Edwardsville Futures Focuses on Elevating Player and Fan Experience

EDWARDSVILLE - The 14th edition of the Edwardsville Futures Tennis Tournament, presented by The EGHM Foundation, is scheduled for July 27 through Aug. 3, 2025, at the Edwardsville Tennis Center with a simple goal of "doing everything just a little better," said Tournament Director Dave Lipe during a press conference, held Monday afternoon, June 30, 2025, at the Holiday Inn Express hotel.

The Express hotel, located across the street from the Edwardsville Tennis Center and one of the sponsor hotels, which will house players and officials during the event.

"Last year, we focused on attention to detail, and I thought it was a good focus, and we did things better. This year, I want to do everything just a little bit better, which is really at the core of philosophy as a coach. Every day, I ask players to be just a little bit better; before every match, I say 'best tennis of the year,' because I want us to improve throughout the year. As a tournament director, my goal, and my focus, is to do everything just a little bit better this year than we ever have before, whether it's accommodating the players, or accommodating the fans, garnering more attention, social media, how we are able to support the officials, everything, just a little bit better."

Lipe used social media postings as an example of how things went better in last year's tournament. The interns, directed by marketing director Kirk Schuleter, posted every day on the tournament events and happenings on various platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Instagram, which gained world wide praise for their postings, and shed much positivity for the tournament.

"Last year was our best year ever for social media," Lipe said. "Kirk said that if we hire three college-age students for a reason, because they know social media better than an old man like me. So, Mia (Heiser) was the head of that, along with that, along with Kayla Goldberg and Zoe Byron. Those two young women, with Kirk's supervision, did an amazing job with our social media."

Heiser spoke about the importance of the social media postings, which were seen around the world, and reacted upon in a positive way, which helped the tournament gain more followers among tennis fans around the world, and brought positive attention to the tournament and the city of Edwardsville itself.

"What people were able to see throughout the world, because of our social media, I thought was huge for us last year," Lipe said. "Probably our biggest improvement last year was our social media. There was an overwhelmingly positive response from the world regarding our social media, and I give Mia, Kayla, and Zoe a lot of credit for that."

Lipe thanked many people, including director of group sales Amanda Eckert for working with the sponsor hotels to block off rooms for the participants, tournament treasurer Paul Abert and the EGHM Foundation, Kathy Luttrell of the Holiday Inn Express, Schuleter, Heiser, and front desk coordinator Emily Cimarolli, along the city of Edwardsville for their help in making the tournament the top-notch event that is currently is.

"This team, the team that you see here in front of you, this team handles day-to-day operation and the long-term planning of this operation," Lipe said, "because it's a massive organizational challenge. But each one of them fulfills a role with the tournament that is simply integral."

As far as this year's tournament goes, the usual events are set, including Kids Night, presented by The Village of Glen Carbon, on July 28, Diversity Day, presented by McConnell and Associated, on July 30, the annual Mitch-n-Friends adaptive clinic for special needs players, July 31 at the Edwardsville YMCA, and Fan Appreciation Day, presented by Edwardsville Township, on Aug. 1, with the doubles final set for Aug. 2, and the grand final sent for Aug. 3.

But on July 27, a big addition will be made with an all-comers One Point Tournament, where fans and players alike will be invited to compete in a tournament, presented by Courtesy Ice Cream LLC, in which only one point will be played, with the winner moving on to the next round. Players in the main draw of the qualifying rounds will be able to enter for free; there's a $20 entry fee for others. The winner will be awarded $400, with the runner-up taking home $100, and will start at 6 p.m. at the Edwardsville Tennis Center. Check-in for the tournament occurs between 5 and 5:30 p.m. the day of the tournament.

The tournament's impact as the only major tennis tournament in the St. Louis area is continuing to advance as well.

The economic impact on the area can't be overlooked. In 2015, the tournament brought in approximately $250,000 in revenue to the city, with players, parents, officials, etc., staying in local hotels and eating at restaurants. Today, the impact is much greater, and impacts the area in a positive way.

"I used (St. Louis Convention and Visitors Bureau) numbers, using their formula for the number of visitors, overnight guests, and day guests," Lipe said, "and just put the numbers into the formula, and it was easy to come up with those numbers. I think the economic impact is great because of two factors. Number one, everybody's from out of town. It's not people coming from Caseyville, just driving here for the day.

"The people who participate are from out of town, and needing a place to stay, and they're staying in the hotels and eating in the restaurants. The other reason the economic impact is great, it's basically two weeks long. When you include the three days of the Edwardsville Open, and I know we had people stay here in hotels for that tournament, when you include that, and also the wild card events, which begin on July 23 and 24, with the Pro Wild Card Challenge, the next day for the Doubles Shootout, it's two weeks.

"So it is not uncommon for people to come, live in this hotel, or down the road at the (Marriott) Towneplace, for 10 days, because some of them are coming for the qualifying, or coming for the wild card events, they're here late in the week, and they're here for a long time. I think also, it's been gratifying for me, as a tournament director, to watch this hospitality develop, from where we started to where we are.

"When we started 14 years ago," Lipe continued, "this hotel (the Holiday Inn Express) was just built. But there were really no restaurants across the street. Plummer Center was developed, and then all the development, right across the way here. So this massive development, all these restaurants right here. Players love to stay in these hotels, and they'll walk across the street, everything they need is right here. They love the fact they don't have to rent a car, fly to Lambert (Airport in St Louis), they Uber here, and they love it."

The biggest legacy o the tournament is the success of the players who have went on from Edwardsville to success on both the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour, and the four major tournaments. Futures alums have won a total of 47 ATP championships, 270 challenger titles, seven Grand Slam titles, and have produced four Grand Slam champions. Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador has been part of a winning men's doubles team at the French Open in 2022 and 2024, John Peers of Australia won the men's doubles at the Kia Australian Open in 2017, and a mixed doubles champion at the U.S. Open in 2022, and the Australian Open earlier this year, along with winning the gold medal in men's doubles in Paris in 2024.

Evan King of the United States, the 2015 singles champion, went to the men's doubles semifinals and the mixed doubles finals at the French Open earlier this year, while Heyong Chung of South Korea got to the men's singles semifinals in Australia 208, winning over 2016 singles winner Tennys Sandgren and Novak Djokovich along the way.

Speaking of Sandgren, he went from being the 2016 champion to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2018, and the Round of 16 at Wimbledon the next year. Sebastian Korda, the son of 1998 Australian Open singles champion Petr Korda, was a finalist in men's singles in 2018 and to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, and the Round of 16 in both Paris and Wimbledon.

For more information about this year's tournament, along with the history and legacy of the Futures, please visit the tournament's website, https://www.edwardsvillefutures.com/

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