My earliest experiences swinging a tennis racquet were in 4th grade when our family played on some courts at Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada. In high school, I played basketball and hung around with fellow sports minded guys, and in the spring of my sophomore year several of us were playing a lot of tennis for fun, so we joined the school tennis team my junior year. Being new to the team we had to start at the bottom of the junior varsity ladder and work our way up. Several of us got to varsity before the end of the season, and I reached #3 singles. My senior year I switched from basketball to focus on tennis, and played #1 singles for the team. I wasn’t a great player, and had never had a lesson, but I won about half of my league matches. And our school team, with its influx of ex-basketball players, had its best season in many years, perhaps ever.
I still have my actual Wilson Jack Kramer Autograph racquet from high school. That was the popular model at the time.
I wasn’t good enough to play competitively in college, but I did enjoy playing intramural tournaments and other casual play.
Then life got busy with family and work, and I rarely played tennis for the next 20 years or so.
To be continued…