Twelve lucky Jr. Team Tennis players from the Bucks County Tennis Association (BCTA) “Tennis in the Parks” program were treated to a very special experience during BCTA night at the Philadelphia Freedoms World Team Tennis (WTT) match on Friday, July 22nd at Villanova Pavilion.
The evening began with a variety of family activities, followed by a BCTA group photo with tennis legend and star of the visiting New York Sportimes team, Martina Hingis.
Dubbed by the media as “Miss Swiss,” Hingis spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1 and from 1996 to 2002 captured five Grand Slam singles titles, one Grand Slam mixed doubles title and nine Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, including winning a calendar year doubles Grand Slam in 1998.
Hingis set a series of “youngest-ever” records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw from the full-time professional tennis circuit in 2002 at the age of 22.
After meeting Hingis, the Bucks County youngsters joined the evening’s ball-kids to form the welcome “tunnel” and gave high-fives to the team players as they were introduced for the professional matches, including Hingis and John McEnroe among other tennis professionals.
