The three-day youth tournament, which starts Friday afternoon at Elkin's eight municipal courts, will feature a field of 79 boys and girls ages 10-18. That's nearly double the previous record of entrants, according to Brent Cornelison, the director of Elkin's Recreation and Parks Department.
"We had like 47 players one time," he said. "This year is significantly bigger. Tennis is starting to see a resurgence in participation."
That resurgence is certainly true in the Tri-County area. The Myers tournament will feature much more of a local flavor that in the past, Cornelison said. For instance, 15 players are signed up in the boys 16-year-old division. Eight are from the Tri-County area.
"In years past, we've sat here watching only two kids from Elkin playing and wondering, 'Why are we spending our time and efforts on this?'" Cornelison said. "But that has been changing. We still have kids from Raleigh, Charlotte and Winston, but we've really got a lot of kids from Elkin and Mount Airy, Wilkes County and Yadkin County playing."
The tournament is named for David and Charles Myers, former town recreation enthusiasts who did a lot to grow tennis in Elkin. That legacy includes professional tournaments coming to Elkin for several years and an Elkin High School program that has won multiple state titles, team and individual, over the past decade.
The Myers tournament was started four years ago to replace the professional events that no longer make local stops. The town also hosts the Elkin Junior Futures tournament, geared more for novice players, in the spring.
The first round of matches are slated to start at 4 p.m. on Friday. The action resumes at 8 a.m. Saturday and will continue all day. The tournament starts up again Sunday morning and will conclude in the afternoon.
"Generally we don't even have to play Friday, maybe we just play a few matches," Cornelison said. "But we're playing three rounds this Friday night. The last matches Saturday will go on at 4:30."
There is no admission for fans wishing to catch the action this weekend.
Here are players from the Tri-County area expected to play:
* Elkin: Sarah Gwyn, Richard Gwyn, Coley McCulloch, Charles Neaves, Zan Parks, Carly Pippin, Andrew Reece, Blaen "Tyler" Smith and Jonathan Walker;
* State Road: Kaylee Brown and Andrew Peterson
* Jonesville: Schon Reece
* Boonville: Cory Campbell
* Dobson: Taylor Casey
* Hamptonville: Ashlyn Reece
* Ronda: Christopher Deal and Brianna Fulp
* Roaring River: Jessie Elmore
* Thurmond: Karli Bullins and Houston Callaway
* Yadkinville: Carla Cave
* Mount Airy: Chance Hall, Alexander Ilyasov and Mary McKee.
* Wilkesboro: Timothy Church and Lauren Ellis
The tournament is sanctioned by the U.S. Tennis Association. Pairings are posted at NCTennis.com under the "Tournament Tennis" heading.
Post a Comment
