Above the Net students had the tremendous opportunity to attend the Truist Atlanta Tennis Open at Atlantic Station thanks to USTA Southern. The students participated in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) led workshop to help them understand the importance of having a strong educational foundation and how it relates to tennis. The students listened intently to a Professional Tennis Coach who led an interactive discussion that covered a wide range of tennis-related topics from stretching prior to a workout to selecting the proper tennis racket size.
In addition, the students had the pleasure of meeting former Georgia professional tennis player Jewel Peterson and hearing about her tennis journey firsthand. She shared her commitment and dedication to the sport at an early age. Which, ultimately led to her playing collegiate tennis for the University of Southern California.
The students had a blast spending time at the sports entertainment station testing their athletic skills in basketball, table tennis, and soccer. After which time, the students were fascinated to see an actual demonstration of a tennis racket being strung right before their very eyes. They heard some inside stories from an expert racket stringer, who by the way has strung rackets for Serena, Venus, and Agassi just to name a few. He shared the importance of picking the right strings and the impact strings have on a player's tennis performance, as well as their health.
The students were delighted to witness the ALTA college scholarship presentation. It was with great honor for ALTA (Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association) recognized 9 high school junior tennis players for winning top college scholarships to their respective schools.
Before heading to the stands to watch the highly anticipated upcoming first-round set of matches the kids were ushered courtside to give a warm southern welcome to United States tennis player Bjorn Fratangelo ranked 190 and Italian, tennis player Andreas Seppi ranked 87 to the court. The Georgia heat was unforgiving as the players battled it out which ended in a surprising win for Fratangelo in two sets.
A big thanks to Chick-Fil-A for providing a hearty lunch for all to enjoy and UPS for the swag bags complete with t-shirts and also tennis goodies. Also, would like to give a shout-out to our chaperones Robyn, Katie, and Kelley for their assistance throughout the entire event to ensure the students had fun and stayed safe.
As the cars rolled back into Richard Craig Park they were still pumped by the experience and determined to improve their own games!!
Great event for the kids....and chaperones!!!