Two years ago, in the hope of winning the chance to host the United States Tennis Association's Men's Futures Event, the tennis center put on a new face, including remodeling its courts and a building a new snack shop.

The center's manager Brian Garrow is a former professional tennis player, ranking 12th in singles and 90th in doubles worldwide. Garrow also used his connections with the association to bring the tournament to Sunnyvale.

Players came from Russia, Australia, England, Japan, Argentina, France, Armenia and other countries. To help keep costs down, Sunnyvale Tennis Club members housed the players in their own homes.

"It's really a lot of fun to have the young men stay in our home," says Geoff Ainscow, a past president of the Sunnyvale Tennis Club.

In the first week of the tournament, 126 players competed in the qualifying round for eight open spots in the main tournament. The 20 highest ranked players who signed up had automatically gained a spot in the competition.

All qualifiers played in the final week in the singles and doubles categories. Most players who competed had a world ranking of 250 to 1,000. Argentinian Matias Boeker, 22, won the singles, and Texas A&M seniors, Ryan Newport and Lester Cook from the United States won the doubles.

But tournament participants weren't the only ones having fun. On one day Sunnyvale Tennis Club members got to play with the pros one day. Each amateur teamed up with a professional to play doubles against other pro/amateur teams.