Daniel Island couple opens up home to traveling tennis players

The doubles team of Great Britain’s Olivia Nicholls and Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova, along with one of their coaches, had just finished an eight-hour drive into South Carolina from Florida to compete at the Credit One Charleston Open.

 

They were at dinner recounting to a member of their Daniel Island host family the highlights of their trip to the Palmetto State.

 

All were giddy, grinning from ear to ear.

 

They didn’t reminisce about their exciting semifinal run two weeks ago at Indian Wells or how they advanced to the Round of 16 at the Miami Open.

 

Instead, they couldn’t stop talking about the fun detour they took to Orlando, Florida, to enjoy a day of thrill rides at a Harry Potter amusement park inside Universal. There wasn’t any talk of forehands or backhands, instead, just laughs of what it was like to sip a taste of the wizard’s sweet, creamy, non-alcoholic drink.

 

“Butterbeer!” Nicholls, the only British player in the group, shouted out.

 

The trio had just driven to Daniel Island to stay at the home of Tory and Andrea Sullivan, at least for a day or two, before moving on to the players’ hotel in downtown Charleston. 

 

The Sullivans welcome tennis players, who are far away from their home state or country, to stay and relax at their family residence, offering players sleeping rooms closer to the stadium, an opportunity to grab some rest and downtime from the week-to-week tournament grind - and maybe, a quick trip on a golf cart to tour the island.

 

“We made friends with them, and they like staying at the house,” Andrea Sullivan said of the doubles duo. “They like staying in a family environment, like being at a house, cooking their own foods, and they love our dogs!”

 

Sullivan said three years ago at the LTP Mount Pleasant tournament, there was a call to members to see if anyone might be able to house a player who had just graduated - and needed a room for the competition.

 

“I said, ‘Tory, we’ve got three rooms, why not!’”

 

That first house guest then led to the housing of another player in need of a room. Which led to another. And then another, and then another.

 

“Their housing situation wasn’t ideal. We knew that,” she said, “But no one should be sofa-surfing when you’re in a tournament, you should be ready to play!”

 

The Sullivans said they will continue to leave their door open for incoming athletes in the future. They have heard about the not-so-glamorous life of being a nomad on tour, and they hope by providing up-and-coming athletes a quiet home away from home, it might give them additional rest and some extra zzz’s to help them advance to the next round.

 

“We are open to doing it again,” she said. “It also gives us a chance to invest in them and root for them at the tournament.”