Tag: tennis

It’s a Saturday night at Gas South Arena in Duluth, and Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka are deep in a rally. Osaka floats up a lob; Sabalenka chases it down and answers with a tweener—a shot between the legs while facing away from the net—before closing the point with a backhand drop shot. She immediately spins around and locks eyes with Nick Kyrgios, king of the tweener, who’s watching from the stands. The crowd erupts.

I can say with particular pride that I was the first person to play tennis inside State Farm Arena. Elton John staged a tennis benefit for his AIDS Foundation at the newly opened building, then Philips Arena, in 2000, with Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Billie Jean King, and other legendary players on hand. I was a tennis newbie and arranged to hit with doubles star Luke Jensen before the event for a story I was writing.

Atlanta is widely acknowledged as the tennis capital of the world, with more than 100,000 players throughout the metro area in leagues such as the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association (ALTA) and USTA Atlanta. It’s near impossible to get an exact number, with those participating in junior tennis, high school, and college teams, as well as those who play independently or in private clubs, adding to the tennis craze.

Christopher Eubanks, who grew up playing on the courts of the South Fulton Tennis Center, announced himself at Wimbledon in 2023. His string of upset wins was impressive, but the reckless abandonment he played with, plus the shock on his face after every win, made him a crowd favorite. His run ended in the quarterfinals, the furthest an American man had gone at the tournament since 2017, and his ranking jumped to number 29 in the world, a career high. But since that summer on grass, Eubanks hasn’t been back on tennis’s biggest stages.

It wasn’t unreasonable to imagine Horace Reid on a rocket ship to the top of the tennis world. Many already saw him as the next great Black champion. But within a few years, Reid’s tennis dreams would be all but dashed: He’d quit college, fail to find consistency on the pro tour, and suffer an agonizing fallout with Arthur Ashe, his hero and would-be mentor. The rupture would not only hamstring Reid’s career, in his telling, but also burden him with a secret he felt he could never share: how everything went so wrong.

I’m not an athlete, but as I climb further into my 30s, I find myself caring more about physical fitness. The thing is, I need to have fun doing it. Chasing and hitting a ball is fun, plus there’s a social aspect. Last summer, I joined an ALTA league, unlocking a world of tennis I didn’t know existed in Atlanta. Starting a new sport can feel overwhelming, but fear not; I’m here to help you.

Yes, the Atlanta Open was not the best venue for tennis, though I do also see its temporary structure, and existence, as a sign: Commitment is important, for both the people with the checkbooks and pens, and the fans.

I was a tennis warrior until the game wore out my knees; after surgery, I yearn to get back on the courts.

See tennis pros (including Christopher Eubanks!) at the Atlanta Open, cool off at the Atlanta Ice Cream Festival, and celebrate Puerto Rican food and culture at Sanse Atlanta.

Find new clothes at the Atlanta Streetwear Market, catch Mean Girls at the Fox, watch tennis at the Atlanta Open, and more things to do this weekend in Atlanta, July 21-24, 2022.