Challenge in Zeeland; History of the tournament

“At first, everybody said it would never work out,” both of them recall, “but that only made us more motivated.” Their hard work paid off. With the help of dozens of enthusiastic volunteers, Sven Vermeulen and Sander van Buren managed to organize a prestigious international tennis tournament. . . in Middelburg.
By Mereke van Garderen

From regional to international
It all started in 2001, when Sven Vermeulen organized a regional tennis tournament in Oost-Souburg. This tournament was a success and grew over the years. From a large regional tournament it soon turned into a small national tournament, and it was still growing. In 2008, Sander van Buren joined in, and together they managed to combine the Oost-Souburg tournament with the regionally well-known Maeneblusschers tournament in Middelburg, and lift the tournament to the next level. Middelburg became the new tournament site. In 2009, it attained the highest possible status for a national tournament as the ‘Thermphos Nationale Ranglijst Toernooi’ (Thermphos National Ranking Tournament), which took place in Middelburg.
The national tournament became such a success that the two men started to dream bigger. Their idea to organize an international tournament in Zeeland was initially received with skepticism. “They all thought it wasn’t possible,” says Van Buren, smiling broadly. Vermeulen had similar experiences. “People thought we were crazy,” he recalls, “they didn’t believe it could work.” The general belief that Zeeland was too small to support such a tournament only caused them to be more motivated and work harder. They decided to request an international status for their tournament, which was granted immediately by the KNLTB and ITF (the Dutch and the International Tennis Federation).

Future and Challenger
In September 2010, Middelburg hosted an international Future tournament for the first time. Next to the Future, with a total of €10.000 prize money for men and €15.000 for women, the open tournament (previously known as Maeneblusschers tournament), the national ranking tournament, and a youth tournament took place. The success story continued, as the tournament easily met the requirements for a Future. In many respects, it was even “far above the standards,” according to Van Buren. This encouraged the two to take one step further, and they requested a Challenger status for their women’s tournament the following year. This request was initially turned down, because all available licenses had already been given to other tournaments. But Vermeulen and Van Buren were not willing to give up that easily. They appealed for an exceptional position, and were granted permission for the tournament in December 2010.

The manager and the referee
Once these formalities were out of the way, the real work started. Vermeulen and Van Buren organize the tournament together, each taking care of their own separate tasks. Technical director Vermeulen, who is also an international referee, takes care of the tennis-related aspects of the tournament. Van Buren is the organizational director. The hardest part of the job was to make things work financially. They had been warned beforehand, and it turned out to be difficult indeed to find enough local companies to sponsor the event. Van Buren is proud of what they achieved in that respect: “We showed that it is possible to unite the forces in Zeeland.” Van Buren is not only concerned with finances, but with all organizational aspects of the tournament and its side-events, down to the smallest detail. “Don’t forget to buy red lemonade,” says Van Buren, on the phone with one of the organizers of a tennis event for 35 children, “most of them don’t like the orange one.” A difficult aspect of the organization is finding enough man power. A tournament like this relies for 95% on volunteers, explains Van Buren, and it is hard to find so many people who can help. Another difficulty are the different interests that have to be united. Whereas MLTC, for example, wants to keep its park clean and orderly, you also want as many visitors as possible to attend the tournament. “We organize for the public,” Van Buren says, “which is also nice for the players. In Holland we’re always a little more crazy than the rest, and the players know that.”