Anyone who works in the tennis industry knows that Atlanta has a rep for being the kingdom of tennis. It’s the Athens to Ancient Greece. The Capitol to the 13 districts. The King’s Landing to the seven kingdoms. Basically it’s the biggest, baddest, most active tennis community in the country. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s fine — here’s 10 reasons Atlanta is the actual kingdom of tennis.
1. USTA Atlanta boasts the largest adult league and junior team tennis programs in the nation.
Somebody provided Fireball at the City Finals and it is everything. (Adult City Finals, y’all!)
2. ATL is home to the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association, an organization of approximately 80,000 members.
Nah, doesn’t look like any fun.
3. Atlanta publishes the world’s largest locally distributed tennis magazine, Net News.
Photo contests with prizes are my literal jam.
4. The city hosts the BB&T Atlanta Open, where American tennis players have dominated for the last seven years.
Dat trophy, tho.
5. The metro area encompasses more than 1,100 tennis courts. That’s nearly 500 more courts than there are in Raleigh-Durham and 400 more courts than there are in Miami.
Peace up, A-Town down.
6. There’s a social co-ed tennis league sponsored by Red Hare Brewing Company that involves pizza and beer.
These are a few of my favorite things.
7. The people of Atlanta help raise tens of thousands of dollars every year for the Atlanta Youth Tennis and Education Foundation, which teaches tennis and life skills to youth.
The adorableness factor.
8. USTA Atlanta has an incentive program that gives tennis facilities as much as $250 for hosting junior tennis teams.
So that’s pretty cool.
9. Atlantans will actually play all year long.
Cold ain’t no thing.
10. To sum it up, the tennis scene in Atlanta looks hella fun.
So basically, if you’re an Atlantan who doesn’t play tennis are you really an Atlantan?
