Stowe Reporter: Stowe-based tennis tour company longs for a tournament here

To put the Stowe Mountain Lodge Classic into context, we're sharing an article from the summer of 2016 by Tommy Gardner of the Stowe Reporter.

Read it

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Stowe-based tennis tour company longs for a tournament here

Tommy Gardner / Stowe Reporter
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Tucked away in an unassuming house on Stowe’s South Main Street, a group of Generation X-ers and millennials are connected to the best tennis in the world, and some of the sport’s top players.

Stowe’s Grand Slam Tennis Tours sends ordinary racket-swingers with plenty of cash to spare to grass, clay and hard courts all over the world to watch the four biggest tennis tournaments each year: New York City for the U.S. Open; London for Wimbledon; Paris for the French Open; and Melbourne for the Australian Open.

While there, customers can play on the same courts the pros use in the qualifying matches, such as Roehampton in London.

“The grounds at Wimbledon are just beautiful. I’ve never been to a more beautiful place,” Andrew Chmura, president of Grand Slam, said. “There’s just this feeling when you’re there that’s like no other.”

Chmura should know. He’s a former competitive player and has been all over the world with clients to watch tennis, including about 80 Grand Slam trips.

Now, with Wimbledon right around the corner, the company is doubling down on next year: a package for two to next year’s Wimbledon finals, worth $27,300.

Grand Slam sends customers to other far-flung locales outside the big four’s orbit. There are trips to second-tier tournaments in Africa, Argentina and Antigua, in Rome, Rio and Monte Carlo, and tennis courts in other countries.
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“Not only can you see the best athletes in the world, but you can play in some of the sexiest places in the world,“ Chmura said.
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Meeting the best

​Earlier this year, Chmura partnered with sports agent Sam Duvall to add another element to the Grand Slam trips: a little face-time with some of the world’s elite players.

Some will even hit a ball around with you. But not all of them.

“A few years ago, we got kicked off the court by Serena,” Duvall, owner of Topnotch Management, said. That would be arguably the greatest female athlete of this generation, Serena Williams.

There were no hard feelings from the customers rubbing shoulders with the pros. Heck, maybe someday Serena will hire Duvall, Chmura and his crew.

Topnotch Management’s ever-growing client list includes Jon Isner, the top-ranked American tennis player — he’s No. 17 in the world — and Shelby Rogers, the darling of last month’s French Open.

Rogers entered Roland Garros at the end of May ranked 108th and made it to the quarterfinals. Now, she’s ranked No. 61 in the world, and Wimbledon beckons.

“Maybe you can try to return Jon Isner’s serve, or see just how big Steve Johnson’s forehand is,” Chmura said. “It’s supposed to be bigger than anyone else’s.”

With the young energy in the Stowe office — even Chmura, who’s old enough to have two kids who graduated from Stowe High School, seems younger than he is —there’s a definite Jerry Maguire vibe about the company.

Chmura and Duvall use the word “synergy” a lot, which isn’t as catchy as most sports terminology, but if the tennis shoe fits, you might as well wear it.

Imagine this scenario: you could pay anywhere between $3,325 and $5,175 (hotel stays included) to catch three days of opening round action at next year’s French Open, play a couple of rounds on the storied “terre battue,” the red clay surface of Philippe Chatrier court, and maybe exchange a lob or two with Shelby Rogers.
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Tennis in the Green Mountains

Chmura has been attending Grand Slams since Pete Sampras was No. 1 in the world, but while he and his crew work hard at getting customers to courts all over the world, he’d really love to bring some of that global action here to Stowe.

Tennis may be overshadowed locally by winter sports such as skiing and hockey, and lacrosse brings thousands to town every summer, but tennis does have a strong tradition in Stowe.

James Watson, one of Chmura’s employees, is the Stowe High School boys’ tennis coach, and about 30 players showed up for the team this past season, including what turned out to be the best doubles team in Division 2.

Chmura, as a former tennis instructor, has seen plenty of local tennis interest in the past 30 years.
“I’ve played tennis with probably everyone in town at one point,” he said.

The game has also had a sporadic pro presence in Stowe.

The Head Classic was an annual tournament in the 1970s and ’80s that brought that era’s best players to town: Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase, Brad Gilbert, Guillermo Vilas, Vijay Armritraj, Johan Kriek, Tom Gullikson. A file photo in the Stowe Reporter archives show one of the greatest of all time, Ivan Lendl, at a press conference holding up a bumper sticker that says “I Love Stowe.”

Every year in the Head, 32 men would duke it out in a tournament held at Topnotch Resort and Spa (there is no relation between the resort and Duvall and Chmura’s management agency). Then, it just stopped.

In 2007, Chmura helped lure the Fed Cup, the world’s largest international women’s team tennis competition, to Stowe. The 2007 Fed quarterfinals was between the U.S. and Russia, with a temporary tennis stadium built in a field across Mountain Road from Topnotch Resort.

Chmura would like to bring another major tennis competition to Stowe. He was in negotiations to bring the Davis Cup quarterfinals to town this year — that’s the men’s counterpart to the Fed Cup — but didn’t win the bid.

He hopes to start an annual tournament in town next year, with heavy hitters on the Women’s Tennis Association Tour playing Stowe in one of its 52 yearly tournaments.
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“People are still talking about the Fed Cup,” Chmura said. “This tournament could be a 32-person draw, and half those girls would be the most popular athletes in their home countries.”