A year ago, as the area started opening as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed, Sportsplex had about between 60 and 70 people watching the championship match of the club’s first Prize Money tournament.

Now, Sportsplex Tennis Director and Managing Partner Mark Savage is hoping for bigger and better this year as Sportsplex plans a $3,500 Prize Money tournament from Friday through Sunday at the club.

Originally the tournament was only going to offer a $2,500 prize but Cornwall Coffee and Mercantile owner Oscar Dotter donated $1,000 allowing the club to offer more prize money.

“That was very nice of them,” Savage said. “They had heard about it and just wanted to help out, which was totally unexpected.”

Savage also didn’t deny that Poughkeepsie’s $2,500 prize tournament gave him an extra push to make it bigger.

The tournament will be a 32-player draw. Tennis starts at 4 p.m. Friday and continues Saturday from noon until dark. Semifinals are slated for 10 a.m. Sunday with finals scheduled for 2 p.m.

Originally the two tournaments were scheduled for last weekend, but Savage moved his tournament so they wouldn’t be in competition for players.

“I want to see the Hudson Valley succeed so he and I will try to make sure we don’t conflict,” Savage said.

Last year, a large crowd spread out all over Sportsplex’s outdoor area watched the finals between Jordan Benjamin of Freeport, Nassau County, who was ranked about 800th in the world at the time, and Newburgh’s Guillermo Ucelay. Benjamin won the match 6-2, 6-1.

“I don’t know if I was surprised we had that many because there is a loyal following to tennis,” Savage said.

“Tennis fans are fiercely loyal to players, but it might even be more challenging this year because people are out more.”

Savage had been trying to get his club, the Powelton Club and Match Point to do a three-tournament Hudson Valley prize money club, where competitors would go from one club to another.

But Match Point had stopped doing its tournament last year, and Savage said tennis, which had been seeing falling numbers over the past 15 years before COVID has become a “sport on the rise” since the pandemic.

“It’s a safe sport,” Savage said. “You’re playing 78 feet away from somebody. I talked to the other clubs and they’re all in the same boat. They saw a huge increase over the past year in new players. The sport did not suffer. I think it’s one of the few sports that did not suffer during COVID.”

Last year, Sportsplex bore the entire cost of the tournament, but this year the tournament has been helped by local sponsorships from Cornwall Coffee and Mercantile, Dunkin Donuts, Ulster Bank, among others.

Savage’s short-term goal is to promote tennis in the area, but the long-term goal is to expand the tournament.

He has talked about possibly expanding the field to 64 players and have them compete in qualifying events to make the 32-draw on the weekend. But those are goals for the future.

“Down the road I’d like to make this into a pro event, and it would be good, one that could be one of the leadups to the U.S. Open somewhere down the road,” Savage said.