It's a tournament the Beastie Boys would love: New York City's five boroughs are engaging in combat, this time on the tennis courts. Organized by the USTA's Eastern Section and the City Parks Foundation in the Big Apple, a war of forehands and volleys will be waged—in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and on Staten Island—in an effort to reach the city championships. It's called the Battle of the Boroughs Tennis Challenge.
The battles will take place in May and June, with the ultimate final to follow, and the victors crowned in Queens—at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, of course. There is no catch to this, as fees collected in this grand event will benefit the City Parks Foundation's free tennis programs for youth in each of the five boroughs. That means, in the end (and for once), everyone wins. Namely, the more than 7,000 kids empowered in tennis at 40 city parks' courts. In closing, a message to every New Yorker reading this: Jump on it.
Now with 11 city parks' courts resurfaced, I can only hope that my own city of Indianapolis—where USTA Midwest headquarters rest—will follow suit. NYC, we'll be watching.
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