Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament fast approaching
EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville area is about to enjoy another year of world-class tennis.
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The Edwardsville Futures hosted by the EGHM Foundation and the Edwardsville High School tennis program tournament, a United States Tennis Association Pro Circuit event, will be getting under way at the Edwardsville High School Tennis Center Saturday, Aug. 5, and run through Sunday, Aug. 13, with the main draw beginning Monday, Aug. 7.
A total of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams will compete for a $25,000 purse; many of the players are up-and-coming players hoping to reach the top levels of the men's International Tennis Federation world tour as well as the Grand Slam tournaments – the Kia Australian Open, the French Open (also known as Roland Garros), The Championships at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Prior to the week's competition, the Pro Wildcard Challenge preliminary tournament will be held July 31-Aug. 3, followed by a qualifying tournament for spots in the main draw from Aug. 4-6. Tennys Sandgren won last year's singles competition over Marc Polmans and the team of Connor Smith/Jackson Withrow defeated Luke Bambridge/Polmans in the doubles final.
“This is an incredible tournament,” said State Rep. Katie Stuart (D-112th District) at a press conference at Edwardsville's Country Hearth Inn and Suites Tuesday afternoon. “I've kind of watched Dave (Lipe, EHS' tennis coach and the tournament director) grow it from the beginning. This tournament, though, has grown; it's a really unique thing. This is the only high school that hosts a professional men's tennis tournament – what a coup for the city of Edwardsville and our region.
“It's my understanding that we've got an economic impact here of almost a quarter of a million dollars – that's huge. When we can fill hotels like the Country Hearth and the other hotels in the area – we get people in our restaurants, we get people shopping downtown and seeing what a great city Edwardsville and the surrounding area are; it's just a tremendous impact for the area.”
“A lot of what Katie said is exactly why the (EGHM) foundation and the school are involved with this partnership,” said EGHM Foundation president Joe Gugger. “It's really a partnership not just with people who love tennis, but it's a partnership with the USTA, a partnership certainly with District 7 – (Superintendent Lynda) Andre, (EHS principal) Dennis Cramsey and the entire group that makes this happen; just as Katie said, we're the only high school in the entire country that is willing to take on the fundraising, take on the facilities, taking on making sure it runs smoothly in the entire country.
“On the USTA web site, Edwardsville is denoted, so anybody who's looking for a tennis tournament anywhere in the country or who wants to see what the results are, Edwardsville as a community gets mentioned, and that's a great marketing and PR response for the community, so when the EGHM Foundation decided to work with the school district, we did it because it was good for tennis and for the local businesses.
“It's not a one-day tournament or a weekend tournament, it's really a 7-8 day tournament and there's times for play-in tournaments, so there's additional days with it. We have a lot of room-nights that we book for the local hotels, but when you're in the community, you're going to go to the movies, you're going to use the facilities, you're going to buy dinner – you're bringing in a lot, and I think that's the point Dr. Andre and the school district wanted to make sure – that this is an open facility and it's something that's not just good for the students because these players are model tennis players.”
Part of the reason for the past success of the Futures tournament is community support, Lipe said. “Part of our strategy to host this tournament is to have a very enthusiastic community involvement process,” Lipe said. “Nearly every single night, we have something for the community, whether it be a special-needs clinic for Mitch-N-Friends or a kids clinic on Monday night or a high-performance kids clinic, which is instructed by one of our national coaches and our staff, and we have an adult clinic and family day; there's something every single night of this tournament literally start to finish, and that's one of the things that makes it successful.
“In addition to that, we've had perfect support from District 7 – from the administrators you can see here to our custodial staff that works really hard and our maintenance staff that works really hard to make sure our grounds and our buildings are in tip-top shape.”
The support of local businesses to the tournament have also meant much to the event's success since the inaugural Futures tournament in 2011.
“The local business support has been phenomenal,” Lipe said. “A part of our strategy is to grow that every single year; this year, we have new partnerships with the Country Hearth Inn and Suites and also Edison's (Entertainment Complex) – they are two of our newer relationships,” with Lipe also citing partnerships with Bella Milano, Cleveland Heath, Jimmy John's and Mike Shannon's restaurant in Edwardsville as part of the tournament's success over the years.
“We've also had incredible community support; our numbers for our attendance have been outstanding,” Lipe said of the community and fan support for the tournament. “Last year, we broke records for our attendance; we kept strict records to make sure we could provide a solid economic report which was just under a quarter-million dollars last year, including over 300 room-nights in local hotels. Remember, this tournament is like Wimbledon – a fortnight (two weeks); because you have that steady matriculation of players in town for that long a period, 300 room-nights is achievable.
“It's exciting to see our players go through Edwardsville and then go to the Grand Slams – John Peers (an Australian who was one of the 2011 doubles champions with Nicolas Meister) as a No. 1 seed at Wimbledon in doubles (along with Henri Kontinen of Finland) and he won our tournament just a few years ago. Peers and his partner in the second round beat Scott Clayton, who got to the finals of our tournament just two years ago, so those are guys who are the future of tennis – thus the world 'futures', and It's exciting to watch those players move on up.
“People come from throughout the world to Edwardsville – from Europe, Australia, California, New York – and they come to Edwardsville and it's their first time here and they don't know what to expect, but they visit our restaurants, see our high school, they stay in the town and they can't believe how great the amenities are, how nice the people are, how wonderful the hotels and restaurants are and that's a really fun part of the job as far as I'm concerned.”
Also at the conference was new EHS athletic director Alex Fox, tournament treasurer Paul Abert of First Mid-Illinois Bank and Trust, Lipe's assistants for the tournament Emily Cimarolli and Jack Desse and Scott Onken of the Country Hearth Inn and Suites of Edwardsville.
For more information on the tournament and related activities, visit www.edwardsvillefutures.com
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