Cary may be the newest tennis hot spot. This weekend, the town hosted almost 800 adult and senior players from nine Southern states for the U.S. Tennis Association's League Tennis Southern Mixed Championships.

Divided into six adult and five senior divisions, the 110 teams worked their way to Cary by winning their respective divisions in their state.

"This is the first time I’ve been to Cary and it’s gorgeous," said Luann Causey of the 8.0 senior team from Macon, Ga. "It’s cooler here, the leaves are changing and the competition is great. We’ve had a blast."

Although the USTA uses the National Tennis Rating Program to track the skill levels of its players, the league’s Mixed Doubles program allows players of different NTRP levels to play together and allows those without a determined rating to decided for themselves.

The adult division, which includes players from 19 to 50 years, ranges from a beginning level of 5.0 to a more advanced 10.0. The senior division, for players 50 years and older, ranges from 5.0 to 9.0.

"We have players that are very new to tennis who might win a national championship," said Marilyn Sherman, the director of adult tennis in the USTA Southern Section. "It’s a fun thing to just start playing and happen to be on a team that win’s their local league and continues to compete and win against new players to go all the way."

Of the near 665,000 players in the entire USTA, the Southern Section accounts for nearly 25 percent of the league’s participant population and 26,000 off those members play mixed doubles league.

But for those who earned their spot in the championships, getting to Cary was only half the battle. Once they arrived, they had one goal in mind: win their division to earn a spot in the USTA League Tennis National Eastern Regional Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, held Nov. 16-19.

With games spread over the courts at Cary Tennis Park, Godbold Park, Middle Creek and Annie Jones, the tournament started on Oct. 20. The finals were scheduled to run through Sunday, but the steady stream of rain kept some players from winding up their matches in time.

Perhaps the most anticipated game was the 9.0 Adult Division finals, in which two N.C. teams, one from Cary and the other from Lake Norman, sweated it out.

Cary came out victorious and earned a trip to Puerto Rico.

On Saturday, the league held a party for the players at Koka Booth Amphitheatre. With wine and live music, it seemed the Sunday rain may have done the players a favor. The competition was left on the court and the night was dedicated to socializing, dancing and a little barbeque.

As a mixed doubles tournament, it would have seemed logical for players to join as husband-and-wife pairs. But from experience, many partners decide otherwise.

"Sometimes they find out it’s better to be on the same team but partnered with different people," Sherman said. "So it’s interesting to find out the ones that can actually play on the court together and have a good time."

Bob Harla of Greenwood, S.C., has been playing for six years, and he, too, has noticed the partner trend.

"No, we’d never allow husband-and-wife partners on our team," he said, jokingly. "That’s why we get along so well."

Harla, who recently turned 60, believes his tennis career is far from over. He’s noticed many of his colleagues picking up a golf club instead of a tennis racket, but he says he’s not ready yet.

In fact, he’s urging the Southern Section to start up a super-senior mixed doubles program.

"When I get old I’ll take up golf," he said. "I think we could add a super-senior mixed division to this league, though. It’s a ball!"

After the 11 division winners of the tournament were crowned, some weren’t ready to leave.

"I just learned today that one of the player’s parents are moving to Cary," Sherman said. "They’re active people and they could have chosen anywhere. The people in this tournament are easily from a hundred different areas, but many of them don’t have a public tennis center, so I think that means a lot for this area."