Baja heats up as the Los Cabos Tennis Open begins

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) sponsors over 60 tournaments around the globe each year. However, only two take place in Mexico: the Abierto Mexicano (The Mexican Open) — an ATP 500 series event held in Acapulco — and the Abierto Los Cabos.

The latter — better known as the Los Cabos Tennis Open — is an ATP 250 competition staged annually at the Cabo Sports Complex. The tournament opens Monday and runs until July 19.

In 2024, these two tournaments — whose series numbers reflect their respective prestige, prizes and available ranking points — took place back-to-back on the ATP schedule in February and March. This was so that the Los Cabos Tennis Open could serve as a lead-in for the Mexican Open, a symbolic gesture that reflected the importance of the latter to Acapulco as the city recovered from the devastation wrought by Category 5 Hurricane Otis in October 2023. 

But this year, the ATP dictated that the Los Cabos Tennis Open would return to its traditional summertime calendar slot on the tour.

This means that not only will 32 of the world’s best men’s singles players and 16 of the best doubles players be battling each other for a share of the US $873,000 in prize money, they’ll be battling the intense seasonal heat, with temperatures this week predicted to stay at around 90 degrees Fahrenheit with up to 50% humidity.

What the Open means to Los Cabos

The Los Cabos Tennis Open is one of two premier spectator sporting events in the area. The PGA World Wide Technology Championship, held in November, is the other. 

Yes, Los Cabos is famed for sport fishing too. But it’s not as though one can watch fishing tournaments live, since boats range as far as 50 miles from the coast and spectators are not welcome aboard. You can watch the fish being weighed, but that’s not exactly an activity brimming with athleticism or sustained action. The same could be said of golf, although it’s certainly interesting to see how top players perform from an up-close perspective.

No, in Los Cabos, the ATP event is the only one that offers real action, which is why it’s a highlight of the summer sporting season, even for those like myself who typically choose to watch it on television in air-conditioned comfort.

The Los Cabos Tennis Open’s history

When the tournament first premiered in 2016 at the Delmar International School, it seemed something of an oddity: Los Cabos is a resort destination, and although some of its luxury properties do feature tennis courts, it didn’t seem as if vacationers could support a big-time tennis tournament. Nor did natives seem likely to, given the relatively high prices for tickets and the fact that few local youngsters then played the sport.

Over time, though, an appreciation for tennis has bloomed in Los Cabos, due in part to family-friendly initiatives like this year’s Kids Nite by Disney, an event in which children can interact with tournament players. 

Attendance, too, has grown steadily, despite the 2020 open being cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 iteration having no spectators. In 2022, 25,000 people attended the weeklong Los Cabos Open. In 2023, that figure increased to 30,000. By 2024, attendance had grown to 34,000, and the tournament generated an economic impact of over $6 million. This year, the numbers should be even higher.

The level of tennis, meanwhile, has been high from the start. Past champions of the event have included Ivo Karlović, Sam Querrey, Fabio Fognini, Diego Schwartzman and Daniil Medvédev, the 2021 US Open winner and the world’s number-one-ranked player when he captured the Los Cabos Tennis Open trophy in 2022.

Which players are participating in the Los Cabos Tennis Open this year?

Unlike the Mexican Open, which features both top men and women, the Los Cabos Tennis Open is solely a men’s event, as the list of former winners indicates. No, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the winners of the last six Grand Slam singles titles, will not be participating this year. Nor will Novak Djokovic, the winner of a men’s record 24 Grand Slam singles trophies. 

However, the open will, as always, welcome many highly ranked men’s players. This year, the roster of 32 singles competitors includes some ranked among the world’s top 50 players: Russian Andrey Rublev (No. 14) — the tournament’s top seed and a 17-time ATP tour-level winner — Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain (No. 28) and Denis Shapovalov of Canada (No. 31).

Also competing is 20-year-old Mérida native Rodrigo Pacheco Méndez (No. 219), who garnered excitement at February’s Mexican Open in Acapulco when he made history by being the first Mexican player in decades to win a main draw match. He was ultimately knocked out in the quarterfinals by Davidovich-Fokina. 

Top-50 players Lorenzo Musetti of Italy (No. 7) and Australian Jordan Thompson (No. 37), the latter who was last year’s champion, were scheduled to compete at this week’s tournament but withdrew, Musetti due to a leg injury.

How to enjoy the action live or on television

Prices for 2025’s Los Cabos Tennis Open start at 1,075 to 1,280 pesos (US $57–$68) for individual tickets and climb to 11,715 to 12,890 pesos (US $625–$688) for the three-day weekend series covering the quarterfinals, semis and finals. Full-week passes for all six days of live festivities are even more.

As it has since 2021, the tournament will take place at the Cabo Sports Complex, home to five hard courts, including a stadium court that can accommodate up to 3,500 spectators. The complex is located across from Solaz Resort Los Cabos at kilometer 18.5 of the Carretera Transpeninsular.

For those unable to attend, television coverage of the tournament will be available courtesy of ESPN and Disney+.