Evan Song of Henderson, Nevada, the No. 440 ranked player in the ATP World Tour singles rankings, won the inaugural staging of the U.S. Grass Court Tennis Championships Presented by Doner at the Wessen Lawn Tennis Club in Pontiac, Michigan, giving rise to another professional tennis event on grass tennis courts in the United States.
The first-year tournament, a $10,000 “open” prize money event, was created as a test-event to potentially usher in formal professional tennis tournament at this grass-court tennis club such as a Futures or Challenger-level tournament and, perhaps a few years down the road, an ATP World Tour 250-level event. Since an additional week was added to the professional tennis calendar between the French Open on clay and Wimbledon on grass, it opened up an opportunity for the United States to host a grass court event and help American tennis players have a pre-Wimbledon training and match-play experience on American soil leading into the most important tournament in tennis.
“This was an incredible opportunity,” said Song after defeating Jefta Kecic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 in the final in Pontiac. “In America you can find good grass courts and with the grass court season coming up, I thought it would be a great opportunity to play and kind of get a feel. The trip is fairly close in comparison to going over to Europe. It was fun all around.”
Song, 26, earned $3,000 for winning the title in Pontiac, the largest pay day of his professional career. He has won two “Futures” entry level events in his career as well as two other “open” prize money events. His ranking has improved as to where he is now this year getting more opportunities to play more Challenger level events and in the qualifying rounds for ATP World Tour events.
“I would love to play this next year in preparation for the grass court season,” said Song. “The reason why I didn’t go play the grass court season, I stayed on clay, is because I had no experience on the grass. So I didn’t want to go play a difficult event and have zero experience on the grass. So something like this is just, it’s incredible because, you can stay in the US and get some training. It’s just a great preparation to get the feel.”
The U.S. Grass Court Championships attracted three ATP-ranked players, Song, No. 1520-ranked Jordan Parker of nearby Detroit, and No. 584-ranked Deiton Baughman of Carson, Calif., who was forced to withdraw after injuring his back in the final of the USTA Pro Circuit event the previous week in Buffalo, N.Y. The event attracted two international junior players, Sebastian Gima of Romania, and Josh Lapadat of Canada, who were seeking grass court experience in preparation of the ITF junior grass court tournament in Philadelphia the following week and in the years to come at the Wimbledon junior championships. College players such as Jack Winkler of Michigan State and Connor Johnston of Michigan also played as well as former NCAA All-Americans J.P. Mullane of Michigan State and Vik Hundal and Casey Kay of Georgia Tech, who won the doubles titles over Americans Bradley Holt and Julian Childers in the final.
Bill Massie, the founder and owner of the Wessen Lawn Tennis Club, said he would like to potentially stage the event during the second week of the French Open in 2019, either as a Futures event, Challenger or again as an open prize money event, to draw a better field of American and international players to kick off the grass court season.
Said Song of his potential grass court plans for next year, “I would play this and then go on to play the grass court challengers, or hopefully to make this high enough to make the grass court ATPs in Halle or in in London, just depending on the ranking before, in preparation for Wimbledon. It would fit absolutely perfect, especially having an in close to Detroit, flights from Detroit to London are perfect. You’ve got nonstop flights. It’s perfect.”
Earlier in the week, Song spoke on video of the tournament, the club and its courts and how a grass event in the United States would work into a players schedule here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzUwqyE59xs Massie also spoke of the club’s background and aspirations here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2SfVMxMo4s
The Wessen Lawn Tennis Club, located just 30 minutes from downtown Detroit, features 24 perennial-rye grass courts, the exact type of specific grass courts as Wimbledon. The latitude and climate of Pontiac is also very close to that of London, sitting at 42 degree latitude vs. 51 degrees latitude for London allowing for the perennial rye grass to be in the same condition as at the All England Club and providing for an excellent North American training stop for any player planning to play in Wimbledon, Wimbledon qualifying or in the Wimbledon junior championships. Many tennis observers have called the facility, including an immaculately decorated clubhouse, as one of the best tennis clubs in the country, if not the world. The club was featured in the New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/sports/tennis/a-touch-of-wimbledon-in-pontiac-michigan.html and a video of the club can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snjxMgFMOtg
