I've lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas for more than three years. And every year I've seen the tennis community grow in different ways. Most areas of the country have USTA sanctioned leagues and tournaments. Northwest Arkansas is no different. The Play For Team Luke Tennis Event has drawn top ranked and former number one male & female tennis players to Fort Smith each fall in the name of a great charity. Many areas of the country have levels of professional tournaments roll through town every year and that's where Fayetteville was lagging. Until now.
For the first time, the ITF World Tennis Tour is on campus at the University of Arkansas for a 15K tournament. Let me explain what exactly that means. Many of you are familiar with the four Grand Slams around the globe (Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open & Roland Garros). Outside of those eight weeks, the ATP & WTA tours each offer three different levels of tournaments. One rung down is the ATP Challenger Tour, still a very high level of competition but on a much smaller scale. Finally comes the ITF World Tennis Tour which has either 25K or 15K tournaments for both male & female players. Here's a chart to make sense of all those words.
This week in Fayetteville is a $15,000 ITF tournament. At the end of October, the city will host a $25,000 event. The ceiling of players that enter these events are generally those ranked between 300 and 400, while plenty of local college and young professional players get the chance to earn minimal ranking points as well. Arkansas Razorback men's tennis coach Andy Jackson was instrumental in getting the tournaments to NW Arkansas.
"We have a $2 million LPGA golf tournament here," Jackson explained, "so my thought is why can't we get professional tennis as well? This is a 15K tournament and at the end of October we'll have a 25K tournament. Eventually my vision is to get together a bigger indoor event, a 250 or 500 and get the real professional players to come."
It's a chance for Jackson to watch some of his current & former players get a rare opportunity to play professionally and boast home court advantage. Case and point: the first match on Thursday morning featured Razorback junior Josh Howard-Tripp against former Hog Oscar Mesquida-Berg.
"Today we played on court one which was where I played my last season," said Mesquida-Berg after a 6-1, 6-2 win to make the quarterfinals. "Some tough matches but mostly really good memories and we don't have to travel which is a nice advantage."
That's true of any tournament held in a college tennis town, which happens frequently on the ITF and Challenger Tours. And what better way to build up a professional repertoire and following in the local community than affording opportunities to the local student athletes?
"It's really good news for all Razorback fans and the team because there's a really good opportunity to have good matches," Mesquida-Berg added.
Arkansas is a solid SEC program and match days are fun at Billingsley Tennis Center. But there's no question that a community growing as fast as Fayetteville could support a professional tennis tournament. That's why the next month is a vital measuring stick. An ITF 15K and 25K are the very bottom levels of pro tennis. So when I suggested that the city can only go up from here, Jackson wholeheartedly agreed.
"Absolutely."
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