The US Open is a hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Queens and is the last of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the year. Originally known as the US National Championship, it is one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, first played in August 1881. This year marks the 50th anniversary of equal prize money for women in the tournament. In 2023, each winner will receive $3 million.
One day after the beginning of this year’s tournament, the Varsity Girls tennis team took on Piedmont in their pre-season home opener with just as much competitive intensity, but slightly less money on the line. Although Piedmont secured the overall team victory, the dynamic doubles team duo of Emily Jones and Anna McLeod won their match, and 3 of the other matches went to tie breaks. Freshman Grace Colaco was named “Player of the Match” following a marathon match in which many of her teammates were hanging on the fence cheering her on at the end.
I must admit that writing for tennis is way more difficult than the writing I have done for my son’s football and baseball teams. Why? To begin with, the players do not wear jerseys with numbers, so trying to figure out who is on which court can be difficult, particularly since this is the first year my daughter has played. Second, whereas in other sports there is only one game being played at a time, tennis has 6+ matches going on concurrently. Lastly, whereas some sports utilize systems such as Hudl or GameChanger which records all of what happened during the game, tennis does not have an equivalent system, making the writer completely reliant on what they see or are told from the coaches or other parents. All of this is my way of saying thank you to those that provide information, and I apologize in advance if I have to make something up because I didn’t see who won the deuce point in the 4th game of the second set on court #6. Go Dons!
The team’s next tournament is at James Logan High School in Union City on September 8 and 9