Racquet Club Of Chicago To Celebrate Restored (After Eighty Years!) Court Tennis Court
by Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline October 25th --- More than 200 court tennis aficionados, including a quartet of world champions past and present, will be arriving at the Racquet Club Of Chicago today to participate in a three-day ceremony marking the return of its court tennis court after an eight-decade hiatus. During the early 1930’s, the court tennis court had been converted into a regular tennis court (the only one in the entire city of Chicago at the time) in deference to the ascent of tennis during that era. Now, all these years later and as the payoff for years of extensive lobbying and some back-and-forth among the club’s membership, the court tennis court has been restored (and has been available for play beginning this past August 1st), a development that will be celebrated this weekend with a handicap court tennis doubles tournament (with 48 team entries) as well as a rackets doubles event and a squash doubles competition. In addition to its now-restored court tennis court, the Racquet Club also has two rackets courts, two squash doubles courts and a squash singles court, making it one of the only clubs in the U. S. that has both doubles and singles squash courts in which there are more doubles courts than singles courts. The new court tennis court will be the only such venue in Chicago and brings to 11 the total number of court tennis courts in the U. S.
Current world court tennis champion Rob Fahey, who has held the title a record 18 years since first winning it in 1994, will be on hand, as will former world champs Pete Bostwick (who also won U. S. National age-group squash tourneys in the 40’s in 1975, the 45’s in 1980 and the 70’s in 2005), Howard Angus and Chris Ronaldson. Wayne Davies, the enormously popular former New York Racquet & Tennis Club pro who held the title in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before Fahey displaced him, cannot attend due to the wedding of one of his children this weekend. All four major court tennis-playing countries (namely England, Australia, France and the United States) will be represented among the massive number of attendees, in an extravaganza organized by a Committee that includes the club’s new head court tennis pro Steve Vergona (who in both 2010 and 2012 won the tournament for the right to challenge Fahey for his crown and hence is currently the No. 2 player in the world) and highlighted by a black-tie dinner on Saturday evening.
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