Thomas E. Price Cincinnati Metropolitan Tennis Championship

Yesterday marked the conclusion of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and in a couple weeks the W&SFG Women’s Open will be taking place. There is no doubt that those two professional events are the best tennis tournaments around (and the men’s is easily the biggest and greatest tennis tournament in the entire Midwest), but not to be forgotten is Cincinnati’s third best tournament, July’s Thomas E. Price Cincinnati Metropolitan Tennis Championship.
The Met, as it is called, is one of many tournaments played at the Lunken Tennis Center during the summer, but the annual event is essentially the city’s championship with the Tri-​state area’s best adult tennis players battling out in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles (singles and doubles are divided into men’s and women’s divisions). Over the years the Met has seen some great players come through the men’s (and women’s) draw, including Dan Kronauge (career high ATP doubles ranking of 175), Cedric Kauffman (former top 200 singles player who once took Pete Sampras to five sets at the French Open), and Jeff Wolf (Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame member and winner of the most all-​time men’s Met singles (6) and double titles (at least 13).
Unfortunately, those days are over. Many of the top area adults no longer play in the Met, and most of the top competitors these days are just current college tennis players who hail from Greater Cincinnati (keep in mind Kronauge only entered into doubles occasionally, and the aforementioned Kauffman only played once or twice). There are no more Jeff or Marty Wolfs (brother Marty won five Met singles titles) and the majority of the Cincinnati area high school and college tennis playing studs from the 80s and 90s are long gone. One of the tournament’s main flaws is that most of its long-​time annual competitors aren’t competing anymore, and much of today’s field is too young to even appreciate the history of the 65-​year-​old Cincinnati tennis tradition. I also don’t like how boys and girls 15 and over can compete (it should be 18 and up), plus every year a couple of non-​Cincinnati resident college tennis players from schools like Xavier play, and that kinds of detracts from the idea of fielding a tournament for Cincinnati’s best men and women.
Overall, though, it is still a well run tournament and one of the most underrated Cincinnati traditions each summer. Registration was $ 35 each for singles, doubles (per team), and mixed doubles (also per team) this past year, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see higher entry fees (due to rising gas prices) come the 66^th annual Met next July.