Canadian Open) and Cincinnati and on to the US Open.
What sets DC apart is structural: it's the tour's only event that pairs an ATP 500 and a WTA 500 at the same site in the same week, a combined-tournament format more typical of the 1000s. The outdoor hard courts run fast under heavy mid-Atlantic humidity, and the schedule — sweltering daytime sessions giving way to packed night matches — makes it a notorious endurance test on the calendar.
Recent finals capture the venue's range. In 2025, Alex De Minaur recovered from a dropped opening set to beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 5-7, 6-1, 7-6. A year earlier, Sebastian Korda turned around a one-set deficit against Flavio Cobolli, closing 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. On the women's side, Coco Gauff won the 2023 title over Maria Sakkari, 6-2, 6-3 — an early marker for the American teenager on home soil.
Heading into the 2026 edition, DC remains a magnet for big American names and a litmus test for hard-court form before the slam, its dual-tour draw drawing depth that few 500s can match.