HOUSTON \u2013 Tennis fans in Houston have a chance to see some of the sport\u2019s top players up close as a historic tournament returns to the city.<\/p>\n
The Fayez Sarofim U.S. Men\u2019s Clay Court Championships will take place at River Oaks Country Club from March 28 through April 5.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a one-of-a-kind event, the only professional men\u2019s clay court tournament still played in the United States.,<\/p>\n
Tournament organizers say the event dates back nearly a century.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started in 1931, holding a tennis tournament at River Oaks Country Club, and this year we\u2019ll mark our 90th year,\u201d tournament director Bronwyn Greer said.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s field includes some of the biggest names in American tennis, including Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and rising star Learner Tien.<\/p>\n
Unlike larger venues, River Oaks offers fans a more intimate experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see the court is less than 100 feet behind us, and to get to the boxes you\u2019re walking on the court, that\u2019s almost unheard of these days,\u201d Greer said. \u201cWe pride ourselves on giving fans that up-close and personal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clay surface itself also adds to the appeal, creating higher bounces and longer rallies that many players and fans love.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest draws this year: free admission during opening weekend.<\/p>\n
Fans can attend qualifying matches on:<\/p>\n
Saturday, March 28 <\/p>\n
Sunday, March 29 <\/p>\n
No tickets are required, and matches are expected to begin around 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Organizers say it\u2019s a rare opportunity to watch professional tennis at no cost.<\/p>\n
The tournament will feature qualifying rounds over the weekend, followed by main draw matches throughout the week leading up to the finals.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Tennis fans in Houston have a chance to see some of the sport\u2019s top players up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,6153],"class_list":{"0":"post-223037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}