Barnes Tennis Center and the San Diego Open offers an amazing opportunity to be much closer to the world class players who play there and the price for the event is but a fraction of what one pays for other comparable tennis events. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves, or play tennis, it's incredibly inspirational!
The food at Barnes for the tournament was embarrassing the “protein bowl “ was so bad why not get a couple local food trucks to provide the food and have at least one vegetarian option the protein bowl was the same price with or without protein. Without the protein it was a scoop of beans and a scoop of rice $18 SD has so many local food trucks that are delicious and would support locals. The lines calls at the matches were pretty bad as well how is SD going to get a ATP 250 or higher with this kind of stuff? Positive note the tennis action was top notch
It was a great experience
We arrived an hour early and spent 45 minutes looking everywhere, and I mean everywhere, for a parking spot. We then went back to the shuttle parking lot and found the line for the "every 10 minute shuttle" was very long and would probably take 30 - 40 minutes. We decided to go home and watch it on TV.
From the time we arrived in the South Shore Lot until arriving back there to go home we throughly enjoyed ourselves. We follow Tennis around the world, this was our 6th tournament in 2023. The venue was small, only 2 courts, which was less than some challengers we have attended. We were in Row A on the main court on the Umpires side, which restricted the line of vision. It appeared as if both ends were reserved for VIPs. We usually opt for for an end view if available.
Seats were very comfortable. We saw 3 singles on the main court and caught the end of a singles and a doubles on court 2 so we got value for our money, this being the Wednesday day session. I think as the week went on you would have had less matches which would put us off.
We are visitors from the UK, everyone made us very welcome. If we are in the San Diego area again when the tournament is staged we would attend again.
The timing however one week after the US Open meant that the field was not as good as had been advertised.
Top quality players, the tennis is so close to you. Not super expensive
The biggest downside is that there are not any nice hotels within walking distance of the venue. Also, the food offerings could be expanded and improved. Tennis was good and a number of top ranked WTA players.
Nice idea but for day session only one match was on and a half set from previous evening. Hardly a busy schedule. Doubles were available but could barely see courts. The practice courts were blocked off. Ridiculous, other venues allow viewing. The parking was ridiculous and the food available was barely passable. So much room for improvement especially for the cost of admission