With the Sutton event completed, the 2022 Summer Swing has officially come to an end. We saved the biggest draw to last with a whopping 109 players battling it out at Sutton Tennis & Squash Club last week, surpassing last year's Progress Tour record, set at the same event! Players ranged from talented up-and-coming juniors, to aspiring pros, US college players, and a number of Progress Tour regulars returning to be part of our most popular event of the year. It was Stanford Sophomore, Max Basing who went one better than last year, taking the crown in our Men's Draw with a straight sets win over Samm Butler (2019 PT Ellesmere Champion). The Women's Final was nothing short of a thriller with Indianna Spink winning her first Progress Tour title with a 6-4 7-6 win over top seed Katie Stresnakova, reversing a semi-final loss at our Redhill event two weeks ago. Both winners walk away with a £2,000 Winner's Cheque and Wildcards into £25K ITF events.
The Progress Tour has been running Prize Money Events since it began in 2017 to help remedy the lack of competitive and earning opportunities in the UK. Five years later, with a vastly improved domestic competitive landscape, it is still a joy to witness the popularity of the events and the range of players it attracts! Over the past month, we have hosted three prize money events on grass, artificial clay, and hardcourt and have played host to no less than 215 players representing all corners of the globe and competing in over 250 level-based and progressive matches. Across those three events, we have distributed £25,000 in prize funds, multiple wildcards into international events, and not to forget, countless bowls of strawberries and cream and hundreds of bags of Norwich Porridge at our Wimbledon by the Sea event in Cromer! You can see some of our photos of the 2022 Summer Swing below...
As a testament to the quality of players that sign up to these events, the Progress Tour was proud to see a number of former champions and finalists make appearances in the Wimbledon Main Draw this year! Alastair Gray, Sonay Kartal, Katie Boulter, Jodie Burrage, Alicia Barnett, Olivia Nicholls and Julian Cash all got to pit their wits against the best of the best and put in performances to remember. We cannot wait to see where this year's participants' tennis journey's will take them over the next few years!
ROLL OF HONOUR:
After a well-deserved break, we are coming back strong with a £5000 Prize Money Event in Cardiff in September. See more details and register HERE. Also keep an eye out for the Compete & Earn series coming back in September. Events will be published to the website soon!!
Thank you for another Summer Swing season to remember!
The Progress Tour Team