Tennis Atlantic

PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS? DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT PLAYOFFS!

Instead, let us tell you:

The USTA has announced that it will hold the annual US Open Wildcard Playoff at the Tennis Center at College Park, Maryland, from August 18-20. The Tennis Center at College Park is the home of the Junior Tennis Champion’s Center, the same place where Arlington tennis prodigy Denis Kudla trained.  It also hosted the WTA CitiOpen last week. It makes perfect sense for the USTA to utilize a  facility that has been recently upgraded to provide plenty of seating for fans.

Who will play, you ask? 8 men and women will play 14 matches over the weekend. The Men’s and Women’s champions will be awarded spots in the main draw at the US Open which begins on August 29. One of those players will be none other than Denis Kudla. He should expect a supportive home-town crowd on his favorite courts. His chances of making the US Open main draw look pretty good at the moment.

Expect the entertainment to extend beyond the wild card matches. On Friday, August 19, there will a tennis exhibition involving some celebrity guests (celebrities TBA) and Saturday will feature an homage to the big balls crowd, a 10 and Under Tennis Team Rally.

UPDATE 8/1/11: We noticed this post was getting a lot of hits, so we might as well update the information. It is NOT free. It is still a relative tennis bargain. General seating is $15 on Thursday, $20 for each Friday session and Saturday’s finals. You can also buy box seats for $25 on Thursday and $30 for other sessions. A VIP Box seat for the 3 day, 4 session series will set you back $90, and VIP Champagne Tables for 8 are $750 for the mini-tournament. Alison Riske, Denis Kudla and the Washington Kastles Bobby Reynolds will be there. There will be a “Tennis Carnival” on Friday night. For more info, email Reid Snyder at the Tennis Center (RSnyder@thetccp.com) or call 301-779-8000. Please tell them you heard about the Playoffs from TennisMaryland.com.