Wake Forest Athletics
Gold Rush Feature: A Major Step Up
1/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 26, 2011
This article was originally published in the Jan. 15 edition of Gold Rush.
By Jay Reddick
The call came in late October.
Don Flow, Wake Forest trustee and president of the Flow Companies, wanted to bring a professional tennis tournament to Winston-Salem, but he needed Wake Forest's help.
As a result, this fall, the Deacon tennis teams will have a brand-new multi-court outdoor facility near BB&T Field, and the inaugural ATP Winston-Salem Open will be played there Aug. 21-27.
Officials at Wake Forest had discussed tennis improvements for a while, but when this opportunity was presented, everything had to happen quickly.
"Since the first of November, it's been a whirlwind ride," said Steve Adams, the assistant athletic director for internal operations, who will help oversee the facility's construction. "We wouldn't have it any other way. It's exciting and good for the community."
The facility will fill the space between the East stands at BB&T Field and the Indoor Tennis Center, replacing what is now the Green Lot, the student lot for football. The administration is working closely with student organizations to find new parking and tailgating options for football season.
The move means all of WFU's football, baseball, basketball and tennis operations will now be concentrated in a small area of Deacon Boulevard, adding to what Director of Athletics Ron Wellman calls "one of the best game-day experiences in the country." It will allow the school and the city to bid for NCAA championships and top junior events.
The Winston-Salem Open, which will be played the week before the U.S. Open, moves to the Triad from New Haven, Conn. Last year's event included former top-10 players Marcos Baghdatis and Fernando Gonzalez, along with popular Americans James Blake and Taylor Dent.
The combination of the new complex and the ATP event will obviously help in recruiting, women's tennis coach Jeff Wyshner said.
"Having a professional event of this magnitude on our campus will bring all the top tennis players and families to our university and to our tennis center every year from when the kids are 8, 9 or 10 years old," Wyshner said. "Players will grow up dreaming of playing at Wake Forest. ... Now, we have the best of everything. I'm certainly happy I won't be recruiting against us."
Men's tennis coach Jeff Zinn said the facility, which will also include spacious locker rooms and ample team space, "puts us in the top five; for sure, the top 10" of college facilities he's seen in 15 years at Wake Forest.
The first step in building the new facility will be laying down the 10-12 DecoTurf II tennis courts, the same surface used at Flushing Meadow, site of the U.S. Open. Some of the courts will be raised higher than others, Adams said, to make the space unique.
The facility will include temporary spectator seating this fall, but by the time the entire complex is complete, it will include a center court with room for 3,500 spectators, and two others with 1,500 capacity.
"There's kind of a cookie-cutter look to a lot of pro tournaments," Zinn said. "We're trying to change that in a good way. Ron (Wellman) always talked about BB&T Field being the Wrigley Field of football, and I'm hoping that's a neat analogy for our tennis stadium as well."
The time is short to prepare for the complex's first event, but everyone involved emphasized that the finished product will be worth the wait.
"This is where we needed to be," Adams said. "We have a great indoor facility, and bringing this outdoor plan next to the indoor is a great thing for the program."
