“Stars” Take To Court

For 8‑year-old Sebastian Ward of Edgewood School, tennis is a way to have fun and exercise. For 8‑year-old Han Mei of Worthington Hooker School, it’s a way to meet new people.

Sebastian and Han, trained team tennis players, joined an additional 300 first- and second-graders from New Haven schools newer to the sport at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale Thursday morning for the 10th annual Free Tennis Lesson sponsored by New Haven’s annual professional tournament renamed the New Haven Open at Yale. Kids learned basic tennis skills from teaching professionals and received what was, for many of them, their introduction to the sport.

This year’s Free Tennis Lesson was the first to give free tennis rackets to participants. The rackets were donated by First Niagara Bank, which sponsored the event for the first time this year. (First Niagara also sponsors the New Haven Open.)

Tournament Director Anne Worcester has been involved with the Free Tennis Lesson since it began. She said that the United States Tennis Association, the governing body of American tennis, now uses the New Haven Open as a model for how tennis tournaments nationwide should work to promote the sport and reach out to their communities.

“We use the power and excitement of pro tennis to build tennis in the community,” Worcester said.

Worcester told participants at the start of the lessons that among the items they would receive on their way out of the tennis center was a brochure inviting them to continue with tennis lessons. Through a collaboration between the tournament and the New Haven Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees, kids can take lessons in spring, summer, fall and now winter sessions for a reasonable fee. The lessons are managed by a group called New Haven Youth Tennis and Education.

“You can’t just have one-off events,” Worcester said. ​“There’s got to be infrastructure to feed [kids] into.”

Worcester said that, besides presenting an opportunity to participate in sports, tennis lessons teach the importance of fitness, health and, more recently, academics. Two years ago, New Haven was certified by the USTA as a chapter of First Serve, a group of youth tennis programs which also includes a curriculum on ​“life choices” and academic mentoring. Kids who become student athletes can also become eligible for scholarship money, based on their performance in the classroom as well as on the tennis court.

“What really inspired me about coming to New Haven was that we could use the tennis tournament as the means to improve kids’ lives,” Worcester said.

John Pirtel, the director of New Haven Youth Tennis and Education, said that kids from New Haven had ranked high nationally among student athletes. He also cited increasing diversity in the program; numbers of Latino students in particular enrolled in lessons have increased since 2004.

Pirtel’s group also manages New Haven’s junior tennis team. The New Haven Stars, honored at the Free Tennis Lesson, won the state championship for 8‑and-under tennis last summer. For Pirtel, the opportunity to make new friends is a big part of what draws kids to tennis.

“It becomes a little family,” Pirtel said.

The Free Tennis Lesson, as well as other youth tennis programs in New Haven, are part of USTA’s 10 and Under Tennis initiative, which uses a format called QuickStart. 10 and Under Tennis uses a special ball which bounces lower and flies more slowly, and its court, net and rackets are all smaller, allowing children to learn the game more smoothly and achieve more success, Worcester said.