BATON ROUGE — The United States Tennis Association named Baton Rouge as one of the top-10 tennis towns in the nation, putting the city in the running for the top prize of $100,000 that will be awarded awarded to the city that garners the most votes from July 16-26 at www.besttennistown.com.
The prize money will be for community-wide tennis programming or facility enhancements, includes a second-place prize of $50,000 and a third-place award of $25,000.
The top-three finalists will travel to New York City for the winner of the “Best Tennis Town” to be unveiled during a ceremony at the 2009 US Open.
Baton Rouge has been a hotbed for tennis over the past three years as it hosted 13 events to earn over $6 million.
One of the premier events for tennis held in the capital city in recent years has been “Duel Under the Oaks.” Hosted at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on LSU’s campus and sponsored by the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation, “Duel Under the Oaks” and “Duel Under the Oaks II” raised money for hurricane relief through exhibition matches with tennis pros such as Pete Sampras, Todd Martin and James Blake.
The enthusiasm that tennis fans display is evident at LSU as onlookers often pack out W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium, the Tigers’ home courts, to see both the nationally-ranked men’s and women’s team in action.
“The Baton Rouge community has come out in full force for our biggest matches,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “The spirit of our crowd has been recognized by many publications on as one of the toughest places to win on the road due in a big part to our crowd’s enthusiasm.”
Collegiate tennis is only one level of tennis that beats at the heart of athletics within Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge Area Sports Foundation offers players of all ages an opportunity to learn and compete in tennis.
BREC and The Greater Baton Rouge Community Tennis Association partnered to nominate Baton Rouge as the “Best Tennis Town” by submitting the required paperwork as well as a five minute video to highlight why the tennis community in Baton Rouge is one of the nation’s best.
Each of the 10 finalist cities received a tennis equipment package valued at $2,000. The top-10 cities competing for votes and the chance to become the first “Best Tennis Town” include: Grand Junction, Colo., Tempe, Ariz., Cary, N.C., Las Vegas, Nev., Midland, Mich., Ojai, Calif., Independence, Kan., Hickory, N.C. and Springfield, Mont.
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