Love Wins tennis tournament returns to St. Louis

After a one-year break, the Love Wins tournament returns to USTA St. Louis during Pride Month this June.

The event will take place June 15 from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. and features both tennis and pickleball tournaments as well as a silent auction. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Opportunity House, a St. Louis organization that helps provide housing and other supportive opportunities to homeless youth in the area.

The Love Wins tournament is run by Team Saint Louis, an organization dedicated to providing a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community and promoting a healthy lifestyle through participation in local, national and international sporting competitions.

“We’re really excited,” said Jamie Hansen, tournament director of the tennis portion of Love Wins. “I think, especially in this time that we’re kind of dealing with in the community, it’s just really important to have events like this to bring forth visibility.”

Outside of Love Wins, Team Saint Louis offers many different socials that encourage people in the LGBTQ+ community as well as allies to try new sports and make connections. The organization runs pickleball socials that have expanded to 40-50 players. Team Saint Louis hopes to offer more sports opportunities including tennis offerings, potentially this summer based on interest.

“(Love Wins) gives us an opportunity to see how many people are interested in playing tennis so that when we do decide to open up the tennis portion of programming hopefully in the near future, then obviously we’ll be able to have that contact for those folks who are interested,” said James Lewis, Team Saint Louis vice president.

Individuals can register for the tennis portion of the Love Wins tournament here.