Tennis returns to the Bronx

To the editor:

For 15 years, until 2008, Crotona Park hosted a tennis tournament in the run-up to the U.S. Open.

The seating at the Bronx Classic was primitive, but the competition was scintillating, The tourney featured up-and-coming men and women who played on the Challenger Circuit, the tennis equivalent of Triple-A baseball, in an effort to boost their rankings high enough to join the top players at the tour level.

Among those who hoisted the winners’ trophy were Amelie Mauresmo, who went on to be No. 1 in the world and win two Grand Slam titles; Mardy Fish, who rose to as high as seventh in the world; and Ivo Karlovic, still playing at 40 behind the most fearsome serve in the game.

Now, pro tennis has returned to the park, and instead of a Challenger, the new Bronx Open is a tour event providing women ranked high enough to gain entry into the U.S. Open a chance to tune up their games for Flushing Meadows.

The top seed, Wang Qiang, is ranked 15th in the world. This year’s Wimbledon semifinalist Barbora Strycova anchors the bottom half of the draw. The competition is so stiff that veterans Sam Stosur — a former U.S. Open champion — and Eugenie Bouchard — a former Wimbledon finalist — were eliminated early.

Crotona Park’s tennis complex has been transformed since the Bronx Classic ended its run a decade ago.

The Victor Kiam Stadium at the Carey Leeds Tennis Center is a jewel box bounded on three sides by comfortable seats, and on the fourth by an elegant, glass-walled clubhouse.

A second show court’s bleacher seating is more Spartan. But both offer what’s best about this tournament — a strikingly close view of the competition.

Spectators sit close enough to the court to see the seams of the spinning ball, feel the force of the players’ strokes, and hear the competitors swear in at least a dozen languages.

The Bronx Classic began as an effort to showcase the progress the South Bronx had made since the days when nearby Charlotte Street was a wilderness of ashes and rubble. Both Charlotte with its tract of homes and postage-stamp gardens lovingly tended by house-proud owners, and the Carey Leeds Center stand as shining proof that the borough is no longer an emblem of urban decay.

The South Bronx continues, though to embody the vision of Arthur Ashe, who founded the tournament’s sponsor, the Junior Tennis League, to give urban young people the same opportunity as their country club counterparts to fall in love with tennis, and to use the game to learn focus, discipline and sportsmanship.

If you enjoy hacking away at a fuzzy yellow ball, drive over to Crotona Park and take in the action. The tournament runs through Aug. 24. Play begins at 11 a.m., each day.

Parking, at least for those who arrive early enough to claim a space on Crotona Avenue — the road that traverses Crotona Park — is free and safe.

There is no charge for admission to the tournament. Its sponsor, the New York Junior Tennis League, does ask for a $10 donation.

Bernard L. Stein

The author is the former editor of The Riverdale Press, and also nets backhands and butchers volleys a couple times a week.

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