Tallahassee Tennis Challenger History
Tallahassee, FL
April 22 – April 28, 2019
ATP Challenger 80
The 20th Tallahassee Tennis Challenger will take place April 22 through April 28 at the City of Tallahassee’s beautiful Forestmeadows Tennis Complex. This site has been host to Satellites, Futures, and the last 14 Challenger events. The first USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Tallahassee took place in 2000 and has grown steadily every year. When schedules permit, players want to be in Tallahassee. Our site has been a testing ground for the USTA and serves as a model for USTA Pro Circuit Challengers all over the country.
2019 will be the sixth year that the tournament will be played on a clay court surface. Tallahassee will continue to be part of the Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge in which participating American players will compete for points to win a French Open Wild Card, which provides direct entry into the 2019 French Open Grand Slam tournament in Paris.
Live Web-Streaming of the 2019 Tallahassee Challenger matches will again be available. This means fans of tennis all over the world will be able to watch their favorite players’ matches live from their computers, mobile phones, iPads, etc. All for free!
The Tallahassee Tennis Challenger partners with the City of Tallahassee Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation in order to bring the tournament to you. Their support, along with 19 year sponsor the Florida Lottery and 13-year sponsor Comcast, will ensure that the high standards of the tournament will be maintained. Other returning sponsors are Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Visit Tallahassee, WCTV 6, Rowland Publishing, ESPN Radio Tallahassee, and the Tallahassee Democrat.
Proceeds from the tournament continue to benefit the Vogter Neuro-Intensive Care Unit at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. This unit cares for patients of all ages who suffer neurological trauma (such as head injuries, strokes), require surgical intervention for life-threatening illnesses (brain tumors, aneurysms), and many other types of patients too numerous to name. In 2018, the net proceeds were again donated to the D. Mark Vogter Memorial Endowment making the total contribution to the Endowment over $849,000 for the last 20 years.
A new endowment was created in 2010—the Maria Yealdhall Challenger Tennis Fund was established with the Tallahassee Friends of Our Parks Foundation, the fund-raising arm of the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Department. All monies collected from ticket sales are donated to this endowment each year and are used to assist in tennis related projects and programs throughout the city. The first improvement for the Tallahassee tennis community from this endowment can be seen at Winthrop Park city courts where 4 beautiful shade structures were installed on the courts and this year shade structures were installed at Tom Brown Park.
A tournament of this size could not happen without the hundreds of committed volunteers who work every year. From ball kids/babes & dudes, who stand on the court for hours, to the ticket-takers, food-Moms and hostesses, housing sponsors, drivers, desk volunteers and organizers, thousands of hours are donated to make this tournament run smoothly. And we are always looking for a few more!! If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for the tournament or volunteering before, during or immediately following the tournament please contact Karen Vogter, Tournament Director, at KVogter@tallahasseechallenger.com
Player Acceptance List
Altamirano, Collin USA 293
Aragone, JC USA 249
Barrios Vera, Marcelo Tomas CHI 318
Blanch, Ulises USA 294
Cid Subervi, Roberto DOM 282
Clezar, Guilherme BRA 247
Collarini, Andrea ARG 312
Coria, Federico ARG 281
Cuevas, Martin URU 303
Donaldson, Jared USA 226
Galan, Daniel Elahi COL 246
Giraldo, Santiago COL 230
Gomez, Emilio ECU 309
Harrison, Christian USA 263
Karlovskiy, Evgeny RUS 227
Kozlov, Stefan USA 337
Krueger, Mitchell USA 171
Kwiatkowski, Thai-Son USA 268
Lorenzi, Paolo ITA 106
Millot, Vincent FRA 340
Moraing, Mats GER 202
Moutet, Corentin FRA 129
Muller, Alexandre FRA 330
Nguyen, Daniel USA 339
Paul, Tommy USA 200
Polansky, Peter CAN 138
Polmans, Marc AUS 163
Rubin, Noah USA 142
Sandgren, Tennys USA 93
Sels, Jelle NED 305
Serdarusic, Nino CRO 255
Song, Evan USA 331
Torpegaard, Mikael DEN 229
Yevseyev, Denis KAZ 316
Zekic, Miljan SRB 344
Souza, Joao BRA 12
Rinderknech, Arthur FRA 13
Karatsev, Aslan RUS 18
Ehrat, Sandro SUI 22
Zhurbin, Alexander RUS 25
Wildcards: Sebi Korda, Zane Khan, Alex Ritschard, Sekou Bangoura.
Artwork by Karin Billings, www.karinbillings.com ksbsarasota@gmail.com
