Mitchell Tennis Classic opens today

Hitchcock Park will be overrun with junior tennis players this week.

The Mitchell Tennis Association is hosting its annual Mitchell Tennis Classic today through Sunday, and a record number of young tennis players have signed up for the juniors competition.

According to tournament coordinator John Cersosimo, 130 tennis players will take part in the junior portion of the tournament, which runs today through Saturday at Hitchcock Park.

“That’s pretty good for juniors,” Cersosimo said. “I think our location here helps.”

The number of junior players is up from last year when 107 registered for the tournament. Of those 130 athletes, 29 are Mitchell High School tennis players. That number is also up as 18 MHS tennis athletes participated in last year’s event.

“We’ve got a lot more local kids which is nice,” Cersosimo said. “Our local program’s been improving. It’s good competition and they are able to get a lot of matches in.”

With the large number of juniors registered for the tournament, more than 100 matches will be played both today and Friday at Hitchocock Park. Cersosimo said around 105 matches will be played Thursday and 115 Friday. He said matches will be played from 8 a.m. until at least midnight both days on Hitchcock Park’s eight courts.

“Those days are full,” Cersosimo said. “We’ve had years when we’ve played straight through until 3 a.m., then got up and started playing at 8 a.m. again. We have to book that late because we have to play 105 matches in a day.”

The adult tournament will be Saturday and Sunday at Hitchcock Park. Cersosimo said 51 adults from around the state will take part in the two-day tournament. That number is down from past years, but Cersosimo is still happy with the turnout overall.

“We have some really good players coming,” he said. “The middle age groups we have kids that are really nice players.”

There will be singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches for men and women during the adult tournament, and singles and doubles matches during the junior tournament. All matches will be played best two out of three sets with regular scoring.

The public is welcome to attend all four days of the event.

Tags: mitchell tennis classic, sports, tennis