The Tallahassee Tennis Association (TTA) kicked off its largest tournament of the year on October 24th with a draw party held at local pub and grill Hurricanes. At the draw party, tournament participants were able to find out who their opponents were for the first match, enjoy free appetizers, socialize with other tournament players, and warm up their tournament feet with a little dancing.
The TTA uses the proceeds from the tournament to help fund court improvements at public tennis courts in the local area, provide assistance to youth tennis programs, establish scholarships, and assist other charitable causes. This year’s tournament allowed local youth to earn volunteer hours by collecting and selling gently used tennis equipment to help support Capital City Youth Services, which is a non-profit organization that provides counseling and outreach services to youth and their families, and emergency shelter services to youth in crisis.
Kevin Ragsdale coordinated this effort, and any equipment that was not sold during the TTA Championship Games will be donated to local youth tennis programs.
Matches began Friday evening at the Forestmeadows Athletic Center and continued through the weekend, with men’s and women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Many of the 80 participants chose to play in two events, testing their endurance as well as their playing ability against some tough competition.
What was especially exciting this year, according to the Tournament Director Cathy Kendall, was a draw of 11 players in the Men’s 4.5/Open Singles event. Some of the best players in town competed against some college players from the Florida A&M University’s Men’s Tennis Team as well as some local tennis professionals.
Unknown to most of these players, however, was a $100 gift certificate awarded to the winner of this division, Karlyn Small. The gift certificate was made available through the sale of raffle tickets for a 3-night stay at a condominium in Seagrove, graciously donated by Wanda Peterson. Players and spectators purchased tickets for a chance to win. The lucky winner of the raffle was Kerry Brumby.
The results of this year’s tournament include: Women’s 3.5/4.0 Singles – Lisa Franson (W); Women’s 6.0 Doubles – Renee Howard/ Chansamone Bryant (W); Mens 2.5/3.0 Singles – Rodney Reams (W), Prakash Mohan (RU); 3.5 Singles – Anthony Thompson (W), Jeremy Cummings (RU); 4.0 Singles – Franklin Thompson (W), Tim Carr (RU); 4.5/Open Singles – Karlyn Small (W), Robert Margolis (RU); Men’s 6.0 Doubles – Scott Snyder/Dave Harper (W); Men’s 7.0 Doubles – To Be Determined; Men’s 8.0 Doubles- Harold Brown/Simha Jagadeesh (W), Tom Abney/Phil Sanders (RU); Men’s 9.0 Doubles – Alec Mason/Jake Dodson (W); and Mixed 8.0 – Corey Howard/Renee Howard (W), Sharon Nicholson/Ronnie Nicholson (RU).
Some of the winners were determined through a round robin due to some of the divisions having smaller draws.
Cathy wishes to extend a special thanks to all the players, the Forestmeadows staff, and the volunteers who made this year’s event a great success!
