After a run of more than 50 years, the Bay Area will no longer have a major women’s tennis tournament.

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced on Thursday that the Silicon Valley Classic, formerly known as the Bank of the West Classic, is moving from San Jose to Washington, D.C.

“It’s devastating,” said John Poch, the executive director of the San Jose Sports Authority. “We loved hosting the tournament. It was a big part of our DNA. It’s tough to lose.”

The move brings an end to an iconic part of women’s tennis history. The Bay Area’s tournament was the first U.S.-based event during the groundbreaking Virginia Slims Circuit in 1971. Billie Jean King won the inaugural event and became a three-time champion.

Other multiple singles champions included Martina Navratilova (five titles), Kim Clijsters (four), and Chris Evert (three).

The Williams sisters also made their mark on the event. Serena won it three times and Venus twice. Perhaps most noteworthy is that in 1994, Venus made her professional debut at age 14 at the tournament — then in Oakland — and won her first match.

The event has been held every year but two (1978, 2020) since 1971, making it the longest-running women’s tournament in the world. Most tournaments, including all of the majors, feature a men’s field.

That will be the case with the newly named tournament in Washington, D.C. The Mubadala Citi DC Open, which opens July 29, will pair the women’s event with the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) event.

“They just had an opportunity to join forces with the men’s tour and do it at a bigger venue,” Poch said. “If you look at economies of scale, San Jose did everything they could to make this tournament a success.”

The event was played on San Jose State’s campus for the past five years (with the 2020 tournament canceled because of coronavirus). Poch estimated that it took the university almost a month each year to build the center court for the tournament, which took over much of the campus and forced five other sports teams to adjust training schedules and locations.

While the San Jose State venue seated only 3,200 fans compared to the 7,500 capacity at the new venue in Washington, D.C., the tournament was largely considered a success on a local scale.

“The player experience was very good and the San Jose State athletic department, what they did was amazing,” Poch said. “Obviously a larger venue would’ve drawn bigger crowds, but we can’t fault anything San Jose State did for the event. We were just capped by a small stadium.”

Poch said there was no larger venue that would’ve been suitable in San Jose, but San Jose State University chief financial officer Charlie Fass said the venue’s capacity was determined by IMG, the company that ran the tournament.

“They brought the bleachers in and constructed the mini stadium,” Fass said. “If you wanted it to be 10,000, you could’ve built it in there. You build it to what the demand is going to be.”

Fass said he’s disappointed to lose the tournament, but building a six-court facility to host it was a positive result for San Jose State because it led to the expansion of other on-campus facilities.

Dick Gould, the former Stanford University men’s tennis coach who retired in 2018 after a 57-year career as a player, coach and tennis director, said it’s a sad day to see the tournament leave the Bay Area, but “you could see it coming.”

“It’s hard because you get these big financial conglomerates, especially from overseas, that are buying these things up at astronomical prices,” Gould said. “The owner of the event is going to sell it if they can. It’s a sad state for tennis.

“And selfishly for our area, it’ll have an impact. It trickles down a little bit. There are a lot of youth events and women’s events built into it. A lot of them will be gone now.”

The 2022 event saw Daria Kasatkina defeat Shelby Rogers 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-2 in the singles final, making the Russian native the final winner in the Bay Area. Perhaps the highlight of the final Bay Area tournament was a matchup between Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff, which Gauff won 6-4, 6-4.

“Each year the tournament got better,” Poch said. “California is a great fanbase for women’s tennis. It was just limited on venues.”

The tournament’s departure comes 11 years after the SAP Open, a men’s tournament, ended a 125-year run in the Bay Area by moving to Memphis, Tenn.

San Jose is now moving its focus to a different competition coming to town in late August, when the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships will be held at the SAP Center to determine the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams that will compete in the Paris Olympic Games next summer.

“We lose one tournament, but we’ll have more women’s sports to focus on,” Poch said. “It’s a phenomenal region for women’s sports.”