Game, Set, Match: Tennis Center's Pro-Shop Is Winning Over Locals

Written by Gloria Tierney

This spring the Coronado Tennis Center’s pro-shop reopened under new ownership and a new name—Westwood Sports Coronado. It is the newest location of Westwood Sports headquartered in Rancho Bernardo. 

Westwood offers top of line products from the sports' best-known brands including Babolat, Head and Wilson. 

Get to know Mo Orozco, Westwood Sports Coronado's managing partner.

Patch: What is your tennis background?

Mo Orozco: Growing up I admired the talents of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Guillermo Vilas to name a few. In high school, I joined the tennis team; since then it’s been mostly recreational tennis except for a few tournaments now and then.

Patch: How is the Coronado shop different from other Westwood Sports locations?

Orozco: To have things available to tennis players here, we also try to stock products that are popular with Coronado tennis players. Lots of people ride their bikes to the center, so we have a large selection of racket backpacks.

Pickleball is popular here, so we stock a lot of pickleball products. If someone wants a piece of equipment we don’t have, we can bring it down from our Rancho Bernardo store or our warehouse by the next day.

Patch: In what other ways have you geared the shop to Coronado?

Orozco: We adjusted our hours of operation based on the needs of the tennis center. We extended our hours from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, so we could serve the kids in the junior tennis program for example.

We also offer a 10 percent discount on non-sale items to military, Coronado Tennis Association (CTA) members and local hotel guest.

Patch: What other services do you offer?

Orozco: Stringing is a very large part of our business; up to 50 percent I’d say.  

With our state-of-the art-stringing machine, we can have a racquet restrung within 24 hours. If it’s an emergency, a string breaks in the middle of a match say; we can fix it right away.

We also have demo racquets that people can take out onto the court to try before they purchase a particular band or style of racquet.

We also hold demo days—where you can pick up a racket from one company to try it out on the courts and come back and try another one. We also have free t-shirts and towels. We had one in July. It was a lot of fun. We hope to host more this year.

Patch: What are your plans for the future?

Orozco: We’re thinking of bring in some new products for tourist, runners and cyclists who come in for water or snacks.

A lot of them stop and we hope to stock products that would be of interest to them (such as) jogging shoes or T-shirts and towels with the Coronado Tennis Association or Coronado Tennis Center on them.

Also read: 5 Questions with Danny's Palm Bar and Root 75.