Winston-Salem Tourney Pulls No Punches

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 17th August 2013

Winston-Salem Tourney Pulls No Punches |

Winston-Salem Open tournament director Bill Oakes pulls no punches. Not only does he run the North Carolina event and also was the tournament director at Atlanta prior to that, and he also is a commentator on US Open radio. In that role, it’s easy to hear that Oakes has opinions on a number of issues and isn’t afraid to share them.

When asked to examine the highs and lows of 2012 Winston-Salem, he mentioned that he was pleased with the attendance, the field of players, the new court and the new chairs for box seat holders, and then Oakes cut to the chase.

“A phrase that I love is that ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions,’ “Oakes told The Journal “Last year, we padded every seat in the stadium, which we thought was going to make it great. And then we put chair backs on the first three rows of all the traditional bleacher seats and that turned out to make it worse. You leaned back and you leaned into the other person’s space.”

Oakes added that he gave free 2013 tickets to every fan that emailed him about their complaints about the 2012 seating.

“I felt like that was the least I could do,” he said. “We’re in the customer-service business, and people need to realize we think about these things. I keep all the emails sent to me that are negative. I actually don’t keep all the ones that are positive. I like them, but I just don’t keep them (all). I think it’s more important to keep the ones that offer constructive criticism.”

So this year, the tournament increased the space between chairs to 30.5 inches from 22 inches.

Oakes also went to Switzerland earlier this year to check out the Nussle Group, about building this year’s temporary facility. He liked what he saw so he signed a contract within 48 hours

“What I saw exceeded my expectations,” he said. “I think the people here will be very pleased. It’s in the round, with a bowl configuration and with more entrances and exits to the stadium so people can get in and out faster. I couldn’t be happier.”