Hundreds expected for ‘West EnF or 10 days starting Aug. 15, hundreds of Miami- Dade tennis players will head to Kendall.
That’s when the newly named “West End Open” gets underway at the Tennis Villas at Kendall, 9175 SW 147 Ave. It is all thanks to tennis enthusiast Juan Mora who wants Kendall to become Miami-Dade’s most widely known tennis center.
“This is our fourth tournament of the year with participants from Brickell, Coral Gables, Doral, Sweetwater, Pinecrest, Hialeah, Miami Lakes, South Miami and other locations,” said the entrepreneurial Mora, a real estate professional and international business advisor.
“Our previous tournament counted more than 100 in each event in different levels and, in August, we expect even more participants since we’ve had more signups than ever before. And thanks to [Miami-Dade] Commissioner Juan Zapata, we have now officially become the ‘West End Open.’”
It is a designation Mora said will further create focus on West Kendall, a primary goal to create a “new economic engine” in the West Dade area.
“We have many different sponsors who share in the success, spreading the word of where we are located through gaining more customers,” Mora added. “It’s exciting to see how the word is spreading in tennis circles about the Kendall tournaments.”
Helping to add an international class to the West End Open is a famed Coach Dominic Conde — 25 years as a professional coach in Spain, owner of the Conde Jackson Tennis Club in Spain and, since 2000, director of Club Tennis La Pardilla. Conde currently coaches David Marrero Santana, rated No. 5 in world-class doubles.
Since July 27 through the Aug. 15 opening of the West Kendall tournament, Conde is conducting tennis clinics and classes for youngsters and adults at The Villas, “all of which adds that much more interest in tournament play,” Mora noted.
Partnering in the Open is Gustavo Triana, formerly a tennis coach in Spain with the Club de Tennis and with Club Tamarasi of Gran Canaria before coming to coach at Coral Gables Academy and opening the Triana Tennis Academy in Kendall where he teaches youth and adults from beginners to high-competency players, both men and women individually or in group sessions.
Entry remains available for the 10-day mid-August competition beginning on Saturday, Aug. 15, at 8 a.m., on the Tennis Villa’s five new courts.
Single entry slots are available at 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 USTA playing levels at $20 per player in each division; doubles at 7.0 and 8.0 levels; $20 or $30 for single-doubles players, per division.
Gustavo Triana, tennis coach and academy operator who has coached five ranked Florida players co-directs the tournament with a fifth in the series already scheduled to begin Oct. 17. For information or registration, call Mora at 786-443-5501 or send email to jmoratenis@gmail.com.
