OPTA Blog

By Mike Holder: Pender Murphy is a native of Charlotte, attended Charlotte Latin, and would go on to work in commercial real estate for 25 years. He played tennis at Latin, Clemson University, and professionally for three years. Now, he provides tennis instruction to various schools and organizations in Charlotte through TLA Tennis, named in honor of Andy Avram’s late son, Tucker Leighton Avram. Pender has fond memories of playing matches as a kid at Olde Providence on Tuesday nights against players such as Bane Shaw (Ashley’s father), and William Poore.  Murphy was a ball boy at Olde Providence in 1970 when a 15-year-old Chris Evert beat Margaret Court, just two weeks after Court achieved the Grand Slam. Later, he would serve as a ball boy at the Davis Cup final at OP in 1971 when the Stan Smith-led USA team defeated Ilie Nastase, Ion Tiriac, and the Romanian team.  He recalls, “Back then, the ball boys at the baseline would throw the ball to the opposite baseline versus rolling it ha

By Mike Holder: Since 1937, the USTA Southern has issued their annual yearbook, which is chock full of information on players, tournaments, coaches, and much more. Browsing through one is a walk through the history of tennis in the south. You will find players who went on to play Grand Slams, information on legendary clubs, coaches, and tournaments.  Reading through the publication year-to-year truly gives you a sense of how tennis has evolved in the United States. In the inaugural issue, the reader is given a wonderful history lesson on the origins of tennis in the south and the oldest tennis club in the United States. We learn that the first Southern Champion was C.B. Davis in 1886, and the number one ranked tennis player in the south in 1937 was Bryan "Bitsy" Grant, who went on to twice reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals, and the US Open semifinals. However, it was the 1978 issue that caught my eye. As I scrolled through the pages, I came across the 1977 rankings and five n