The Manhattan Beach Open, which begins play next month, now offers more prize money than any other tennis tournament in the Los Angeles area.
That distinction came by default when the men’s pro tennis event held every summer at UCLA moved to the Middle East last year. Los Angeles had already lost its women’s pro tour event when the Carson tournament moved to San Diego three years ago. Incredibly, the SoCal area which has produced so many great champions, from Pancho Gonzalez to Pete Sampras and Tracy Austin to Lindsay Davenport, now has no tour level tournaments offering hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.
The City of Manhattan Beach Parks & Recreation Department 46th annual Manhattan Beach Open Tennis Tournament presented by South Bay Ford, as it is formally known, sprang back to life last year under the wing of new tournament director Bennett Slusarz. It is now poised to take another big step forward this year with even more prize money — $12,500, up from $10,000 — a deeper field and bigger names.
The tournament, which will be held from July 18-21, has an entry deadline of July 8 [Register here].
“Anyone who is interested in playing should get their entries in as soon as possible,” Slusarz said. “We have 64 slots in the men’s open division, but all the other divisions are limited to 32 players.”
Similar to last year, when 215 players participated in the rejuvenated event, all of the prize money goes to the Open Level Division players. Also like last year, the amateur divisions will consist of 4.5-5.0 for advanced tournament players, 4.0 for high intermediate level players, and 3.5 and under for low intermediate players, with men’s and women’s singles and doubles play in all those divisions.
Slusarz expects the hightlight of this year’s tournament to be the Player Party scheduled for July 20 at the Manhattan Country Club. The party is sponsored by Manhattan Beach law firm Dinsmore & Sandelmann and will include a very nice raffle.
There will be a free Lunch every day for all players along with nice prizes for all Amateur Division Finalists donated by many local businesses.
Other sponsors include Scott Anastasi Realty, Katan Associated, Super Sports, Sports Authority and Aetna.
Several top players that developed fan bases at past tournaments are expected to play this year. They include Brian Battistone and Lester Cook, who lost in the Open Division finals last year to Indian Olympian Vishnu Vardan.
“A couple days after he won the MB Open last year Vardan won his first round in the Olympics playing doubles with Leander Paes,” Slusarz said. “That shows you how strong the field was last year. And we expect it to be even stronger this year.”
