President’s Letter May 2020
 

Dear Subscriber First Name,


It’s a new and strange world out there. I hope you and your family have been fortunate enough to stay safe and healthy.

I’m not sure whether we’ll really return to what we used to consider “normal” for a very long time, if ever. For some of you, the new normal includes nicking your fingers while climbing over fences, jimmying (why “jimmy”-ing?) locks on gates, finding walls to use as backboards, sneaking onto private tennis courts, and other activities that reflect serious cases of tennis addiction.

Clubs and courts are showing signs of opening up in the near future, and there are ways to reduce the health risks of playing tennis. Check our website nsmta.net for coronavirus preventative information.

We’ll bring you up to date as tournament tennis reschedules itself. As of today, USTA events and programs are suspended until May 31. Category Is and Super IIs with ITF affiliation are suspended through July 12.

As you probably noticed, we have continued to add new sections to our website. For instance, “Sportsmanship Stories” and “My Most Memorable Match” are recent additions, and we strongly encourage members to contribute.

Please note that access to all pages of our website are currently open to non-members as well as members through at least the end of May. We hope that if you’re a non-member, you’ll like what we’re doing and will join us!​

Another innovation is that we now have an NSMTA Pro Shop. The response has been excellent. We nearly sold out our inventory of quarter-zip embroidered pull-overs the first day! We’ll be adding more items very soon.

If you’re a member finished 2019 in the U.S. Top 10 or Top 20 in singles or doubles, you should have already received an award bag-tag medallion. By attaching them to your racquet bag, you may be able to intimidate a few opponents! Or not. Also, long-sleeve award shirts are going out to players who have won a Cat I or Cat II in the first quarter of this year.

I want to acknowledge our three most prolific new member recruiters — Joe Rasgado, Mark Vines and Noble Hendrix. They qualify as NSMTA Ambassadors, and we much appreciate their efforts! Our goal is to have 1,000 members by the end of 2020.

In closing, I hope that this health crisis with all of its global implications can serve to enable us to feel our connectedness better. Maybe it’s forcing us to take a step back and reevaluate the world we’ve been making and leaving to our kids, grandkids, and beyond. The pandemic is blind to national boundaries, religion, station in life, and other human-made distinctions. It attacks Prime Ministers right along with the disenfranchised.

Can we take this opportunity to learn? I fervently hope so.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, wives, grandmas, sisters and aunts. Glad to have Zoom calls so we can all still see and talk with each other!

Jimmy Parker
NSMTA President
 

The Dynamic Duo of Corley-Stewart
When you talk of some of the elite teams in men’s senior tennis over the past 20 years, you’d be remiss not to mention Dean Corley and Mike Stewart. NSMTA Board Member, Ed Trost, shares his second installment of member interviews.
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A Match I Haven’t Forgotten
Our "My Most Memorable Match" section debuts with a truly bizarre encounter between teenage ingénue Jimmy Parker and a ruthless ruffian with an apt name. After reading this story, you'll likely find it as unforgettable as Jimmy did after surviving it.
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