After a three-year run, the San Diego Open WTA 500 tournament is no more because of the lack of sufficient financial backing.

Instead, the women’s event whose first champion was then top-ranked Iga Swiatek is being replaced by a second-tier men’s pro tournament that will run Feb. 22 through March 2 at the Barnes Center.

The San Diego Open is now an ATP Challenger 100 tournament in the week before the prestigious BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

After two years in the fall, the WTA tourney moved last year to the late February slot on the schedule with the slogan “The road to Indian Wells starts in San Diego.”

However, among the top-10 ranked players, only No. 5 Jessica Pegula competed in the tourney. The tournament was won by Katie Boulter, the world’s No. 40-ranked player.

While the tourney’s original three-year contract expired last year, tourney director Ryan Redondo confirmed ahead of the finals that a five-year extension was in the offering.

However, Cymbiotika backed out as the title sponsor and no replacement was found.

“The tournament struggled to obtain the necessary title sponsor to facilitate the appropriate funding to continue to operate the event,” said Redondo, who also heads Youth Tennis San Diego at the Barnes Center. “Thus, with disappointment to all, we had to come to terms that this was not an event we could sustain nor finance.”

The tourney had been owned since its inception by Octagon, an international sports marking firm. Given the financial circumstances, Octagon opted to end the San Diego tourney ties.

The San Diego Open title originated in 2021 with an ATP 250 tournament, and the next year, it returned in September with the WTA event debuting a month later under the same name.

Each of the two men’s tourneys operated under a one-year contract. Since there was no further extension by the ATP, the WTA tourney moved to September for its second year in 2023.

Redondo did not rule holding men’s and women’s pro tournaments in the same year at the Barnes Center … with the proper financing.

ATP Challenger tourneys typically have purses up to $125,000. By contrast, Boulter earned $140,000 last year from the prize pool of $972,573.Plans call for some free admission days at this year’s San Diego Open with ticket prices otherwise being determined.

In lieu of a WTA tourney in San Diego, players have the option of the Merida Open Akron WTA 500 in Merida, Mexico., or the ATK Open WTA 250 in Austin, Texas, at that point in the schedule.