The fourth annual Beverly O’Neal Tennis Tournament gets underway today at the Halls Ferry Tennis Courts.

The city wide tournament is held in honor of the long-time tennis instructor who died while playing in 2005. Despite the Easter weekend holiday, tournament director Rick Shields say it was important that the tournament keep its first weekend of April date.

“We feel the participation level is about what we expect for a holiday weekend,” Shields said. “We’ll begin play on Friday afternoon and then have a full day on Saturday and if need too because of weather, we’ll go into Sunday.

“We felt it was more important to keep the tradition of having the tournament on the first weekend in April. That way everyone knows that it is the Beverly O’Neal Tournament.”

Shields says the event was able to place six teams in three of the men’s divisions including the Open, Men’s 3.5 and Men’s 4.5.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com