The USTA and Bermuda Tourism Authority will hold a weekend of tennis in Bermuda April 3-4 to promote the game and the island, called "Courts & Shorts Weekend." The move, which comes less than a year after Bermuda Tourism's first sponsor involvement with the U.S. Open, is the latest part of a six-year plan that the island nation located 650 miles off the coast of North Carolina recently devised using sports as a tourism driver. Bermuda Tourism last year signed a three-year deal with the USTA to become a U.S. Open sponsor, as well as a five-year deal with the PGA Tour to hold a tournament on the island, the Bermuda Championship, which debuted last fall. Sailing and endurance racing are the other two sports featured in Bermuda’s sports tourism plan. "We look for partners who have like-minded audiences and have a larger share of voice and are in the markets that matter to us,” said Bermuda Tourism’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Victoria Isley. Tennis players Andy Roddick and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario are two of the several former tour pros that will take part in a ticketed exhibition at Coral Beach & Tennis Club on April 4, the highlight of the first-ever Courts & Shorts Weekend.
IN THE LIMELIGHT: Tennis Channel will be on the scene filming a TV special for its “Destination Tennis” series that will air closer to the U.S. Open later this summer and provide Bermuda with more American exposure. The weekend also will include a free kid’s tennis clinic involving the former tour pros and a USTA Super Category II tournament expected to bring over 100 players to Bermuda. Launching the Courts & Shorts Weekend was a key aspect of the second year of Bermuda Tourism’s U.S. Open sponsorship. "It all made a lot of sense for us as we were talking through potential partnerships," said Isley, who is based in N.Y. "As we worked with the USTA team on a partnership that would mean the most to Bermuda, we thought that was great for the island’s exposure as well as bringing spending on-island."
