VERO BEACH, Fla. — The Grand Harbor Golf & Beach Club will return as the host venue for the 2017 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, the $15,000 “Futures” tennis tournament – one of the longest-running and best attended events on the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) Pro Circuit.
Grand Harbor previously hosted the event from 1995 to 2009 before being played the last seven years at The Boulevard tennis club. The 2017 tournament will be held Friday, April 21 to Sunday, April 30. The event benefits the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, the non-profit tennis foundation benefiting children, named for Vero Beach native son Mardy Fish, a former top 10 tennis star, U.S. Davis Cup hero and silver medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games.
“We are excited to bring the tournament back to its original home at Grand Harbor, where we will look to continue to improve the event and expand the experience for our fans and players,” said Tom Fish, Chairman of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation. “The expanded space and resources at Grand Harbor are a better fit for our long-term vision for the event and will help us in our goal to raise more money for our foundation while also leveraging the tournament to promote tennis to all demographics of our Treasure Coast community. We are very thankful to The Boulevard for being a terrific site for this community event for the last seven years and we look forward to continuing our strong relationship with other Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation activities.”
“We want to expand this event beyond tennis and Grand Harbor provides us with a lot more resources,” said co-tournament director Randy Walker to VeroNews.com
Walker said to VeroNews.com that the return to Grand Harbor, a full-service club owned by billionaire Carl Icahn via Icahn Enterprises, allows for the tournament to expand to offer improved dining, beverage and non-tennis offerings, including live music and youth activities. There will also be more room for parking and other amenities and more room to wander the tournament grounds.
“A big part of my background is the US Open, which made a very successful transformation from a tennis tournament to an entertainment event,” Walker said to VeroNews.com “People go there to watch tennis have lunch or dinner, have cocktails, walk around the grounds, listen to music… You don’t need to be a tennis fan to have a good time. We want to do the same thing here. Albeit on a much smaller scale.”
Founded in 2007, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation (www.MardyFishFoundation.com and @MardyFishFound on Twitter) currently supports over 2,100 children in 15 elementary schools and six middle schools in Indian River County, Florida by providing after-school exercise, nutritional and enrichment programs in a safe environment to prepare them for healthy, productive and successful lives. The Foundation introduced the “Six Healthy Habits” in 2012 which are Get Sleep; Drink Water; Exercise Daily, Eat Healthy; Brush and Floss; Make Friends.
Tickets for the qualifying rounds of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships from April 21 – April 24 will cost $10, while tickets for the main draw of singles and doubles from April 25 – 30 will be $20. Season tickets that include both the qualifying and main draw events cost $100. Advance tickets can be purchased at www.VeroBeachTennisTickets.com. Admission for children 18 and under is free. Fans can follow news and developments on the tournament on Facebook and on Twitter at @VeroFutures.
The annual USTA Vero Beach Futures has an economic impact of approximately $500,000 per year on the Vero Beach local economy. Approximately 3,000 fans annually attend the event, which is seen as one of the best-attended events in the world on the “Futures” level of professional tennis tournaments.
Some of the past competitors in Vero Beach have gone on to succeed at the highest levels of professional tennis, winning major singles and doubles titles, Olympic medals and Davis Cup championships and earning No. 1 world rankings. Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion who attained the world No. 1 ranking and helped the United States win the Davis Cup in 2007, competed in Vero Beach in 1999. Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who reached the second round of the Vero Beach Futures in 1995, won the Australian Open seven years later in 2002. Nicolas Massu, the 1998 singles runner-up in Vero Beach, won the singles and doubles gold medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, beating Fish in the gold medal singles match. Kyle Edmund, the 2013 champion in Vero Beach, helped Great Britain to the Davis Cup title in 2015. Other notable former competitors in Vero Beach include former world No. 2 Magnus Norman, former world No. 4 Tim Henman, 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic among others. Former Vero Beach competitors have combined to win 19 titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at Grand Slam tournaments. Six former Vero Beach players have gone on to play Davis Cup for the United States – Roddick, Fish, Taylor Dent, Jared Palmer, Donald Young and Ryan Harrison.
The 2016 event featured 13 players who played Davis Cup for their country and was won by Jonas Luetjen of Germany, who defeated Latvian Davis Cupper Martins Podzus in the final.
Grand Harbor Golf & Beach Club is majestically set upon the Indian River in Vero Beach, and overlooks a mile of scenic Intracoastal Waterway. Grand Harbor presents exceptional value with two nationally acclaimed golf courses, an oceanfront beach club, a richly appointed Mediterranean-style clubhouse, 10 Har-Tru court tennis complex and fully equipped fitness center. A diverse enclave of home designs captures the essence of a romantic Mediterranean Village. A 144-slip, deep water protected, Marina is also located in the Grand Harbor Community for boating enthusiasts. Exciting new construction began in 2016 with plans for more than 200 new residences including condominiums, courtyard homes, estate homes and direct riverfront homes with prices from the mid 400’s to over two million. Dale Sorensen Real Estate is the exclusive broker onsite for new construction sales as well as resales in the community. For more information please visit www.GrandHarbor.com, www.grandharborverobeach.com, www.grandharborsalescenter.com, www.sorensenrealestate.com
