Playing What’s All the
Racket About?
Tennis East of the Cooper
E BY BRIAN SHERMAN
VERY YEAR SINCE 2001, THE city of Charleston has hosted the Family Circle Cup, a nine-day affair that features the fervent play of the world’s most accomplished female tennis stars and draws hordes of appreciative spectators from the
Lowcountry and from well beyond the confines of the Carolina coast. The tournament certainly played a huge role in the United States Tennis Association’s decision to
name Charleston the nation’s “Best Tennis Town” in 2010, an honor that will remain with the Holy City at least through 2012. And while the tourney’s home, the Family Circle
Tennis Center on Daniel Island, is within Charleston’s city limits, it also is East of the Cooper, a growing area that includes Mount Pleasant, the barrier islands and an array of public and private tennis facilities intent on attracting as many participants as possible. Even at the Family Circle Tennis Center, where the brightest stars in women’s tennis strut their talent and celebrity status for nearly a week-and-a-half each spring, much of the emphasis the rest of the year is on giving area residents from 4 to 80 and older a taste of what tennis is all about. It wasn’t always that way, accord- ing to Facilities Director Rob Eppelsheimer. He said the Center, completed in 2001 and owned by the city
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www.MountPleasantPhysicians.com
Left: Players of all ages and skill levels enjoy tennis at the Family Circle Tennis Center. Below: Proof that people from 6 to 80 and older play at Snee Farm: Jack Schmitt and Lilly Woods.
Above: Each year, the Family Circle Cup draws the world’s best female tennis players and hordes of tennis fans from the Lowcountry and beyond. Below: Deborah Trusty and Audrey Brown, who play recreational tennis at the Daniel Island facility, with Tennis Pro Peter Schmitt. Photos provided.
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