With increased prize money, the Red River Open is attracting high-end tennis players

Jul. 9—For decades, the Red River Open attracted many of the top tennis players living in the Red River Valley.

That's starting to change, though. It is now bringing in high-end players from around the entire region and even the country.

The annual July tennis tournament, based in Fargo, has started offering cash prizes not only to winners, but also quarterfinalists and semifinalists in the open divisions. The result has been an explosion in the number of entries and talent level.

When the Red River Open begins Friday at Island Park and Discovery Middle School, it will do so with a full 64-person draw in men's singles. Tournament officials cut off the entries at that point. Two players are still on standby in case anyone has to withdraw from the tournament, which has a record prize pool of $15,000.

The top seed is Wayzata's Nick Beaty, who just completed his senior season at the University of Michigan, going 19-4 in singles. He had the best singles record of any Wolverines player this spring.

The No. 2 seed is Ryan Fishback of Geneva, N.Y. Fishback was the No. 6 recruit in the nation in 2020. He chose Virginia Tech and qualified for the NCAA doubles tournament as a freshman.

The No. 3 seed is Riley Odell of Lake Stevens, Wash. Odell will play his freshman season with UND beginning this fall. The No. 4 seed is Wyatt McCoy, who won the Minnesota state singles tournament as an eighth-grader and went on to play college tennis at Notre Dame. The No. 5 seed is Rudra Dixit, who just completed his freshman season at Iowa and is transferring to Nebraska for his sophomore year.

"I would say these are players who are looking to get onto the Tour," Summers said. "They are players who have put enough time in that their ambition is to play some type of pro tennis. These players are definitely traveling here with the idea that they're going to earn enough money to pay for the trip, and they wouldn't come if they didn't think there was going to be good competition."

Local players also will test their game against the field.

Three of the last four North Dakota state singles champions are in the field — Davis Lawley of Fargo South, Michael Janes of Bismarck Legacy and defending champ Logan Sandberg of Grand Forks Central. Lawley, who earned all-Summit League honors as a junior at Omaha this spring, is the No. 7 seed.

The field also is filled with UND players. Odell, Edmond Aynedjian (6), Cian McDonnell (8), Nikita Snezhko (10) and Alex Petro (12) are all seeded.

"I think back to my college days and playing in these summer adult tournaments was a great experience," said UND associate coach Kyle Anderson. "It was always so much fun. It will be especially fun because we have multiple members of our team playing in it. There's a little added incentive with money involved. That's what competition is all about."

The draw on the women's side isn't nearly as deep as the men's — only 14 players are registered for the women's draw — but the quality is high there as well.

Last year's champion, Jessie Aney, went on to win a pro tournament in Kazakhstan soon after winning the Red River Open. This year's No. 1 seed is UND's Andrea Jansson and the No. 2 seed is the University of Colorado's Ellen Puzak.

Anderson said he's happy to see UND players competing in the Red River Open.

"There's no substitute for competing and playing sanctioned matches for your development and preparing for the season, which is coming before we know it," he said.

There will be concessions outside at Island Park during the tournament, which concludes Sunday morning. Grand Forks' Greg LaDouceur and Valley City's Erik and Susan Kringlie also will officially be inducted into the North Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame during a ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday at Island Park.

Summers, a previous men's singles champion at the Red River Open, credited Miguel Danielson and Chris Hawley as key contributors in sponsoring the tournament and attracting other sponsors to make it a bigger event. The prize pool has more than doubled in the last three years.

"It's kind of a cool atmosphere at Island Park," Summers said.

Red River Open

When: Friday through Sunday.

Where: Island Park and Discovery, Fargo.

Men's singles final: 10 a.m. Sunday.

Top men's seeds: 1. Nick Beaty (Michigan), 2. Ryan Fishback (Virginia Tech), 3. Riley Odell (UND), 4. Wyatt McCoy (Notre Dame), 5. Rudra Dixit (Iowa/Nebraska), 6. Edmond Aynedjian (UND), 7. Davis Lawley (Omaha), 8. Cian McDonnell (UND); 9. Ethan Neil (Creighton), 10. Nikita Snezhko (UND), 11. Parker Law (Babson), 12. Alex Petro (UND).

Women's singles final: 9 a.m. Sunday.

Top women's seeds: 1. Andrea Jansson (UND), 2. Ellen Puzak (Colorado), 3. Nicole Snezhko (St. Thomas), 4. Racquel Fhima (Chapman).