By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
In her “Hard Court” Substack column from the Delray Beach Open, fashion and beauty journalist Jessica Schiffer described this ATP Tour 250-level event as “incredibly charming, with country fair vibes, decent food…and a very blurred line between player and public spaces that would be a dream for any tennis fan.” This is an excellent description of this cozy cauldron of professional tennis located along the bustling night-life strip of Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Florida.
I couldn’t help think about this intimacy when watching a doubles quarterfinal match during the Thursday day session of the tournament. It featured U.S. Davis Cup and Olympic hero Austin Krajicek and partner Nikola Mektic of Croatia against the uniquely-clothed Ariel Behar of Uruguay and Matthew Romios of Australia. I shuffled with my friend Bill Meyer to sit in front row seats on the facility’s Court 1, the lesser of the two match courts that is located in the shadow of the stadium court. We just happened to sit right behind Behar and Romios on their courtside bench. And when I say right behind Behar and Romios, I might RIGHT BEHIND! If we were any closer, we would be sitting next to them or in their lap. We were almost as close as where a Davis Cup captain would sit coaching players. The ball kids almost tripped over us as they stood to hold the umbrellas over the players on changeovers. I have been involved in competitive tennis for nearly 40 years and I don’t think I have ever been this close to a competitive tennis match, let alone an ATP Tour level match. And this was where any fan could sit!
And it’s not just players that you can get close to at the Delray Beach Open.
If you are curious about how the pros string their racquets while on site, you can just walk right up to the official tournament stringers, who are camped out in a tent just next to Court 1. Craig Brotman, who also stings from our Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Vero Beach, Florida, will answer your questions about what strings and tensions the pros use, as will his fellow stringers. Zach Svajda, for example, has his racquet strung at 36 pounds, the lowest of any player at the 2026 event. While I was chatting with Craig about our 2026 Mardy Fish event, as well as how adding some weight to my Wilson Burn FST racquet may help alleviate my elbow joint pain, Michael Chang, the 1989 French Open champion, walked up next to us and checked in on his racquets for his charge, rising American star Learner Tien. What was surprising to me is that if you bring your racquet to these stringers, they will even string it for you right there at the event, provided it doesn’t conflict or delay their official work for the ATP players.
