USTA Mixed Doubles State Championship hits Valdosta

Published 1:59 am Saturday, August 11, 2018

VALDOSTA –– The United States Tennis Association served up the first day of its Mixed Doubles State Championship tournament on Friday.

Beginning at 8 a.m., McKey Park, Valdosta High School and Valdosta State University hosted tournament games with more than 60 teams competing.

Having won the bid to host this year and in 2019, Tennis Valdosta community tennis association president Suzan Prince sees an opportunity for the tournament to draw significant revenue into the Valdosta community.

“We’ll have at least a $450,000 economic impact on our local community,” Prince said. “The good news is, we won the bid for 2018 and 2019 so over the course of the two years, we’re looking at close to a $1 million economic impact just for two weekends.”

The tournament will run through the weekend before culminating in the championship games on Monday morning.

The Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Authority and its staff were out in full-force at all three tournament locations on Friday and according to Prince, their efforts have gone a long way to ensure a successful first day of tennis.

“Our first matches went on at 8 a.m. and I’m pleased to say that we have stayed ahead of schedule all day so everything is running smoothly,” Prince said. “The Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Authority has stepped up and helped us tremendously at all three locations that we’re running (Friday). They’ve helped us with picking up trash, cleaning restrooms, making sure the facilities are clean. It’s been a huge help for us.”

Tennis Valdosta was able to raise $11,000 to cover their expenses of hosting the tournament this weekend.

Prince’s projected economic impact of $450,000 in generated revenue figures to be a major boon in the area. More than 600 players will take the hard courts this weekend and as Prince points out, the taxes brought in from hotels, restaurants and retail stores opens the door for more improvements in the area.

“The most important way is through our SPLOST tax dollars because these people from outside our community are coming into Valdosta-Lowndes County and they’re staying in our hotels, they’re eating in our restaurants, they’re shopping with our retailers and so, all of the tax money collected from them being here is going to stay here locally in our community,” Prince explained. “It’s going to enable us to continue to grow and make improvements here in Lowndes County that, otherwise, we would not be able to do.”

Rainy weather in the Valdosta area has slowed progress at the facility as McKey Park looks to build six additional courts. The six new courts are expected to be ready for play on Oct. 11.

Dave Bain, USTA Senior Director of Adult and Junior Leagues, echoed Prince’s assessment of the first day of play. And, while having six more courts would’ve made for an even smoother first day, Bain commended the work of Tennis

Valdosta and VLPRA for bringing the tournament this far.

“Everything has gone great,” Bain said. “The community has really come together to get everything ready for us to come. It’s a lot of work, especially for (a place) that’s doing it for the first time. There’s a lot of growing pains that you don’t realize, things that come up at the last minute and they’ve done a great job, especially with the six courts here not able to be finished because of the weather and some other delays.

“I think we got very lucky with weather, the forecast certainly was not good so we’ve been very, very lucky.”

Though tennis continues to grow in South Georgia, Prince doesn’t quite foresee ATP and WTA competitions making their way down to Valdosta just yet.

“I’m not sure I would go as far as to say pro,” Prince said. “There are so many wonderful facilities throughout the United States, especially in the state of Georgia. We have areas like Rome––at Berry College, they have a 60-court facility at one site so we would be hard-pressed to compete with that.

“I just think that the beauty of it is that tennis is a growing sport here and we’re taking baby steps but this is definitely a big step for us to be able to host this state championship here in our community.”