When the BB&T Atlanta Open begins at Atlantic Station on Saturday, tennis fans might notice red bins located throughout the grounds of the tournament.
By the tournament’s end, Wilson Sporting Goods and Retour Tennis hope those bins are filled with used tennis balls that the companies will use as building blocks for its new court.
The two companies have announced a recycling partnership and a goal of creating Atlanta’s first tennis court out of recycled balls. Wilson will partner with Laykold Masters to donate and install one Masters 5 court in Atlanta. An exact location for the court hasn’t been determined.
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“We couldn’t think of a better place to introduce our tennis ball recycling program than at the BB&T Atlanta Open and in the thriving tennis community of Atlanta,” said Kyle Schlegel, global marketing director for Wilson.
“Our hope is that recycling tennis balls becomes second nature and that by all of us working together we can make a big difference in Atlanta,” said Bill Dermody, president of Retour.
To participate in the recycling program, Atlanta tennis players and fans can bring their used tennis balls and place them in the red Wilson bins located in the Family Zone area at Atlantic Station during the tournament. The BB&T Open will also donate all official match and practice tennis balls to this initiative.
The Atlanta Open has been played since 2010 and is a men’s tournament part of the USTA U.S. Open Series. Its past champions include Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, Nick Kyrgios and former Georgia Bulldog John Isner, who has played in the tournament’s finals six times.
Qualifying for the tournament begins Saturday, July 22 at 9 a.m. and the tournament will conclude on Sunday, July 30 with the finals at 3 p.m.
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