EDWARDSVILLE – Tournament director Dave Lipe is beaming with pride about the outcome of the recent Edwardsville USTA Futures Tourney at the high school.
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The event is done in cooperation with the EGHM Foundation and multitude of sponsors
Some key sponsors are Scott Credit Union, the City of Edwardsville, the Village of Glen Carbon, First Cloverleaf Bank, Mortgage Makers, Mitch ‘n Friends and La Quinta Inn in Pontoon Beach and Hampton Inn in Glen Carbon.
Lipe said attendance this year was great. He thanked his assistants Jack Desse and Emily Cimarolli and the eight interns as a whole for their help in the tourney’s success. Lipe said Cimarolli and Desse did a spectacular job helping him keep the tournament running in smooth fashion. Both of his assistants worked tirelessly during the tourney, Lipe said.
Lipe said this was the second year that the tourney was packaged as part of the Illinois Swing, which includes a stop at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Edwardsville, Decatur and Champaign.
“It is great for the players to be part of the Illinois Futures Swing,” he said. “We had 2,000 folks come through our gates during the Edwardsville Futures Tournament. We dramatically increased our social media efforts. We also had tremendous media coverage. Riverbender.com streamed the tourney championship live for the first time. We hope to continue to stream the championship live with Riverbender in the future.”
The players, starting with Tennys Sandgren, were great, Lipe said. Sandgren, the tourney champion, said the Edwardsville Futures Tourney was the most competitive Futures Tourney in the world, which Lipe considered quite a compliment. Several youth were ball boys and girls and there were several activities during the week from a kids night, Mitch ‘n’ Friends night, a high performance junior clinic, a player and VIP party, an adult doubles clinic and micro tournament and a Family Day. Scott Credit Union sponsored the Family Day.
“Because of the talent, the tourney was great for the fans,” Lipe said. “We hope to continue that momentum into next year.”
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