The Bossier Tennis Center is hosting the City Tennis Championships for the ninth straight year.
The tournament, known as “The City,” gets underway Monday and runs through Sunday. It features 303 players in 22 divisions.
Querbes Park Director of Tennis Mark Pereira and Monroe’s Francis Altick are back to defend their men’s and women’s open singles titles.
The tournament features competition in family divisions like mother-daughter doubles and doubles divisions based on skill level as determined by the National Tennis Ratings Program.
Entries are limited to players currently living in central to north Louisiana (Alexandria and any city north of there). Any player having lived in the Northwest Louisiana area for at least five consecutive years at any point in his/her life is eligible to play.
This is the tournament’s 103rd year with the first having been played in 1923 at old Princess Park in Shreveport.
It was revived in 2018 by local tennis advocates Rick Holland, Jeffrey Goodman and Bossier Tennis Center director Todd Killen after having gone dormant for about 10 years.
The history of the tournament was an important factor in its revival.
“There was a generation or two who
either never got to experience The City or only experienced it when it was on its last legs,”
Goodman said. “We knew to make it important again we had to explain what it had been for all those years for so many of us.”
During its run at the Bossier Tennis Center, the tournament has been honored as the “Adult Tournament of the Year” by both USTA Southern and Louisiana Tennis Association.
About $8,000 in prize money will be awarded this year.
Pereira took home $1,000 after defeating three-time champion Anthony McMaster 6-4, 6-1 in the men’s singles finals.
McMaster is not in this year’s field. Pereira is the No. 1 seed in the 28-player men’s draw and received a bye in the first round.
Former Shreveporter Jackson Hinderberger is the No. 2 seed. The 18-year-old was the men’s singles runner-up in 2022.
According to tennisrecruiting.com, he now lives and trains in Lake Worth, Fla. and is a member of the Class of 2026 at Florida Virtual School.
A four-star recruit, he has committed to continuing his career at Army West Point.
Monroe’s Steven Schwab is the No. 3 seed, and Shreveport’s Will Street is No. 4.
Altick, who defeated Angela Basto 6-1, 6-0 for the $700 winner’s prize money last year, is the top seed in women’s open singles.
Minden’s Marta Stramkova is the No. 2 seed in the six-player field. She is a former Louisiana Tech player and a native of Bratislava, Slovakia.
Admission to the tournament is free for spectators. Matches start at 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and go until about 10. Saturday and Sunday matches start at 8 a.m. and last until 5 or 6 p.m.
The City Hall of Fame inductees this year are former Querbes Park tennis directors Helene McCarter and Marvin Street.
Several people, including Mack McCarter (Helene’s nephew) and Will Street (Marvin’s son), saying a few words at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 24 before the men’s open singles finals.