Grace Ferguson would look out from her classroom window when she was a student at Concord High School watch as tennis balls ping-ponged across the clay at the Bow Brook Club.
On Saturday, Aug. 16, she participated in the first women’s tennis event held there in a very long time.
“I’ve never played on clay before,” she said. “It was like slow, the knees have to bend more, and you have to compensate a lot, especially with your arm, you have to make up the speed you lost in the last hit.”
Ferguson was one of the top players for the high school team and is currently the only female player on Wentworth Institute of Technology’s Men’s Tennis team. She played for two hours on Saturday, and it came as no surprise that she won the most games.
She said the event was a nice change of pace by allowing her to play both on clay and with women. If Bow Brook were to host a larger women’s tournament, she said, she would come back and play.
“It’s just fun to come back and keep hitting. It’s nice to take a break from boys,” Ferguson added.
Thirteen local players of all ages and skill levels, including members of the Crimson Tide’s tennis team, attended to get a feel for the clay surfaces offered at the club.
After a big turnout for the men’s city tournament, the Bow Brook reached out to girls’ tennis head coach Greg Malette to bring women and girls onto the courts and grow the tennis community in the city.
Ferguson wasn’t the only former Tide player on the courts. Her high school doubles partner, Nell Malette, who teaches private lessons, hit the court with her just like the old days.
The two set time aside this summer to teach at the Advantage Kids tennis summer camp, a program aimed at growing the sport in Concord and building up the next generation of Crimson Tide players.
“The girls have a lot signing up, but not a lot that have played tennis competitively before,” Malette said. “That’s why we’re trying with the camp to get them started with scoring and match play, so that when they come to Concord High and try out, they actually can shoot for a top six position.”
After wrapping up the scramble, they took some time to hang around and practice with incoming freshman Ahalia Saleem.
Both the girls’ and boys’ teams saw increased interest this past season, and as the sport grows, it’s only a matter of time before it results in increased competitive success.
With colder weather ahead, fall sports starting up and former players leaving for college, a city-wide women’s tournament at the Bow Brook might not be in the cards just yet.
But it may not be long before the next generation of female tennnis players at Concord High looks outside classroom windows to see women playing on the clay across the street.