Lindsay Davenport and Bethanie Mattek-Sands took similar paths to get to the top of tennis differently. Davenport won doubles titles but primarily excelled in singles; Mattek-Sands has had success as a singles player but specializes in doubles. Both players developed their talents on the USTA Pro Circuit and became No. 1-ranked in the world.
The professional tennis platform debuted 45 years ago to showcase the sport and give players tournaments in which to gain professional ranking points. The concept worked in 1979, and it continues to advance with events such as the FineMark Women’s Pro Tennis Championship.
Now in its fifth year, the weeklong event will begin April 29 and continue through the singles and doubles finals May 5 at Bonita Bay Club in Bonita Springs. It will be played on 18 Har-Tru clay courts, part of the club’s newly designed sports center.
The international program is the sport’s most prominent developmental circuit with about 100 events and $3 million in prize money; individual events offer between $15,000 and $125,000. The USTA Pro Circuit advances players to the U.S. Open and other international top-level tournaments via International Tennis Federation rankings.
FineMark National Bank & Trust, which was founded in 2007 in Fort Myers, has been the event’s title sponsor since its debut. The financial institution now has 11 locations in Florida, two in Arizona and one in South Carolina. Its location in Bonita Springs, just outside the gated Bonita Bay community’s entrance, was the impetus for the company’s involvement.
“It’s in the Bonita Bay lifestyle arena,” says Harlan Parrish, the executive vice president of the location that opened in 2015. “The residents, if they need to use the gym, go just outside of the gate and there’s a three-story building. There’s a spa on the left for your bodily health and a bank on the right for your financial health.”
Parrish cited the company’s association with the tournament as multipurpose, from name recognition to image to philanthropy.
“For all of those reasons, it just made sense to us,” Parrish says. “Our mission vision at the bank is to make a positive impact on people’s lives. There are four legs to a stool and for us, the big one is community.”
The event’s charitable events are focused on financially assisting the Lee Health Regional Cancer Center in Coconut Point.
Of course, watching high-level tennis is also part of the synergy between business and sport.
Davenport, 47, brought the USATF and events such as this one additional prestige. A powerful and consistent groundstroke player, she retired in 2010 after a nearly 20-year pro career, having won more than 90 titles, including six major titles, and the singles gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She was ranked No. 1 in the world for nearly two years and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014.
Mattek-Sands, 38, sponsored by FineMark, has 28 career women’s doubles titles and several mixed doubles titles, and won the mixed doubles gold medal with partner Jack Sock in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The two women’s success stories mirror the future of other young pros, about 250 of whom will compete in the FineMark event. The $100,000 tournament is billed with the tagline “Tennis Stars of Tomorrow,” but it also showcases established pros—Angelique Kerber to Sloane Stephens to Victoria Azarenka.
“We believe this tournament is an excellent way to showcase the future of women’s tennis,” says Paula Scheb, the director of sports at Bonita Bay Club, adding that “[Bonita Bay] feels by hosting this tournament it showcases tennis at its finest and develops relationships with our members.”
Within its short tenure, the championship has also added to Florida’s enduring status as one of tennis’ international hubs. Coco Gauff, a native of Delray Beach and the reigning U.S. Open women’s singles titlist, competed in the inaugural tournament in 2019. Previous winners include Kayla Day (2023), Gabriela Lee (2022), Katie Volynets (2021) and Lauren Davis (2019). The event was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Famous tennis academies in Florida were founded by Jimmy Evert, the father of Chris Evert, Nick Bollettieri and Rick Macci, who coached Andy Roddick and Venus and Serena Williams, and Nick Saviano cultivated dozens of international professionals. Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Maria Sharapova spent plenty of practice hours at Bollettieri’s IMG Academy.
Day’s win last year continued her long ITF circuit success; she now has five titles and six runner-up finishes dating to her debut in Naples in 2016. After winning in Bonita Springs, Day advanced to the third round of the French Open in May, her career-best advancement in a major. She won again in ITF play in July in Granby, Canada. It elevated her to No. 94 in the world, her first appearance in the top 100 in several years.
It also provided another successful example of the symbiotic relationship between the developmental pro circuit and its players’ quests to reach the sport’s top level.
