Tennis legends John McEnroe and Jim Courier kicked off the new tennis offerings at the Casa de Campo Resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic by competing a special exhibition match November 7. The appearance by the two tennis Hall of Famers was part of the resort’s effort to raise the profile of its tennis offerings at its 16-court tennis center.
Expertly deemed “Wimbledon of the Caribbean” by Travel + Leisure and “Best Tennis Facility” by USPTR (United States Professional Tennis Registry), Casa de Campo’s La Terraza Tennis Center is an integral component to Casa de Campo’s Sporting Life experience. The 12-acre facility boasts personal ball boys for every player and 16 fast-dry, Har-Tru courts – 10 of which are lighted for night play. The facility will soon begin to offer more organized tennis programming, including Cardio Tennis classes, game arranging, tennis socials, clinics and intense training for advanced players.
“We established this resort as a golf resort with 90 holes of golf designed by Pete Dye and the legendary ‘Teeth of the Dog’ but when I came here three years ago, I recognized that tennis was an asset that was underutilized,” said Peter Bonell, Chief Marketing Officer for Casa de Campo. “We have 16 great Har-Tru courts and a beautiful facility but we were lucky if we were doing ten players a day. We united our ideas and put together this event with the help of InsideOut Sports & Entertainment to invigorate the local players and invigorate this country to get into tennis like it is golf. We see this as a take-off point where we will be able to put more capital into it, develop more packaging, get more partnerships and hopefully do bigger events like this.”
Courier, a two-time French Open champion, hung on for a 8-7 (7-1) win over McEnroe in the exhibition in front of an intimate and enthusiastic crowd of several hundred, including James Brewster, the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Prior to the singles match, Courier and McEnroe played doubles with two young junior players from the club, with a special appearance by former top-ranked Dominican player and current Dominican Fed Cup captain Joelle Schad.
“It is really a privilege to get a chance to come to a place as beautiful as this,” said Courier. “I have never been to Casa to Campo but I have heard a lot about it from friends who have spent time here. It is every bit as beautiful as they say. It’s wonderful to be here to promote tennis at Casa de Campo and in the Dominican Republic.” (Expanded quotes from both players can be found at the end of this release.)
Both tennis stars were visiting the world famous resort for the first time and it was McEnroe’s first ever visit to the Dominican Republic. McEnroe’s wife Patty Smyth performed at the resort’s 5,000-seat stone amphitheater years ago when she was a member of the rock band “Scandal.”
Known for the Sporting Life, Casa de Campo offers an unmatched array of sport experiences including 90 holes of Pete Dye golf (including Teeth of the Dog, ranked No. 1 in Latin America), Polo & Equestrian Center, La Marina & Yacht Club and a Skeet/Trap Shooting Center. Additional amenities range from fine dining at The Beach Club by Le Cirque and six other resort restaurants, to private beaches, The Casa de Campo Spa, and Altos de Chavon, an artist’s village with a 5,000-seat Grecian style amphitheater.
Situated among 7,000 acres in La Romana, Casa de Campo is easily accessible through La Romana International Airport operating direct flights from JFK and South Florida, or the nearby major cities — like Punta Cana International Airport and Las Americas International Airport — servicing hundreds of nonstop flights daily from all major U.S. airports.
For more information on vacation packages, visit http://www.casadecampo.com.do/. Tennis enthusiasts can also book tennis packages via Mason’s Tennis in New York City at http://masonstennis.com/casa-decampo/. Mason’s Tennis serves as a tennis consultant for the resort and assisted in putting together the McEnroe-Courier exhibition match.
The McEnroe – Courier exhibition was produced by Casa de Campo in conjunction with InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the independent producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Champions Series, a collection of tournaments featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, charity events and corporate outings. Since inception, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment has have raised over $4 million for charity. For more information, please log on towww.InsideOutSE.com or www.powersharesseries.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Select quotes from the press availability with both players at Casa de Campo are found below:
John McEnroe on playing the world famous “Teeth of the Dog” golf course, where, as a 20-handicapper, he shot a 92:
“We don’t want to talk too much about that… This is my first time ever being in the Dominican Republic… Hopefully I will be invited back.”
Jim Courier on Victor Estrella, the 34-year-old player from the Dominican Republic who broke into the top 100 this year, the first Dominican to do so:
“I enjoyed seeing Victor play this summer. To see him get into the top 100 for the first time at 34 years of age was pretty special…Being where he is, I am sure it is really inspiring for all of the young players in this country to see that a player from the Dominican Republic can make it into the big time. He is a hard working guy who loves the game.”
McEnroe on Estrella:
“He is also inspiring to older players since he made it at such a late age.”
Courier on the PowerShares Series coming to Casa de Campo:
“I think there absolutely is a chance for a PowerShares Series event to come here….This would be a great location at Casa de Campo with players like John, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, Ivan Lendl. This (exhibition) event is kind of a truncated version of that.”
McEnroe on his competitiveness, even in exhibition matches:
“I don’t think our competitive juices ever go away, it’s just different levels. When you play in the finals of a major event, that is what you dream about. It’s the pinnacle of the sport, but in certain ways I appreciate that I am out there doing what I am doing at this age. While I know I can’t do what I used to do, I appreciate it more. People come out and press come out and ask us questions and our opinions. It is pretty darn nice.”
Courier on McEnroe’s competitiveness:
“I think you will notice that with John’s competitive juices, the way that they flow, we may need some extra towels on court.”
Courier on Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer battling for No. 1 ranking:
“It’s been an impressive year for Roger. He has his back “back” to full health which has made a big difference in his movement. The new racquet seems to be helping. He has been very consistent but the one the he hasn’t done – and he has been very close – is win a major and Novak has. Novak has a pretty healthy lead and I think Roger will have a difficult time to catch him for year-end No. 1. That doesn’t diminish the type of comeback year for Roger, I don’t think we can call it a comeback year because of his high unbelievable standards. He’s in a great spot right now. He can challenge for No. 1 also in Australia. There are a lot of points to offer between the London Masters and in Australia. It’s not inconceivable that Roger could get back to No. 1, which would be something.”
Courier on Latin American players and their development in the last 20 years:
“Traditionally the Latin American players in my day, they preferred clay which was the surface got this far on when they were younger. The American players tended to be more hard court players, by virtue of that is what we played on for most of our junior tournaments. It feels like that has changed. It certainly changed over the course of the end of my ATP career, where Spanish players like Emilio Sanchez and Sergi Bruguera started to play pretty darn well on hard courts. And you saw players like Gustavo Kuerten, who was obviously a great clay court player who also won the Masters in Portugal. I see players be more comfortable on hard courts and clay courts from Latin America in the last 20 to 25 years. That is what I have seen.”
McEnroe on Latin American players and their development in the last 20 years:
“(Juan Martin) Del Potro and (David) Nalbandian – two Argentines talked about growing up talking about playing quite a bit on hard courts. I think around the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the Spanish Federation decided to build some hard courts and wanted to prove that their players could play on all surfaces. That sort of opened up the doors for other countries. It sort of like what we need to do more of and I think people are aware of in America. We need to prove ourselves on clay so that we can be more well-rounded. It would help us if we were better on clay even our hard court games down the road, give us more variety. The opposite is true for other countries. They realized that they needed to play on more than just clay courts. If they learned how to serve, it was like a huge advantage on other surfaces, for example.”
McEnroe on if there was any player he feared playing:
“No one who we would want to name publicity…If you don’t mind. There was one guy I didn’t want to play on clay and that is him (pointing to Jim Courier)…If you are afraid to play someone, I think you have already lost.”
Courier on his top 3 tennis players of all time:
“I would say Roger, Rafa…For me it would hard not to put Rod Laver in there since he won the Grand Slam twice. For me, that would rude not to mention Rod.”
