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The Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships, known as the Dunlop Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships from 2008 to 2013 with Dunlop as the
title sponsor Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...
, and renamed the Metropolia Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships from 2013 onwards, is a prestigious
junior tennis Junior tennis refers to tennis matches where the participants are aged 18 and under. Eligibility to compete in International Tennis Federation Junior tournaments is not based on age, but year of birth: as a result, some players must move out of ju ...
tournament, one of five that are rated by the ITF as 'Grade A'. Established in 1947 in Miami Beach, the tournament has for years featured both boys and girls singles and doubles draws at both '18 and under' (under-19) and '16 and under' (under-17) age categories. From 1999 to 2010, the tournament had been held each December at Crandon Park in
Key Biscayne, Florida Key Biscayne is an island town in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The population was 12,344 at the 2010 census. Key Biscayne lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. The village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originall ...
. Since 2011, it has been held at the Frank Veltri Tennis Center in
Plantation, Florida Plantation is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 91,750. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The city's name comes from the previous part-owner of the land, the E ...
.


History

The Orange Bowl Tennis Championship began at Flamingo Tennis Center, Miami Beach. This facility, still in use today, hosted the tournament until 1998, when it was moved to its current site at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Florida. The Orange Bowl was started by Eddie Herr, who wanted to bring some winter competition to South Beach for his tennis playing daughter, Suzanne. The tournament soon grew in prestige and importance, being considered the initiation rite of future world tennis champions. Decades of tournament winners are posted on a brass plaque at the entrance to Flamingo Tennis Center. Players who have competed at the Orange Bowl reads as a virtual who's who of modern tennis, including
Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to ac ...
,
Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Un ...
, Boris Becker, Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors,
Jim Courier James Spencer "Jim" Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals of ...
, Stefan Edberg, Chris Evert,
Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...
, Steffi Graf,
Justine Henin Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She spent a total of 117 weeks as the world No. 1 and was the year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Henin, coming from a country with limited success in tenni ...
,
Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Lendl was ranked world No. 1 in singles for 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles. ...
, Hana Mandlíková,
Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals ( Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Ope ...
, Gabriela Sabatini,
Monica Seles Monica Seles (; hu, Széles Mónika, ; sr, Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš; born December 2, 1973) is a retired professional tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. A former world No. 1, she won nine Grand Sla ...
,
Guillermo Vilas Guillermo Vilas (; born 17 August 1952) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. Vilas was the No. 1 of the Grand Prix seasons in 1974, 1975 and 1977, and won four Grand Slam tournaments, one year-end Masters, nine Grand Prix Super Se ...
, and
Mats Wilander Mats Arne Olof Wilander (; born 22 August 1964) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. From 1982 to 1988, he won seven major singles titles (three at the French Open, three at the Australian Open, and one at the US Open), and one major ...
. As of 2017, Miami's
Mary Joe Fernandez Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
is the only player, male or female, to win in every age division of the Orange Bowl and Junior Orange Bowl tournaments: 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s. However, Miami's Lynn Epstein, won the 12s, 14s and skipped the 16s to play up winning the 18s two years in a row. Epstein is the only player, to this day, to have achieved this feat. In 1983, during the tournament's heyday, a professional stadium was built in Flamingo Park. The
Abel Holtz stadium Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd w ...
seated 9,000 fans. During the 1990s however, Flamingo Park Tennis Center fell victim to poor maintenance. The standards of the Orange Bowl could not be maintained so in 1999 the tournament was moved to the
Tennis Center at Crandon Park The Crandon Park Tennis Center is a tennis facility in Key Biscayne, Florida. It features a 13,800-seat venue named Stadium Court as its centerpiece, and was home of the Miami Open from 1987 until 2018. The Miami Open used twelve courts for com ...
in Key Biscayne, home of today's professional tour event, the
Miami Open (tennis) The Miami Open (also known as the Miami Masters, and currently branded as the Miami Open presented by Itaú for sponsorship reasons) is a tennis tournament held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is part of the men's ATP Tour Ma ...
. The City of Plantation has restored the Orange Bowl Tournament's allure and luster, hosting the best administered and best managed tournament in decades.

Recently, there has been a tennis revival in Miami Beach. A $5.5M master plan to renovate the Flamingo tennis facility has begun. The project includes a new tennis building and 17 clay hydro-courts. A large bronze plaque containing the names of all the great tennis champions who began their career playing in the tournament in Flamingo park will be restored, along with a plaque honoring local players who went on to tennis fame, such as Jerry Moss (tennis), Jerry Moss. Since 1962, the two younger age groups ('12 and under' and '14 and under') are held at a separate site in Coral Gables. Hence today, the Junior Orange Bowl is in Coral Gables. And the Orange Bowl (under 16 and under 18) has moved in 2011 from Miami to Plantation, FL thus changing surfaces from Hard Courts to Clay, the first time since 1998 that the tournament will be on clay. Dunlop has been the tournament's title sponsor since 2008. From 2013 onwards, Metropolia International Holdings became the title sponsor of the tournament.http://metropoliatennis.com/orange_bowl_2013_en.html


Tournament features

Players must be at least 13 years old to compete, unless competing in the 12 and unders.


Past champions


Singles champions


Doubles champions


See also

*
Junior Orange Bowl (tennis) The Junior Orange Bowl is a youth tennis tournament, held in Coral Gables, Florida, for the "14 and under" and "12 and under" age categories. Boys and girls compete in separate draws. Jodi Appelbaum-Steinbauer is the tournament director. History ...


References


External links

* {{official website, www.orangebowltennis.org
1930 Master Plan Flamingo Park

Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship at usta.com
Junior tennis Recurring sporting events established in 1947 Oran 1947 establishments in Florida Sports in Miami-Dade County, Florida Plantation, Florida Clay court tennis tournaments