In Texas, we play our biggest tennis matches in a football stadium.
“It’s, like, the most American thing I’ve ever seen,” said tour player Alex Michelsen Tuesday.
Michelsen (ranked 41st in the world) and some of the world’s top male players are competing this week in the Nexo Dallas Open. It’s an ATP 500-level event held indoors, for the second consecutive year, at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco. That’s part of the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters complex, which Frisco ISD also uses for high school football games. A pair of stadium courts and multiple practice courts cover the yard lines and hashmarks.
“Being here at the Cowboys’ practice facility is amazing. It’s such a cool little are that they have here,” said second-seeded Ben Shelton on Saturday.
Shelton, ranked ninth in the world, is competing in the North Texas event for the third year in a row. He lost in the round of 16 to Jaume Munar in 2025 after making the semis in 2024. He’s one of a pair of American men ranked in the world’s top ten and one of a half dozen currently in the top 30. All six have come to Frisco to play in this tournament. Certainly, they hope to earn ranking points and prize money in doing so. But they also hope to make an impression for themselves and their sport.
“Any time that we can compete and come to a tournament like this, one, it’s great to feel the support from the American crowds and American people, and two, to have the opportunity to help grow the sport here is important to me,” said Shelton Tuesday after his first-round match.
“This sport only has room to grow in the United States. It’s massive overseas.”
Tennis has a U.S. following, to be sure, but it isn’t the most popular sport in the country, of course. That would be, well, American football. Ironically, though, the sports goliath that is football aspires to have what tennis already possesses: a massive (to use Shelton’s word) international following. We saw that desire reinforced with the NFL’s non-traditional Super Bowl halftime show, its embrace of Olympic flag football, and its recent announcement of 2026 regular-season games to be played in a number of countries.
The Nexo Dallas Open’s main singles and doubles draws include players from more than a dozen countries. I bet the Cowboys (and the NFL) are pleased that those players and their fans will have The Star top of mind this week.
Tennis can also likely find value in the association with the world’s most valuable sports franchise: the Dallas Cowboys. For any sport looking to grow, tapping into new audiences is vital. That sport also needs its top ambassadors to do as Shelton and his fellow American players have done this week – to showcase themselves to the American sports fan, in this case by playing in a tourney situated in a top-five U.S. media market.
Those lessons might also apply to another sport with international appeal that wants to grow in the United States and that also plays big games in American football facilities: soccer. It’s a sport Shelton’s girlfriend, USWNT star Trinity Rodman, plays professionally. Her club team, the Washington Spirit, just made a huge financial commitment to retain her services and continue showcasing one of the best U.S. players to the domestic audience. Shelton concluded that his significant other’s decision to sign a new NWSL contract could be important for her game the same way his participation in North Texas can be for his.
“I think the USA has developed the sport of soccer for a long time, and to retain them and keep them in the league here is something that’s really important in growing the sport in the U.S.—not only on the female side but the male side as well,” said Shelton.
On Saturday, Shelton had joked about how Rodman’s athletic ability allowed her to pick a tennis racquet and quickly adapt to a sport she had not played much. Tuesday, he got a win to advance to the second round, defeating Gabriel Diallo of Canada in straight sets. In the big picture, the win is a kid picking up a tennis or soccer ball in the U.S. or a football helmet in Spain, Australia, or Bulgaria and becoming aware of, and perhaps finding a passion for, the athletic pursuit(s) they find to be the best fit for themselves. So if you’re a football fan who thinks his kids might like tennis, you can take them a familiar spot to see one of the multiple Americans who advanced to the second round. They might have fun. The Nexo Dallas Open continues through Sunday.
