The Top Florida Cities: Part 2

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Welcome to Florida Week! As the tours head southeast for the Miami Open, TENNIS.com and Baseline will feature all things Sunshine State. You’ll learn about the personalities, stories, teams and venues that have made Florida one of the tennis capitals of the world. We’ll also be reporting from the Miami Open in Key Biscayne.

As you’ll learn this week, when it comes to tennis, Florida isn’t just a state—it’s a state of mind.

On that note, here's a look at five Florida tennis meccas, with the previous five available here.

The Delray Beach Tennis Center and its second location, the Delray Swim & Tennis Club combine to provide 44 courts and an 8,200-seat stadium that is the main court for the city’s ATP World Tour 250 tournament, the Delray Beach Open.

While Jack Sock won the championship match this year in a walkover against Milos Raonic, there is always plenty of action at the hard-court tournament. The Delray Beach Tennis Center has also hosted both Davis Cup (2004) and Fed Cup (2005) ties over the years.

Many tennis players, of both the professional and recreational variety, choose to live in Delray Beach. Kevin Anderson has made the city his home, and even 22-time Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf once lived there.

But perhaps the most fun of all is not had on one of the city’s many tennis courts. When "beach" is in a city’s name, you have to get some beach tennis in, right? Check out Santiago Giraldo, who got a taste of the sport earlier this year:

Have you ever wondered what it is like to play tennis at one of the top facilities in not just Florida or the United States, but the entire world? You can do just that in Sarasota at Longboat Key Club’s The Resort.

So, what makes playing in Sarasota so special? Well, it is as close as you could get to both real-world and tennis paradise, with a world-class tennis education in a beautiful setting.

While the resort’s tennis gardens are only available to resort guests and members, it certainly warrants its exclusivity. And really, who wouldn’t want to play tennis right next to a marina?

This year is also the 10th anniversary of the Sarasota Open, an ATP Challenger held at the United Tennis Club. The 21-court facility has played host to plenty of the world’s best, with Kei Nishikori and Nick Kyrgios winning the titles in 2010 and 2014, respectively.

For many years, Florida has been a breeding ground for top tennis talent. But perhaps more so than any city in the state, Boca Raton has been where some of the best of the best have refined their craft.

All it takes is one look at the name of one of Boca Raton’s premier facilities, the Evert Tennis Academy, to realize that the city is plenty familiar with tennis greatness. It is safe to say that if an academy bears the name of an 18-time Grand Slam champion, it probably is a pretty good place to be.

As the former USTA National Training Center, it hosted plenty of top American talent like Madison Keys and Christina McHale. Nick Kyrgios has been known to train and hang out when he's in town,even playing Pokemon GO with some teenagers.

But Boca Raton is not known for just one facility. Rick Macci, who has coached Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick and many more of the sport’s greats, has his famed academy located at the Boca Lago Country Club.

Throughout the year, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and all of the ATP World Tour’s best travel country to country to entertain fans around the world. But where does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that makes the tour run happen?

You can trace everything back to four main locations: London, Monaco, Sydney, and Ponte Vedra in Florida. No, you never hear of Rafael Nadal getting called to Ponte Vedra for a meeting like you might when an NFL player is summoned to Roger Goodell’s office in Manhattan. But many of the ATP tour’s key leaders are based in its Florida offices.

Ponte Vedra is also the home of the PGA Tour and its “The Players Championship,” which is held annually at the TPC Sawgrass, a five-minute drive from the ATP office.