Tennis is big in Vero Beach, with lots of busy courts and competitive players. Former champions and notable professionals including Ivan Lendl, Mikael Pernfors, Roscoe Tanner and Mexican Davis Cupper Marco Osorio have found homes here as coaches and trainers while playing occasional exhibition matches.

Now three groups of amateur women from Vero Club Tennis who play in U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) leagues are training hard to win more laurels for Vero Beach at the state playoffs coming up at the USTA National Training Center in Lake Nona in the Orlando area.

The women, who like to have fun on the court but are also extremely competitive, beat other teams in the local three-county competition area that includes Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties.

A mix of island and mainland residents, they faced tough odds and were often outnumbered by their opponents in their campaigns to secure state berths. One match was so close that the winner had to be determined with the help of an AI program, and in another match, a late but correct “out” call triggered a lengthy argument.

The USTA divides tennis players into several categories depending on skill level so that players face opponents with similar abilities in the local leagues. The 4.0 advanced intermediate and 3.5 and 3.0 intermediate women’s teams at Vero Club Tennis all won their Treasure Coast area competitions. They will now compete at the USTA Florida Sectional Championships and have a shot at advancing to the national playoffs.

“We are incredibly proud of these teams and their accomplishments this season,” said Yohann Prinsen, director of tennis at Vero Club Tennis. “Their dedication, sportsmanship and commitment have made our club proud. We look forward to cheering them on as they represent Vero Club Tennis at the sectional level.”

Prinsen is from a French-speaking town near the Belgian capital of Brussels and has been in the U.S. for six years, playing collegiate level tennis at the University of Arizona and Idaho State.

He manages and trains the three women’s teams along with Christophe Delavaut, a French tennis coach and pro originally from Nice with 35 years’ experience, including stints at Boulevard Tennis & Padel Club and Grand Harbor. He is the captain of all three women’s teams that will travel to Orlando at different times over the next two months.

The local 4.0 team, co-captained by Rachael Maclaurin, finished the regular season with a 7-1 record and will play in Orlando the weekend of July 18-20. The 3.5 team, co-captained by Riomar beachside resident Pia Gold, amassed a 5-2 season record and will play its statewide matches the weekend of Aug. 15-17. The 3.0 team, co-captained by Beth Kalish, earned its qualification with a 5-3 record and will compete in Orlando the weekend of July 11-13.

The teams are the only Vero Beach USTA squads that will compete at the statewide championships in Orlando where each encounter will consist of one singles match and three doubles matches.

It wasn’t easy to get there. One match against the Quail Valley stars was so close that the teams were tied in wins with 2 victories each and also tied in sets and even in number of games won.

“It doesn’t get any closer than that,” Prinsen said. “I had to get onto ChatGPT to find out what the rules were for the last tiebreaker. That rule search showed that we had won because we had prevailed in the Line One doubles match.”

The toughest matches were against rivals from the North River Shores club in Jensen Beach, which draws players from more populated areas in the North Palm Beaches and had more bench strength and depth.

“You need a minimum of 10 women and that’s all we had – 10 exactly,” said Delavaut, “while they had 14 on their team. That meant that we couldn’t afford to miss a single player. Nobody could get hurt because we had no subs.”

The match against the Jensen Beach club got so intense that an “out” call by a Vero Beach player caused a lengthy argument. Vero player Tracy had flipped the score card showing the local team had won a game, but a Jensen Beach player said the “out” call had come too late and flipped the scorecard back. Tracy flipped it back again for Vero Beach, and so it went for a while until everyone finally agreed that the “out” call, while made a little late, had been within the legal limit because the opposing player had not yet hit a return.

The Vero Club Tennis facility, located on 6th Avenue just north of 12th Street, has seven green-clay courts and a modern clubhouse. There are about 100 year-round members and another 40 seasonal snowbird players at the growing club. Membership includes an allotment of court time.

Although the club has been in existence for 35 years, the facility was purchased four years ago by Kaye Manly, who has since rebuilt and refurbished the courts and the clubhouse building. Manly attributes the growth and success of her club to her philosophy of running a “small, community-oriented club with no drama and a fun, but competitive environment.”

The club’s tennis pros, Delavaut and Prinsen, reinforce the philosophy of mixing fun and competition.

“I’m the bad cop and he’s the good cop,” Delavaut jokes, pointing at the younger Prinsen. “I yell at them, and he encourages them.”

“We don’t want them to be too competitive,” Prinsen added. “If you think too much about just winning, you lose. They can put so much pressure on themselves that they fall apart.”