The road to the Teen World Open 2022 ends in Naples, Florida, which since Academy Sanchez Casal was named as the tournament site has become the first host city of the Teen World Open.
Affluent, pristine, and full of activity, Naples combines the sun and spice of Miami with the gentler, family-oriented, restorative calm of the Gulf Coast. "We wanted a world-class resort city with a reputation for hospitality to welcome our international guests," tournament director Michael Augsberger said.
The city is known for its incredible beaches, its wildlife, its high-end shopping, top-drawer recreation, and countless dining options.
Naples beaches are known for their incredibly fine white sand and luxurious, restorative feel. With sixteen miles of coastline, Naples provides for a more refined beach experience sheltered from the harsher Atlantic waves on the eastern coast. Sunsets in Naples attract great attention. At the 130-year-old Naples Pier, the town’s landmark location housing its oldest residence, tourists from the world over gather to watch the sun set and capture the rare Green Flash that can occur only in Southwest Florida.
All beaches are public access in Naples, with mostly residential beachfront property. They’re preserved from the commercialization of highways, boardwalks, and other shopping, which can be found instead in numerous other places across the city.
“Shopping in Naples could truly be an Olympic sport,” is how one writer described it. “Retail therapy gone Coastal,” is another description.
Fifth Avenue South (with the highest-end shops) and Third Street South (a more casual feel) are the two most popular, city-block storefront outdoor venues, nestled in the historic downtown and Olde Naples. Mercado boasts as a true outdoor shopping mall, almost a town within itself. The Village Shops at Venetian Bay provide a sense of Old-World Italy, much like the city's many restaurants.
Of which there are more than seven hundred. Take to the outdoors at Celebration Food Truck Park, where the area’s most versatile and mobile chefs gather to showcase their skills. Also dine al fresco, European-style at the outdoor shopping malls, where in the evening they become possibly the most happening parts of the city. Fine-tune your taste for hops at the many top craft breweries with live music and trivia nights.
With 280 days of sun each year, visitors could always go to the beach, but change it up with countless excursions around town and its natural, preserved wonders. Stroll through Naples Botanical Gardens, which is 170 acres of immaculate, preserved wildlife and flora that brings you back to Florida before colonization. Keewaydin Island offers a shelling experience like no other. Sail the seas in a catamaran, on a scheduled cruise around the Keys, or in your own boat rented for the day. Propel yourself and work up an appetite for those seven hundred restaurants by kayaking.
The Everglades is “a naturalist’s dream.” Naples offers the keys to this gorgeous, sacred space without the overwhelming traffic and overcrowding you find in big-city Miami’s gates to the Everglades. See the alligator up close—but not too close—and learn all about the watershed by living it.
Athletes tend to play multiple sports; Naples affords that opportunity in spades. The LPGA has hosted its year-end event in Naples for a decade at Tiburon Golf Club. The area is home to more than eighty championship courses, including TPC Treviso Bay and Pelicans Nest. These tracks have helped the area become one of the most popular golf destinations in the world.
Air access was also a major concern for Tennis Central's organizing committee in the bid process, simplifying logistics for so many international travelers. Naples Airport is one of the busiest private jet airports in the country. Southwest Florida International, with commercial service, is just a half hour north on I-75 from Sanchez-Casal.
There will be no shortage of rest-day or off-hours activities for the players or their entourages or the tournament's many guests.
Naples had been slated to host Teen World Open 2021 before pandemic concerns forced a reschedule until December 2022.