The Hermosa Beach Open beach tennis tournament will be held for the fourth consecutive year in September, following a decision by the Hermosa Parks and Recreation Commission to sign-off on a scaled-down version of the tournament. The commission had rejected plans for a larger event at its previous meeting.
On a 4-0 vote, the commission decided to allow this year’s Hermosa Beach Open to bring about 40 of the world’s best beach tennis players to the courts at 14th Street and The Strand, where they will compete in singles and doubles games September 25 through September 27. The tournament is being produced by Mark Bonfigli, a founder of Dealer.com, an auto dealer marketing service with West Coast headquarters in Manhattan Beach. The company sold last year for $1 billion. He’s now devoting his time to promoting the sport of beach tennis.
The Open is timed to coincide with the launch of Bonfligli’s latest venture — a beach tennis brand and a flagship store on Hermosa Avenue called Sexy Beach Tennis. The store, which is currently under construction, will have a sand floor for beach tennis demonstrations and skylights to give the space an open feel. It will sell rackets and apparel. Bonfigli said the Open is a crucial component of the brand’s launch.
“It’s the essence of the initial marketing plan – to create an aura around the tournament,” he said. “The tournament’s not big, but it’s very important.”
The event has added importance, Bonfigli said, because it is just one of two beach tennis tournaments in the United States sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation. The ITF events are crucial for accumulating points and climbing in the world rankings. But since most of the ITF events are overseas, American athletes are at a disadvantage in the world rankings, Bonfigli said. Hermosa is home to many top ranked beach tennis players, including Donny Young and Ginger Young, who attended Tuesday’s meeting.
Bonfigli has been working on the tournament and brand launch with Carlos Rivera, an internationally-ranked beach tennis player who recently moved to Hermosa from Puerto Rico.
They were hoping to stage a larger tournament in September with about 100 players competing on the volleyball court-area north of the pier, where the event had been held the previous three years. But they were forced in the past month to reconfigure their plan after the commission, at its June 2 meeting, asked the organizers to come back with a smaller footprint for the tournament.
The organizers submitted their permit application to the city late and the city had granted a permit that weekend to a USA Volleyball Junior Beach tour event. Additionally, a bike race will come through Hermosa that weekend. The city council recently asked the commission to reduce the number of sand events to give residents greater access to the beach.
City staff recommended the commission deny the beach tennis application, altogether.
However, Commission Chairman Robert Rosenfeld, who later in the meeting passed the chairmanship to Jani Lange, sided with the organizers, who asked to hold the tournament at Hermosa’s three permanent beach tennis courts and three adjacent, temporary courts. The other commissioners agreed.
“It’s snatching the football away to say, ‘Ok, you downsized the event, but we’re not approving it,’” Rosenfeld said. “It’s a really cool event. These guys have been great citizens for four years and we should find a way to help them.”
