The late U.S. Tennis Association president J. Howard “Bumpy” Frazer most likely ruffled a number of feathers when he proclaimed Florida to be “America’s most important tennis state.” New York, in any case, is the place the U.S. Open has been held since its 1881 inception. The International Tennis Hall of Fame is in Rhode Island. California has a robust tennis heritage. But none have been leaving their fingerprints on the game just like the Sunshine State, significantly the quantity of expertise bursting on the scene from year-round youth academies that have been revolutionizing the sport.
Frazer noticed that three a long time in the past. And his assertion isn’t any much less related right this moment.
By conservative estimate, maybe one in six high touring professionals has connections to Florida — rising up right here, shifting down to hitch an academy or establishing roots later in a spot the place they’ll prepare any season.
Players, from junior to adults, have little hassle discovering high-level competitors most weekends.
The junior calendar shines a year-end highlight on three world showcases — the Eddie Herr International (Bradenton), the Orange Bowl International (Plantation) and the Junior Orange Bowl (Coral Gables).
“Whenever you have a place the rest of the world wants to come to, you’ve got a competitive advantage that can’t be overcome,” mentioned Martin Blackman, the USTA’s director of participant improvement.
“Everybody who is a top junior or plans on going to college, they will be in Florida at some time,” mentioned Boca Raton’s Rick Macci, who formed the rise of sisters Venus and Serena Williams.
The Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy — now a part of the bigger IMG Academy in Bradenton — set the blueprint for dozens to observe, massive and small.
All advised, Florida’s varied academies have churned out such Grand Slam title winners as Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Andy Roddick, Sloane Stephens, Bianca Andreescu and Sofia Kenin, plus the Williams sisters.
Just since 2016, IMG has produced six world No. 1 juniors. “It is still right in front of us,” mentioned David “Red” Ayme, Bollettieri’s high assistant for 35 years.
On the tour schedule, the Miami Open has been a South Florida showcase for 37 years, with a status slightly below the 4 Grand Slam tournaments. The ATP males’s tour additionally involves Delray Beach every February.
Both professional excursions, actually, make their headquarters in Florida — the ATP in Ponte Vedra Beach, simply down the road from the PGA Tour, with the WTA based mostly in St. Petersburg.
And Orlando is now dwelling to American tennis’ newest showpiece — the USTA National Campus, a sprawling facility of 98 courts that serves as the bottom of the U.S. elite coaching program, hosts skilled and school occasions and even helps inexperienced persons take their first swings.
“It’s the heartbeat now of tennis in the United States,” mentioned Colette Lewis, editor of the Zoo Tennis web site that highlights the junior and school ranges.
“The facilities are incredible,” mentioned Mardy Fish, who grew up in Vero Beach, gained six ATP titles and now serves as U.S. Davis Cup captain. “They’ve got every surface; they’ve got nutritionists, chefs, sports psychologists. They have people that can get you to maximize your game.”
Nor is Florida’s fondness for hitting balls throughout a web restricted to tennis. The Sunshine State has been a significant driver within the sudden rise of pickleball, which dates again 57 years however has solely taken off up to now six or seven.
Pickleball’s 4.8 million individuals mark a 39.3 p.c progress fee over the previous two years, in accordance with a 2022 Sports & Fitness Industry Association report.
Though a state-by-state breakdown wasn’t available, Florida is a part of the South Atlantic area that has skilled the largest increase in core individuals, with an estimated 283,000 lovers.
“It happened faster than predicted,” mentioned Terri Graham, co-founder of the Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships introduced by Margaritaville, which started final weekend and conclude Sunday in Naples. The actually “open” occasion brings some 3,000 entrants to East Naples Community Park, performed on 60 everlasting courts.
Though that makes East Naples the one largest pickleball facility on the planet, it doesn’t come near the totality of The Villages — now at 229 with final fall’s opening of the Ezell Regional Recreation Center.
At The Villages Senior Games final week, pickleball acquired the second-most entries with 505.
“Pickleball continues to grow,” mentioned Lisa Parkyn, life-style occasions supervisor for The Villages Recreation & Parks who oversees Senior Games administration.
The Association of Pickleball Professionals, in the meantime, performs 5 occasions in Florida capped by the season-ending APP Masters in Boca Raton.
As with golf, tennis took maintain in Florida as a leisure exercise for vacationers however quickly started to determine itself as a hotbed for expertise.
Miami’s Doris Hart was the primary of simply three gamers to gather a profession “Boxed Set” of Grand Slam titles — ladies’s singles, doubles and blended doubles crowns on the U.S., French and Australian Opens and Wimbledon. Her 35 Grand Slam titles in all divisions stay No. 6 on the ladies’s all-time checklist.
Gardnar Mulloy was a Top 10 participant within the late Nineteen Forties and early ‘50s, winning four U.S. Open men’s doubles titles and one Wimbledon doubles crown amongst greater than 125 nationwide titles throughout 75 years of aggressive tennis. He additionally reached the singles closing of the 1952 U.S. Open.
“I’d say they were the first big superstars,” mentioned Jim Martz, longtime writer of Florida Tennis journal and editor of a e book chronicling the primary 50 years of the USTA’s Florida part.
Mulloy beforehand coached the University of Miami tennis group, the place Pancho Segura gained three straight NCAA singles titles from 1943-45 and went on to a 15-year professional profession.
Florida tennis actually took off, although, with the emergence of Fort Lauderdale’s Chris Evert. One of 5 siblings who all gained Orange Bowl junior titles, Chris reached the U.S. Open semifinals as a 16-year-old beginner, launching a profession that may produce 18 Grand Slam crowns and 157 singles titles in all.
“Her coattails brought so many players,” Martz mentioned. “Florida must at one time have had half of the top 20 women’s players, who all came up with Chrissie.”
Florida, too, performed a minor function within the famed 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” match through which Billie Jean King defeated 55-year-old former U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion (and famous hustler) Bobby Riggs.
Riggs had a spot in Pompano Beach, the place he spent extra time selling the occasion than preparing.
“Gardnar said they were going to go out and train,” Martz recalled, “but he wasn’t really training.”
Though Florida doesn’t host as many tour occasions because it as soon as did, the Miami Open stays one of many schedule’s jewels.
Launched in 1985, founder Butch Buchholz patterned it identical to a Grand Slam occasion — two weeks with women and men each on website, with doubles additionally a part of the docket.
“At the time, it wasn’t politically welcomed,” Buchholz mentioned. “The ATP felt the men should play one week; the women play the other. But I didn’t want to do that.”
Buchholz proved to be forward of his time. Combined occasions now additionally exist in California, Madrid and Rome.
Florida was Buchholz’s fast alternative, permitting protection to make all of the newspapers east of the Mississippi. It additionally was superb for European and South American tv.
After beginning in Delray Beach, the Open loved a 25-year run on Key Biscayne. After an deadlock with Key Biscayne leaders over stadium enhancements, the occasion relocated in 2019 to the grounds of the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium.
“Key Biscayne was nice and quaint,” mentioned Buchholz, who retains shut ties even after promoting the occasion to IMG. “Now at Hard Rock, it’s a big, big event. The grounds that they’ve created are world-class. It will continue to grow.”
The idea of high expertise elevating one another’s video games was the idea for Bollettieri’s brainchild, together with making a year-round operation.
He started on the Colony Beach Hotel on Longboat Key, the place he quickly encountered a small however highly effective 13-year-old from upstate New York on a tennis trip.
“This kid wrapped the racquet around his head,” recalled Bollettieri, now 91.
In these days, the usual tennis forehand completed with the racquet pointing on the goal. Jimmy Arias took a full follow-through, akin to a baseball swing. It was the prototype for what grew to become often called the “Bollettieri Forehand.”
Bollettieri advised Arias about his academy plans — faculty within the morning, tennis within the afternoons — and supplied a scholarship.
“I went home and said I was going to Florida,” recalled Arias, now IMG Academy’s director of tennis. “My dad said, ‘No, you’re not.’ I told him I was going to Florida or I was going to quit tennis.”
Arias did give up tennis, which lasted two days earlier than his father relented. That summer time, the teenager helped recruit different high gamers.
“I went to the national tournaments and talked to the top 20 kids in the nation,” he mentioned. “I was a salesman, but in a selfish way. I wanted good players with me. We got a bunch of players to sign up.”
Players lived with coaches — Bollettieri himself had 10 beneath his roof — till issues bought too crowded. Eventually, benefactors loaned Bollettieri $2 million to purchase 40 acres of tomato fields in Bradenton. Critics shook their heads.
“Not just a few people, a lot of people,” Bollettieri mentioned. “You have to be crazy to do what I did. But I did something people said could not be done.”
Around that very same time, Macci was relocating from Ohio to the Greenlefe Resort in Haines City, south of Orlando. That’s the place he developed Tommy Ho right into a dominant junior, whereas Capriati gained the U.S. 18-and-under title at age 12 and turned professional simply shy of her 14th birthday.
That’s how he bought the decision from Richard Williams.
“He wanted me to come to see his girls,” Macci recalled. “I told him I’d either see them at a junior tournament or they can come to the academy. He says, ‘If you come to Compton, I promise I won’t get you shot.’”
Macci made the journey, using with the Williamses to “East Compton Hills Country Club” — a public court docket in a troublesome a part of city, flanked by a basketball court docket.
When the group bought out of the automotive to cross the basketball court docket, he mentioned, “it parts like the Red Sea. All these people knew of them, and they kind of protected the court for them.” Nothing in regards to the ladies overly impressed Macci, although — till they began taking part in aggressive factors.
“Right then and there, the whole landscape changed,” Macci mentioned. “Their footwork improved dramatically. Popcorn popped, extra butter. I never saw two little girls try so hard to get to a ball. It was like a burning rage. Once we kept score, it was different.”
An settlement was struck. That summer time, the Williamses left California for the Sunshine State.
“The best weekend vacation and decision I’ve made in my life,” Macci mentioned.
Over time, all that accumulation of expertise within the Florida created a event proving floor unseen wherever else.
“I have vivid memories of going to different tournaments every weekend, driving to Orlando or down the road to Miami,” mentioned Jesse Levine, who grew up in Boca Raton and later attended Bolliettieri’s academy. He cracked the world’s high 70 as knowledgeable.
Said Blackman: “You can play a local tournament, and in the first round you can play a kid from Russia, the second round you play a kid from South America, then you play two kids from the States. Having all that competition here makes Florida juniors really tough.”
Andre Silva, a former ATP government who now runs The Players Championship on the PGA Tour, talked about a good friend in Cleveland who will likely be relocating to Florida this summer time to spice up his son’s recreation.
“He needed to be able to get around good kids,” Silva mentioned. “The best are playing against the best. And in tennis, unlike golf, you are measuring yourself against the person on the other side of the net.”
After Fish moved to Boca Raton, he discovered himself highschool teammates with Roddick and Levine. And none of them have been No. 1 on the Boca Prep roster — that belonged to Israeli-born Ytai Abougzir, who gained an Australian Open boys’ doubles title.
“The competition is brutal,” Macci mentioned. “You’re pushed. You’re forced to look at development through a different lens. You may be No. 1 in the Midwest, but you may be No. 50 in Florida.”
Or it might be arduous to get seen. Danielle Collins, who misplaced the Australian Open closing to Ash Barty this previous January, grew up in a working-class household in St. Petersburg and needed to restrict her event entries.
“I just didn’t have the money to do that,” Collins advised reporters on the 2018 Miami Open. “I was kind of forced to play tournaments that were more within our budget.”
Collins, who briefly attended IMG Academy, went the faculty route and gained two NCAA singles titles at Virginia earlier than turning professional.
And that doesn’t strategy the story of Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam winner and former world No. 1 who spent many adolescence bouncing round Broward County’s courts.
“She was almost in my back yard a few years ago, and I didn’t know she was there,” Martz mentioned. “But it turned out nobody else did, either. I called a couple of local pros — ‘Yeah, I coached her. She wasn’t anything special.’”
Osaka went by means of six coaches earlier than discovering her stride with ProWorld Tennis Academy in Delray Beach in her mid-teens. She later hung out on the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton. “There could be a bunch of other Osakas all over Florida, and we don’t even know about them,” Martz mentioned.
Of course, that’s as a result of there are lots we do learn about. A test of the newest ATP and WTA rankings exhibits 5 of the highest 20 on either side have a connection to Florida.
“In other places, it’s challenging to find different people to practice with,” mentioned Levine, who has coached Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula. “In Florida, that’s never a problem.”
Not solely are Collins and Pegula joined by fellow Americans Coco Gauff (Delray Beach) and Reilly Opelka (Delray Beach), however the worldwide facet is powerful.
Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz each are based mostly at Saddlebrook Resort close to Tampa, the place Fish as soon as made his dwelling. Vika Azarenka of Belarus and Italy’s Matteo Berrettini have settled in Boca Raton; Canada’s Denis Shapovalov and Japan’s Kei Nishikori have bases in Bradenton. Australia’s Nick Kyrgios has turned up at completely different locations. Though nailing down a precise quantity has been elusive, the consensus is a minimum of 80 high professionals come to Florida when not competing.
“It’s hard to track,” IMG’s Ayme mentioned. “But I’ll tell you right now that before the big tournaments, we could see 25 people or more (at IMG) that are in the main draw of any one of those events.”
Now add to that the USTA National Campus, the place high Americans in any respect ranges can get an additional degree of coaching beneath the USTA’s watchful eye.
“You see 11- and 12-year-olds, you see wheelchair players, you see collegiate players, you see older juniors, you see pros,” Blackman mentioned. “They have the ability to be here at the same time, and that creates a kind of inspirational, motivational energy that’s really unique.”
Blackman believes the ability has performed a job in a latest rise amongst American males, the place Opelka and Sebastian Korda (Bradenton) are amongst six gamers age 24 or youthful now ranked among the many high 40 on the planet.
Nor does anybody see the cycle slowing down, whilst tennis grows much more world.
“You have kids from Russia and South America and all over the world coming here to train and play,” Blackman mentioned. “They’re all coming to you, and it’s the best of the best. I think that’s a huge advantage that we’ll continue to take advantage of in Florida.”
Senior author Jeff Shain might be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5283, or [email protected].