New sport to tennis competition?

 Hi again! 

Over this past weekend, my tennis team and I traveled up to U.S. Military Academy at West Point for the Eastern Tennis Championships. What a great tournament! About twenty teams came from all over the Northeast to compete in four levels of singles brackets and two levels of doubles.  We even got some free time on Saturday to check out the near by Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets for some great buys.  If you live in the tri-state area, it is a must to take a day-trip drive to these outlets. There are over 150 top designer and brand names stores, from big designers like Prada and Chanel to every day wear clothiers like Jockey and the Gap.  After you shop til you drop, check out the food court's Pasitano Restaurant or near by Friday's, Applebee's or UNO.  I feel this is the only draw back the outlet center-the crummy post-spending spree eateries. The plethera of upscale stores generally attract a type of person who would rather dine at a an eatery that matches their high-taste for fashion. Either way, the outlets definitely were an added bonus to going the tennis trip!

But, back to the tennis...On Sunday, the tournament hosted a new type of tennis competition called "One-On-One Doubles," created by Ed Krass, an accomplished figure in the tennis world. Krass led the Harvard women's tennis team to many championship titles before coaching the Clemson University men's tennis teams, where he also produced champions.  Now, Krass holds summer camps for high school students called "College Tennis Exposure Camp," offered for three weeks in July right here at Lehigh! A recruiting camp for high-school tennis hopefuls, Krass has successfully tested out his One-on-One doubles game here on our campus!

Here's how you play: In One-on-One doubles, the court is divided into two halves, basically extending the center line in the service box to the base line. Two players compete cross-court with each other, including the alleys. The server must serve and volley on both serves or they automatically loose the point and scoring is kept just like it would be in a regular match.

It's a really fun game that gets every one practicing their serve and volley, which is a really important strategy in doubles play.  My teammates and I have done a lot of One-on-One doubles drills in our practices so it's been fun to play it in competitions.

Momentum for Krass' new game has built up a lot over the past few years and top competitors can now receive a USTA ranking for the sport, just as they can for traditional singles and doubles play. It's pretty cool to be the first to play this new type of sport and I'm happy it's now apart of college tennis, especially because it's played with music in the background! Tennis used to be a "quiet sport", but at college tennis tournaments and practices, we've been allowed to play music, which really helps everyone have more fun on the court and play better.

That's about all for now! Check back soon for the next on Liz's Latest!