The only ten-day combined ATP World Tour and ATP Champions Tour event in the world, the Delray Beach Open is played on outdoor hard courts in Delray Beach, Florida, and plays a significant role in the run-up to the major hard-court Masters 1000 Series events of the spring, with many top players choosing to warm up for Indian Wells and Miami at the 250-level event.
The only ATP World Tour outdoor hard-court event to be held in the USA in the first two months of the season, the Delray Beach Open traces its history back to 1993, when the tournament was first played on green clay in Coral Springs, Florida. Todd Martin won that inaugural event and would be joined by a Brazilian (Luis Mattar) and Australians Todd Woodbridge, Jason Stoltenberg and Andrew Ilie before the tournament relocated to Delray Beach, where another Australian - Lleyton Hewitt - won the title in 1999.
In 2000, the surface was changed to outdoor hard courts and it has remained that way ever since at the Delray Beach Tennis Centre, where the 32-man draw singles event offers $535,000 in prize money throughout the tournament.
A number of big names have taken the Delray Beach Open title since Hewitt in 1999, including Belgium's Xavier Malisse (2005, 2007); Kei Nishikori (who won his first title in Delray Beach in 2008, beating James Blake in the final); and fellow US Open champions Juan Martin del Potro (2011) and Marin Cilic (2014). Cilic beat big-serving South African Kevin Anderson - himself a Delray Beach champion in 2012 - 7-6(6), 6-7(7), 6-4 in three hours and eight minutes, which set a new tournament record for longest final, surpassing the 1996 final between Jason Stoltenberg and Chris Woodruff by 34 minutes.
Big servers like Cilic and Anderson have traditionally flourished at the Delray Beach Open and Ivo Karlovic, the 6'10" Croatian with one of the biggest deliveries in the world, rampaged to the title while dropping just one set in 2015, beating home hope Donald Young in the final.
Karlovic would be followed by another big server, the USA's Sam Querrey, in 2016. Querrey beat fellow American Rajeev Ram in the final, ending a six-year drought for American players in Delray Beach and becoming the fourth to win the event after Todd Martin (1993), Jan-Michael Gambill (2001, 2003) and Mardy Fish (2009).
The 2016 Delray Beach Open also marked the return of Juan Martin del Potro to competition after a virtual absence of two years for the 2009 US Open champion, who had played just 14 singles matches in 2014-15 combined as he underwent multiple surgeries for tendonitis in his left wrist - the second major wrist injury and lengthy subsequent absence from competition of the Argentine's career. Ranked world no. 1041, del Potro was offered a wildcard into the Delray Beach Open and proved that if form is temporary, class is permanent as he defeated Denis Kudla, John Patrick Smith and Jeremy Chardy to reach the semifinals before bowing out to eventual champion Querrey.
Del Potro again opted to begin his season in Delray Beach in 2017, but he couldn’t defend his title as he bowed out to Milos Raonic in the semi-finals. However Raonic couldn’t capitalise on the victory as he was forced to withdraw before the final with injury, handing the title to Jack Sock, who had cruised into the final without dropping a set.
After Querrey and Sock, Frances Tiafoe became the third American in as many years to win the Delray Beach Open when he took the title in 2018. 'Big Foe', long touted as the big hope of American men's tennis, was ranked world no. 91 when he took out del Potro, Hyeon Chung and Denis Shapovalov on his way to the final, claiming his maiden title with a win over Peter Gojowczyk.
A number of players have won multiple ATP Delray Beach titles, with a four-way tie between the following players for most titles: Jason Stoltenberg (1996-7), Jan-Michael Gambill (2001, 2003), Xavier Malisse (2005, 2007) and Ernests Gulbis (2010, 2013).