Meet Vicky Collins… the tournament director of Boodles Tennis
Vicky Collins grew up on tennis and started her career with plans to be a professional tennis player.
Today, she is the founder and tournament director of Boodles Tennis at The Mere.
The 41-year-old, who employs elite legends of tennis, first launched the popular three-day event six years ago.
Just because the annual lifestyle event is a fixture in the social diaries of Cheshire’s finest, don’t think for a minute that Vicky doesn’t mean business – Goran Ivanisevic, the only tennis player to have won Wimbledon on a wild card entry, calls her ‘Big Boss’.
“That makes me laugh,” said Vicky, who now lives in Hale. “But I suppose I am their (the players) boss. With the players who regularly appear, we don’t contact them through agents now. We’ve almost developed a tennis network in the North West as well as an event that I think is unrivalled in regards to access guests attending get to legends of tennis.”
“It is a business though,” said Vicky. “And it’s a tough sector in which I operate for 12 months a year to put on a three-day event.”
For this year’s event, which was held last week, Vicky launched a ‘genuine Ladies Day’, with former World No.1 Kim Clijsters and ex-Wimbledon Champion Marion Bartoli set to compete in front of hundreds of guests.
“It’s the first time I’ve had female tennis players at Boodles Tennis,” said Vicky.
“Kim and Marion are genuine idols of mine and I’m looking forward to them joining the male legends at Boodles Tennis in June. I think they are aware that they are joining a family atmosphere at The Mere, and I know that guests and sponsors will take to all the players once again.”
Join us for afternoon tea at Menagerie on Friday 14 July, when Vicky will share her experiences of working with some of tennis’ biggest stars as well as some of the world’s best known luxury brands.
She will also talk about the challenges of setting up an events company and doing business in the Middle East as a woman – in 2014 she launched Tennis at the Palace in Abu Dhabi.
“I took a unique tennis event to Abu Dhabi as Etihad were a sponsor of Boodles Tennis at the time,” said Vicky.
“We had to make a grass court from scratch and I had Tim Henman helping me put the lines out on the last day.
“It was an interesting time as a lot of people thought I’d struggle to do business in the Middle East as a woman. But not once did I have any discrimination for being British or female. If anything, it was the opposite.”
Our event takes place just before Wimbledon’s climatic finals weekend and is perfectly timed for Vicky to regale us with tales from some of the tournament’s best known stars – such as the time she had Tim Henman helping to put out the lines before a Tennis at the Palace tournament.
TheBusinessDesk.com editor Joanne Birtwistle will be speaking with Vicky about the challenges of running such a high-profile event, how to manage cashflow in a ‘lumpy’ business, setting up a business in the Middle East and some behind the scenes player tales from this year’s tournament.
