Tennis Pros Hit The Courts In Salisbury For Memorial Tournament - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

SALISBURY, Md. - Professional tennis players from all around the globe compete this weekend for some $30,000 in prize money in the 9th annual Jack Purnell - Chris Thomas Memorial Tennis Tournament.

"This tournament has a really long history. Salisbury has it's history in tennis. It used to be Tennis USA. And with the U.S. open going, this is a good place for these players that are waiting to see if they're accepted or not, can come to Salisbury, play here, play good competition. And 5 or 6 of them will go onto the U.S. open," organizer Vaughn Baker said.

To kick off the games, local amateurs got a chance to play alongside the pros during the tournament's third annual pro-am challenge. "The amateurs is always fun because you get to kind of meet all the local crowd, and they're big fans, like tennis buffs. So that's always good. And then obviously the pros are always fun because we're all friends and we kind of just know each other from playing in tournaments all over the world. So it's always good to see old faces," tennis pro William Boe-Wiegaard  said.

Funds raised from this weekend will benefit Coastal Hospice. "Coastal Hospice has probably touched most of lives of the people that are out here one way or another, and it's a very worthy organization," tournament director Ed Thomas said.

This Saturday, WMDT's Jenn Falsetti and Mark Adamo will face off against WBOC's Scott Abraham and Paul Butler at 11 AM. Make sure you head out there to check out the competition.