The 4th Annual Ellesse Pro Tennis Challenge will take place August 18-19 at the Emkey Tennis Garden in Wyomissing, PA with world-class professional tennis coming to Berks County yet again in 2023.
This year, the event is headlined by 4 world-class pros including world #129 Austrian Filip Misolic, world #225 Austrian Maximillian Neuchrist, 2022 event finalist and world #540 Michael Zheng who was an ATP Challenger Finalist in Puerto Rico earlier this summer and made the NCAA sweet 16 as a freshmen at Columbia University. The 4th player confirmed is KP Pannu of New Zealand. The Kiwi just made his first ATP 500 level tournament this week at the Citi Open in Washington DC taking out former Ellesse Pro Tennis Champion Denis Kudla in qualifying.
The final 2 singles players will be named closer to the event.
Friday August 18th will be round robin group play with a day and special night session with semi-finals and finals on Saturday August 19th.
Also being celebrated is the 50th Anniversary of the Emkey Tennis Garden where the event is held at the estate of Dr. Ronald and Judy Emkey, which was first constructed in 1973. The Emkey Family was honored by the BCTA as a member of its 2023 Hall of Fame Class and will be recognized again at the pro event.
The event, presented by the Berks County Tennis Association will benefit City of Reading (COR Tennis) program through Reading Recreation Commission with a portion of the COR proceeds benefiting the Antietam tennis program whose courts were ruined as part of the flooding in July at Antietam School District. TICKETS are available online starting Aug 7 online at https://newcobrands.com/ or available in person at Hillcrest Racquet Club, Fromuth Tennis and the Sinking Spring YMCA starting Wednesday August 9th
To bring pro tennis to Berks County and have 6 top ranked pro players come to Reading to share world class tennis with our community is always special,” said BCTA President and Ellesse Pro Tennis Challenge event Director Ryan Knarr. “This year it is extra special with our proceeds befitting COR Tennis scholarships for underserved youth and portion of the proceeds being donated by COR Tennis directly to benefit the Antietam Tennis program to help them recover after the devastating floods in July. That is what our pro event is all about, helping people and using tennis as a platform to better humanity in Berks County and Beyond.”
Prize money for the event is $9,000. This is the third year of the event with past champions being Denis Kudla (2020), Makund Saisikumar (2021) and Sumit Nagal (2022)
On Wednesday August 17th at 7:30pm at Hampden Park- ATP Pros KP Pannu and Filip Misolic will conduct a 1 hour junior clinic presented by Diadem at the home of COR Tennis for juniors ages 12 -18
RSVP for the Junior clinic are available by emailing [email protected] or calling 610-451-2401.
Spots in the junior clinic are $40/player with 50% of the clinic proceeds benefiting COR Tennis, 50% benefiting Antietam Tennis to help the program as they recover from the flooding earlier in July.
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