In accordance with worldwide rankings, tennis is the world’s fourth hottest sport – forward of basketball, soccer, and baseball. It’s a sport with a storied historical past, and Virginia, USA, has been an enormous supporter for many years. With high-level tournaments, high tennis golf equipment and school packages, historic moments, and world-class resorts, Virginia is the game’s haven. The Commonwealth’s bursting tennis scene goes again a long time and has by no means stopped rising.
Virginia’s significance in skilled tennis began in Richmond, VA. It’s possible you’ll know a person known as John McEnroe; he’s solely received a number of Grand Slam titles. Effectively, McEnroe wrote the well-known phrases from the e book Richmond: One among America’s Finest Tennis Cities and signalled Virginia’s robust hyperlink to the game.
“The River Metropolis has an important custom of internet hosting skilled tennis occasions and is likely one of the greatest tennis cities in America. Most significantly, it’s the dwelling of one of many best athletes our sport has ever identified, the late, nice Arthur Ashe,”.
Ashe was the primary black participant to compete on the US Davis Cup squad and remains to be the one black man in historical past to win a singles title at Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and the U.S. Open. To at the present time, he stays a hero in Richmond, with a faculty, a avenue, and a statue commemorating his achievements as an athletic standout from Virginia.
By the 70s, Virginia had etched its identify into the Tennis historical past books, not solely due to Ashe’s previous success, however now the Westwood Membership in Henrico County debuted the Virginia Slims Invitational Event. As you possibly can think about, this era held a minimal curiosity within the ladies’s facet of tennis, so the Slims competitors revolutionised the game. It was based by Billie Jean King, the winner of the primary Slims Invitation and once more in 72’, in addition to Margaret Courtroom, the competitors’s 73’ winner. Extra importantly, the WTA (Girls’s Tennis Affiliation) you recognize immediately was established due to this ladies’s match.
In immediately’s recreation, a lot has modified, and variety between pores and skin color, origin, and gender isn’t a difficulty. One factor hasn’t modified, although, Virginia’s love and involvement within the sport, together with sports activities betting. Virginia attracts an enormous fan base from the Previous Dominion for each main match.
One scenario we didn’t wager on, nevertheless, is how Richmond, VA, would flourish each summer season when the McDonald’s Mid-Atlantic Clay Courtroom Championship (MACCC) is hosted on the Salisbury Nation Membership. Relating to Mid-Atlantic tennis, the MACCC is considered one of, if not probably the most important competitors within the space. John Packett of the Richmond Instances-Dispatch, a well known tennis journalist that lined the U.S. Open, the Davis Cup, and extra, stated:
“Invoice Barnes and Scott Stenour took the (McDonald’s) State Clay Courts from a sleepy little match to a thriving $30,000 week-long success story at Salisbury Nation Membership that includes among the high school and underrated execs within the area.”
Scott Steinour has been the Salisbury tennis director for the reason that late 90s. He commented:
“We’re so pleased with how this match has grown during the last 15 years. This occasion demonstrates what an incredible tennis group is correct right here in Richmond. It attracts high gamers and probably the most appreciative and educated followers possible.”
Initially labelled the USTA/Virginian Clay Courtroom Championships. Nonetheless, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Steinour and Barnes partnered with McDonald’s and re-branded the competitors to what we all know immediately (Mid-Atlantic Clay Courtroom Championships). At present, the match hosts some top-300-ranked gamers worldwide, as onlookers by no means know when the court docket might delivery the following huge factor in tennis.
Apart from Salisbury’s landmark venue, the likes of Virginia Seaside Tennis and Nation are amongst one the most important attractors of the superstars mixed with native expertise. It’s dwelling to a number of nationwide tournaments for males’s and ladies’s tennis.
In addition to the venues, historic moments, and the fervour brewing for tennis in Virginia, and maybe most significantly, the game is taken into account household time within the state. It homes groundbreaking amenities for seasoned and up-and-coming gamers, encourages household time, and assists folks in constructing lifelong friendships primarily based on a mutual love for the game.
