Calkins: It’s just what Memphis needed. A win for the city’s sports.
Topnotch Management’s Kyle Ross (left) and Memphis Mayor Paul Young (right) attend a press conference announcing a new professional women’s tennis tournament on Monday, March 2, 2026. “This is a very exciting day,” Young said. “This is a win for our city.” (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Geoff Calkins
Geoff Calkins has been chronicling Memphis and Memphis sports for more than two decades. Calkins has been named the best sports columnist in the country five times by the Associated Press sports editors, but still figures his best columns are about the people who make Memphis what it is.
Kyle Ross, who has been the director of the Women’s Tennis Association event in Cleveland for the last five years, remembers the first time he toured the Leftwich Tennis Center.
Ross was looking for a new home for the tournament.
Memphis had emerged as a leading candidate.
“It’s an incredible facility,” he said. “Jaws dropped.”
Maybe that comes as a surprise to some of you.
Maybe you didn’t fully appreciate what we have in Memphis.
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