$15,000 Tournament In Victoria, Canada
 

3RD ANNUAL SOUTH ISLAND INDOOR CHALLENGE

$15,000 Total Prize Money
$8000 Winning Prize
Main Draw: October 18-21, 2012
Qualifying Draw: October 11-14, 2012
Eight Player Tournament Consisting of Two Round Robin Pools
Players Guaranteed 3 matches
5 Nights Hotel Accommodations Provided
1st Place: $8000
2nd Place: $3500
3rd Place: $1500
4th Place: $700
5/6th Place: $400
7/8th Place: $250

Our new format of a two pool round robin is modelled after the World Tour Finals. It will guarantee players three quality matches and is great for spectators as they get to see their favourite players compete against a variety of opponents.

2 qualifiers will advance from a 2KO tournament Oct 11-14.
4 main draw players will be directly accepted into the tournament by Oct 10.
2 wild card entries will complete the main draw of 8 players.

Court side seating
Chair and line umpires
Ball kids

Please contact us if you are interested in qualifying or a direct acceptance.

Tournament Entry Fee: $60

Weekend Main Draw Spectator Pass: $20

Here is the Talk Tennis Link From Last Year's Tournament:
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=368367

southislandchallenge@gmail.com

i would go, but i dont need the 8 grand that bad ;)

Good luck! I like the format change, it should work really well and even out the field a bit too.

We think the format change is going to work well. Prize money goes a lot further with a draw of eight (so we can offer near Challenger level money to the winner), players know they will have at least three matches and won't be out of the tournament with one bad match, and spectators will really get to know and appreciate the players.

amazing format and i commend your tournaments willingness to try new things and innovate new ideas for non-sanctioned money tournaments. This format will allow you to showcase top players in multiple matches and not be too susceptible to 1st round upsets that take out your main attraction. This benefits the spectators tremendously. Being from Canada the tournament scene is stale and pointless. Your tournament is the only one that seems to be looking at actually doing something about it. Good luck!

It's unfortunate that's in the middle of my semester! I'd love to come down and watch!

Fantastic format however. I love what you guys have done!

Also, I can't agree more with Devilito!

-Fuji

Sounds fun. I'll put it on my list and check my sched'.

Deadline(s)?

Clarify, please: Accommodations for players, even in the Qualis', or, like ATP tourneys, Main Draw accoms', only?

Is this event sanctioned? USTA? ITF? Points?

I'll tell a buddy of mine, too. He has a few ATP points and would probably like to come, as we've been talking more about traveling together to ITF events.

Thanks for posting this.

you'd be looking at probably top 200-500 to get top 4 direct entry. 2 more for local Wild Cards and 2 more qualifiers. So it's unlikely your friend would get i with only a few ATP points unless he goes into qualifying

I was assuming we'd be playing Qualis.

Hey Devilito, I'm just curious. How does one even get into qualifying for these type of events? If I remember correctly you said you have played at this level before. :)

-Fuji

depends on how big the qualifying draw is / your ranking (local, national or even ATP points if you're international) and prior results. For something like this you’d contact the tournament director directly and talk to him to make sure you’re in so you can make travel arrangements. Each situation can be different. Most tournaments like this provide accommodations through volunteers taking in out of town players and your flight is either paid for or subsidized depending on your drawing power. $8000 for first place could easily draw in a top 100-200 player that’s got nothing better going on that week.

Thanks very much for your comments. That's really thoughtful of you. And thanks for all your responses to the other posters. You're hired as our spokesperson as you're dead on accurate with all your information.

Thank you - maybe next year!

Unfortunately we can't afford to pay for hotels for players in the qualifying tournament, but we'll get a good tournament rate and it will be off season here so hotels will be very reasonable anyway.

We'll be sanctioned by Tennis BC, but that's probably not of much importance to the players. The hoops you have to jump through to put together even an ITF Futures event is considerable so we have no plans to do that. Those tournaments have their place, and we're not competing with them - this is strictly a money tournament.

I hope you can make it. The deadline for the quallies will be the weekend before the event begins. We'll be able to accommodate a lot of players so I doubt we'll have to turn anyone away.

Last year our top player was Rik De Voest. He had a ranking of about 150. Unfortunately for him and for our spectators, he lost in the first round (he was jet lagged and came up against a very good teaching pro from Vancouver). Our new format will, of course, keep a player like him in the tournament even with an early loss. Ironically the teaching pro lost in the next round to someone who lost in the next round to someone who lost in the finals. It proved that on any given day, there are a lot of players out there who can compete at a very high level.

Yeah i know Henry. I see him when he's over in Calgary for our money tournament in July. He's vulnerable in poor outdoor conditions but indoor he's a beast where his all court variety and weapons are more of a factor. Always great to watch him play. That's one of the nice things about your tournament. Indoor with a reliable schedule due to weather not being a factor and the tennis quality is always highest indoor. Past few years have been rotten luck with Calgary “summer” weather.

That's exactly the information I was looking for! Thank you very much Devilito! :D

-Fuji

Online registration now available here.

Will you post footage from matches online again this year?

Yes, definitely.