Once a year, Coronado’s tennis courts stop being polite. The 5th Annual Double Served Tournament is the party the neighborhood didn’t know it needed.
There is a version of the Coronado Tennis Center that most people know. Hushed. Orderly. The kind of place where you instinctively lower your voice and tuck in your shirt. Courts reserved for members. A culture built around precision and decorum.
Then there is the version that exists on one Friday afternoon a year.
On May 1st, the Coronado Junior Woman’s Club takes over. The nets stay up, but everything else changes. DJ Petecasso sets up. Emerald Spear Tequila rolls in with a shot racket, which is exactly what it sounds like and better than you are imagining. Somewhere near Court 4, a crowd is already forming, and nobody is whispering. By 5 pm, when the Advanced bracket takes the courts, the party is in full swing.
This is Double Served. It is now in its fifth year. It has never been quieter than a concert.
The tournament itself is real. Twenty-eight teams compete across Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced brackets, many in full costume, most with team names that would make a line judge blush. Kiss My Ace. Hit Me, Baby One More Time. The tennis is legitimate. The atmosphere is something else entirely.
“You don’t have to love tennis or even play it,” said Lyle Anderson, the event’s Creator and Chair. “You show up, grab a drink, and spend a Friday afternoon at a venue you’re never usually allowed to party at. Once a year, the courts become the best hangout in town.”
Court 4 is the place to party this year. Every guest is welcomed with an Aperol spritz upon entering. It is a chic, tennis-clad answer to the legendary 16th hole at the Waste Management Open. Lively party games. A quiet corner of mahjong hosted by the Coronado Mahjong Club. And anchoring it all, the CocoNats Cabana, serving specialty coconut margaritas. The DJ spins beats to keep the players dancing through their hits. It is loud, it is spirited, and it is exactly the kind of courtside energy that makes you forget there is an actual competition happening thirty feet away.
The Players Lounge has been leveled up as well. This year it operates as its own world entirely, with dedicated cocktails from Longball & Easy Rider, curated food offerings, and an exclusive collection from Cabi. Players earned it.
Spectator tickets are $50 online and $65 at the door, covering everything: tacos from Taste Salud, craft cocktails, pours from Harland Brewing and Easy Rider, and a raffle that local attendees have learned to take seriously. All food and beverages are donated. The generosity of this community is, at this point, its own kind of tradition.
Proceeds benefit Safe Harbor Coronado, which delivers mental wellness education and support to students across every grade level, and the Coronado Junior Woman’s Club’s broader community programs. The fundraising is real. So is the fun. The two are not in conflict here.
The Beginner/Intermediate bracket is sold out. Two Advanced team spots remain. Spectator tickets are moving quickly.
Play begins at 3:30 pm. The party, in every meaningful sense, has already started.
Spectator tickets available on Purple Pass here.
Sounds like a fun event! Do you know how much money was raised for the cause?