By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Eric Hayes has been working on raising the Mercer Tennis Classic profile for two years.

          A few weeks ago, the work paid off.

          Hayes, also the tennis head coach at Mercer, announced on Monday what was somewhat inevitable.

          “It’s been an $80,000 event the last two years,” Hayes said. “The USTA (United States Tennis Association) recently moved us up to $100,000, which is the highest level you can be at on the pro circuit. We’ll joining cities like Miami, Detroit, and Dallas in hosting one of these events.

“And, heck yeah, Macon’s in there, too.”

Hayes along with Macon-Bibb mayor Lester Miller and county tennis and pickleball manager Bobby Walker talked at a press conference Monday at John Drew Smith Tennis Center, which will be the tournament’s host for the third year.

          This fall’s event, the week of Oct. 14th, will be the 12th.

          The first event in Macon was in 2013, the W.L. Amos Sr. Tennis Classic, which had taken place in the previous several years in Troy, Ala.

          It spent the first two years at the Jaime Kaplan Tennis Center at Stratford, then moved to Mercer’s LeRoy Peddy Tennis Center.

          The purse was last increased by $30,000 in 2017, to $80,000.

          It is a leg of the Australian open Wild Card Challenge that award’s the USTA’s Australian Open wild-card to a player that wouldn’t make the tournament based on their ranking.

          The boost in purse is fitting, considering the recent exploits of assorted MTC alums.

          The 2023 singles winner, Taylor Townsend, is the new Wimbledon women’s double champ, teaming with Katerina Siniakova to take that on Saturday. Townsend is a top-100 singles player and top-25 doubles player.

          “Yesterday, she sent me a text saying that her game took off after winning here last October,” Hayes said. “And that says a lot – nothing about me – it talks a lot about the volunteers and the facility.”

          Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, and Emma Navarro are on the US Olympic tennis team for Paris. Walker noted that Pegula lost here in the first round in 2018, and is now in the top 10 in the world.

          “For instance, (Jasmine) Paolini, the girl that lost in finals at Wimbledon, she played her 10 years ago,” Hayes said. “Back then, no one knew anything about her. But now, you know, look at her. My gosh, finals of the French, finals of Wimbledon.

“Right now, of the top 100 in the world, 35 of those players have played in Macon.”

          Mercer was able to host the tournament after upgrades, but a major overhaul at John Drew Smith made it a natural for a growing tournament a few years ago.

          “We couldn’t do that without our SPLOST funds,” Miller said. “Most people at home don’t realize that that one penny that you have creates millions and millions of dollars of economic development here in our community.

          “And we are excited about the tennis community, who is a very close-knit, very vibrant, and very outspoken group that we have in Macon that really helps our community move forward. And we’re excited about bringing new folks here to enjoy this fabulous facility.”

Miller said between John Drew Smith and the Randy Stephens Tennis Center in South Macon, the city has 55 upper-level courts.

This year’s field will only be stronger, between the bigger purse and word of mouth.

“The way we run the tournament, the players are really taken care of,” Hayes said. “A lot of the players, even if they lose in the first round early in the tournament spend the whole week here practicing.

“A lot of cities are decreasing the money right now and losing tournaments, and we just keep building and going up.”