The U.S. Tennis Association is asking Mayor Greg Ballard and IUPUI Chancellor Charles Bantz to save some of the courts at the Indianapolis Tennis Center, which is scheduled to be demolished just days after it closes Aug. 5.

Sources close to the university said they expect a combination of parking facilities and a multi-use athletics venue and convocation center to be built on the site.

As first reported by IBJ on Nov. 28, the men's tennis event that is leaving Indianapolis is heading to Atlanta, the ATP confirmed.

Say goodbye to tournament tennis in Indy. I feel bad for all those who invested their time, effort and money into sustaining the presence of world-class tennis here.

Officials for the Indianapolis Tennis Championships announced Friday afternoon that they have sold the sanctioning rights for the local tournament back to the ATP Tour.

Sources told IBJ last week that the U.S. Tennis Association Southern Section was in serious negotiations to buy the event and move it to Atlanta.

Officials with the Indianapolis Tennis Championships confirmed that they are selling the rights to host an annual men's professional tennis event that has roots in Indianapolis dating back to 1920.

The Indianapolis Tennis Championships—formerly known as RCA Championships—appear to be dead, with the ATP Tour dates being shipped off to Atlanta for 2010 and beyond.

The Indianapolis Tennis Championships (formerly the RCA Championships) has for the first time hired an advertising agency to boost ticket sales.

Long-range plans for IUPUI unveiled this month call for the demolition of the Michael A. Carroll Track & Field Stadium and Indianapolis Tennis Center, raising questions about the future of sporting events held at those venues that have generated tens of millions of dollars in economic activity for the city.

If the city is serious about continuing to use amateur athletics as an economic tool, more collaboration among the university, city leaders and sports organizations is clearly needed.

A dearth of name players, slumping attendance and an outdated venue have some in the local tennis community wondering if the Indianapolis Tennis Championships--formerly known as the RCA Championships--needs some serious re-stringing. Attendance at the nine-day event, which ran July 12-20 this year, was on pace through July 16 to be at a 20-year low. But attendance is far from the tournament's only challenge.

A major sponsorship upgrade by local drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. and a quartet of new corporate partners has helped the Indianapolis Tennis Championships stem its losses after the departure of its title sponsor.

After a 15-year run--the longest on the ATP Tour's North American Circuit--Thomson Consumer Electronics' RCA brand is ending its title sponsorship of Indianapolis' professional men's tennis tournament.

Officials for the WTA, which represents women professional players, and the ATP, which represents men, are considering shortening the lengthy tennis calendar by imposing a short offseason-possibly a three-week, midyear respite that would collide with the RCA Championships.