Southern Adult Indoor Open Review

A change of pace for today's post - a tournament review! This review is aimed more at the adult Men's Open competitor than spectators, although there is some excellent tennis to be seen. The Southern Adult Indoor Open is hosted by the Racquet Club of Memphis and is a pre-cursor to the excellent US National Indoor Tennis Championships at the same venue. For those who aren't familiar with it, the US National Indoor Tennis Championships is an indoor ATP/WTA event held each year at the Racquet Club, and is the only ATP/WTA level professional event in the world to be held at a private club. The list of past champions is impressive, including names like Roddick, Haas, Sampras, Edberg, Agassi and Connors.

The Southern Adult Indoor Open is held after Christmas each year (typically on or around the 27th of December) and grants the winner a wild-card into the qualifying draw for the National Championships in February. It draws college and Future-level players from all over the south, as well as nationally ranked juniors and others. Let's take a quick run-down of all of the major points regarding the tournament...

Facilities 

The Racquet Club boasts 11 indoor courts which are re-surfaced every year in anticipation of the professional tournament. Only ten of them are actually used for the tournament - one is a singles-only court that is reserved for match warmups. Six of these courts are to either side of a central corridor, with the last four 'stadium' courts at the back of the facility. The courts play neither particularly fast nor slow, and provide a very even bounce - none of the quirks one can sometimes find with indoor facilities. All of the courts have a relatively high ceiling, but the stadium courts in particular make it very hard to catch the roof with a lob. In four days of competitive play and eight matches I managed to catch the ceiling with a lob just one time.

The courts are all easy to get to, and reasonably spaced. Netting is available between courts, and set far enough between courts that it is generally not a factor. It should be noted that the stadium courts are significantly cooler than the other six - depending on the outside temperature it might swing as much as 15 degrees in comparison. Whereas the front six are very comfortable, the stadium can get a little on the chilly side.

The Racquet Club itself is a very pleasant facility. It is a very affluent club, with plenty of parking and nice fixtures inside. It is a very intimate venue - while I have yet to go to the ATP/WTA tournament there you definitely will rub shoulders with the pros if you do go. The downstairs central corridor is open space, lined with pictures of past champions. The upstairs area provides good viewing to the six front courts through floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and there are bleachers for the stadium courts. The staff are all courteous and friendly, and it has all the feeling of an exclusive country club.

Organization

As mentioned above, I played eight matches over the course of four days. Without exception, every single match started on time (and to be honest, several started slightly early). Their experience running the professional event shows - unlike many tournaments they don't try to cram matches in too close to one-another and as such they always run on time.

Additionally players who are knocked out in the first two rounds are entered into the consolation singles draw. At many tournaments consolation draws are treated as an afterthought. At the Southern Indoors however they continue to do things right. The matches are still on time, roving umpires will still give matches appropriate attention and the only change is the ten point super-tie-breaker in lieu of a third set. The consolation draw is a tough tournament in its own right - given the strength of the main draw it isn't uncommon to run into Division 1 players who lost early.

As with the general staff, everyone running the tournament is very courteous and friendly. Granted, everything is run so smoothly that playing the tournament three times in the last ten years I've never seen them have to handle anything adverse during that time.

Strength of Draw

This is a very important aspect to consider. The strength of the draw here is very similar to the qualifying draw at a typical Futures event. The winner of the tournament this year was Sekou Bangoura, a former University of Florida player now ranked 577 in the world. Last year it was won by Brian Baker who went on to finish the year ranked 60th on the ATP.

The early rounds of the tournament are a mixed bag. The night before the tournament I warmed up with a older gentleman (who appeared to be approximately 60) who was at best a 3.5 level player. There was a small handful of players like this in the ~64 player draw. Past the first round (or at most two), play is typically that of stronger Division 2 or average Division 1 opponents. As mentioned above, the draw was won by a player currently ranked around 500 in the world. He had back-to-back three-set matches in the quarter-finals and semi-finals which should give you some idea of the depth of the field.

Conclusion

For stronger adult players (strong 4.5 or above) it's a good tournament to get experience in. While you won't come in and win, you are guaranteed at least two matches against strong opponents. The punctuality of the organizers means you won't waste a lot of time sitting around waiting for your match to get called and the umpires do a good job of keeping a tight rein on things so you're very likely to have a positive experience. Weaker players may still want to try if only to get an idea of what it is like to play against players of this caliber.

Otherwise it is a great venue for college players looking to stay match tough over winter break. Futures level competitors can take a crack at earning a spot in the qualifying draw of a fully-fledged ATP event. And for those who aren't comfortable taking the court against opponents of that level, there is a lot of high-quality tennis being played over a span of four days at a pleasant venue.