ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — Zephyrhills is hosting the Florida Sports Coast Open for the fifth consecutive year, bringing 60 top women’s tennis players from 30 different countries to the Mouratoglou Academy and boosting the local economy.
The Florida Sports Coast International Women’s Tennis Tournament is part of the International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour, which is often compared to the sport's minor leagues. Matches are free and open to the public, with the tournament wrapping up this weekend with the singles finals.
WATCH: Zephyrhills hosts international women's tennis tournament
"For Pasco County and Tampa, it's the biggest tennis tournament for women," Pascal Collard said.
Collard is the CEO of Mouratoglou Academy. He said organizers hope to create even more opportunities for the city in the years ahead as momentum continues.
"It becomes a tennis city because this has a lot of big economic impact for Zephyrhills and the city has been fantastic to work with," Collard said.
The tournament is bringing a lot of energy to Zephyrhills and making an impact off the court.
"This week here we have 20x our numbers this week versus our typical week," Wayne Verschuere said.
Verschuere, the owner of Racquet Restaurants and Events—which partners with the academy to serve both students and the public—is seeing a boom in business.
"We've opened for dinners every day this week because of the tournament being here, so it's just really brought more on," Verschuere said.
Athletes from around the world are serving up serious competition. Ganna Poznikhirenko is a tennis player from Ukraine who has been training at the academy since January, though an injury has her sitting this tournament out.
"I love tennis. I love to take a part as a player. I love to be in the best academy of the world that which is Mouratoglou Academy is one of the greatest," Poznikhirenko said.
A separate initiative is also underway to grow the sport locally. The SVB Foundation is already active in local schools, reaching students across 16 campuses. Now, a new effort called the Patrick Mouratoglou Foundation is being introduced.
Organizers said the foundation will help expand access to tennis by providing equipment like shoes and rackets at no cost. They said the goal is to make the sport more accessible, especially since tennis can be expensive compared to others like soccer. With this support, more kids will have the opportunity to play who otherwise might not.
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