MACON, Ga. — For a tenth straight year, professional tennis is back in Macon this week at the John Drew Smith Tennis Center on Mercer University’s campus.
The Mercer Tennis Classic is back, and this time around promises to be bigger and better than ever before.
“It's one of the last tournaments you can use for your ranking to get into the Australian Open,” Tournament Director Eric Hayes said. “We've had players that are borderline 90 to 100 in the world, that if they do well in Macon, they get pushed into the Australian Open.”
The Australian Open is one of the first grand slam events each year and it comes before the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Qualifying matches for the event began Monday and they continue Tuesday, but the main draws – the actual tournament – begin later this week.
This year's field is highlighted by top seed and Atlanta-resident Taylor Townsend, currently ranked at number 77 in singles and 8th in the world in doubles, after coming off a quarterfinal result at the U.S. Open and reaching the finals at the French Open.
Other highlights include the two-seed Kayla Day, who won the event in 2016, as well as the return of night matches, the first of which happened Tuesday night between Allie Kick and number three seed Katie Volynets.
Volynet’s broke into the top 100 of the World Tennis Association rankings earlier this year.
Hayes, who also serves as Mercer’s Tennis coach, says that this is a big deal for the community. For the players, it can have a huge impact on their chances of success.
“The tournament has served as a comeback for some players, players that have been injured that come back. We've had numerous Grand Slam junior champions play here like Kayla Day who's on a comeback.”
So during the course of the tournament, some of tennis’ finest talents came to Central Georgia.
“It's just a good jumping board for everyone and it'll be the best players in the world descending on Macon,” Hayes said
Tickets will be available here if you’d like to catch some of the games yourself.