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Six days of Florida’s BEST junior tennis, coming right up!

Daytona Beach/Altamonte Springs, FL—The Florida Tennis Center Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach Tennis Center and the Sanlando Tennis Center in Altamonte Springs will be bustling with the most talented, competitive junior tennis players in Florida June 9-14 for the 2007 USTA Florida Jr. State Closed Championship.

The 10s and 12s divisions (192 players) will battle at Sanlando while the 14s, 16s and 18s (384 players) compete in Daytona and Ormond Beach. The tournament staff, including Bobby Curtis, Andy Gladstone, Ann Brown and Amy Linn, prays for minimal rain and no fires!

“Our expectations for the players are that every one of the kids enjoys themselves, even though only one can win in each age division,” said Bobby Curtis, USTA Florida Coordinator of Competitive Tennis. “The boys 14s and boys 18s look particularly strong coming into the tournament because of the number of high ranked players in the draws.”

Two event nights will be held during the tournament which everyone is free to attend. Saturday, June 9 at 7 p.m. a College Forum will take place at the Florida Tennis Center, led by three top tennis experts.
Andi Brandi – Co-Director at Harold Solomon Tennis Academy, former NCAA National Championship Coach at the University of Florida and current USTA junior competitive chairperson
Elke Juul – Administer of Collegiate Competition for USTA
Kelly Jones – Former world No. 1 doubles player, 2-time NCAA doubles champion, past USTA National Coach, and 4 year All-American at Pepperdine University

Sunday, June 10 at 7 p.m. Maria Cercone, Director of Tennis at Bardmoor Country Club, will present “Scheduling for Success”, a long term schedule for managing training and planning tournament play. Maria currently serves on the USTA National Youth Competition Council and Training Committee, and has produced many collegiate scholarship players.

Two bloggers will be documenting their experience throughout the entire tournament, and the new Court Reporter will be onsite to take video footage and get interviews directly from the players. For up-to-date information regarding the tournament, including draws and photos, visit the Jr. State Closed micro site by going to USTAFlorida.com. and clicking on the link for “jr. state closed”, located on the side navigation menu.

Every player looks to better their ranking in Florida and advance to USTA National tournaments this summer. All 16s and 18s finalists will receive $1,250 travel reimbursement to be used at the next National Clay-Courts or National Hard-Courts Championship! (Details available online and at event. Receipts must be submitted to cover expenses. NCAA approved.)

Posted on June 6, 2007
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