ACE Team Tennis Championships
The first ever ACE Team Tennis Championships was a big success both on the courts and in the coffers .
48 players came together to have fun, meet new people and compete for the prestigious ACE Team Tennis Championship Cup.
2024 was ACE’s maiden voyage into the team tennis format. 6 fearless captains recruited players at four different levels: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th doubles. Each team also did their best to raise money for All Court Enrichment. The fundraising was almost as exciting as the tennis as teams worked together to raise over $13,000, which is more than double the $6,000 goal.
The money raised will support All Court Enrichment (ACE). ACE’s mission is to provide an excellent summer tennis and writing program to kids in Somerville, Medford and Cambridge. At each of those locations, kids receive 2 hours of tennis training and 45 minutes of writing instruction each day. This summer we hope to serve over 300 students with 175 of them attending for free.
“This summer we hope to serve more than 300 students with more than 175 going for free.”
On the court, the ACE Team Tennis Championships saw some of the best tennis in the history of our events. The first line of doubles was stacked with talent. Former college players and tournament tough club players were on display at first doubles. And the winners of that division were John Bonham-Carter and Marc Wesikopf (Team Annalyn). They defeated Tristan Maus and Harrison Maki(Team Lucie) in the final.
The second doubles line featured a team with 2 former division I college tennis players, one of whom was Graham Milliken, Coach Drew’s very own college doubles partner. Such was the level that not not even they could qualify for the finals.
Those finalists were Ethan Cross (Somerville High’s top singles player) and his dad, Kyle Cross (Team Annlyn). They beat Dan Coughlin and Matt Shiprosh of Lucie’s team.
The third division boasted several former event champions and finalists. This division also accounted for 60% of our active team captains. With that level of leadership and past success, the 3rd flight was as competitive as it gets. So fraught was the competitive nature of this division that in a melee of score reporting, a cacophonous deluge of numbers bombarded the poor tournament director such that, in the fracas, a score was perhaps mistakenly noted on the scorecard. All tournament officials acknowledge that this is an area of improvement and thank all participants for their sportsmanship.
Regardless of any miscues, Dan D’Agata and Adam Setino (Amanda’s Team) were probably the most dominant team in the event and won the 3rd Division final over Carlos Teo and Andy Fadous (Matt’s Team).
Several match-tough veterans filled out the 4th division, including Winter Tennis Classic champs Terrence Lam and Erin Rumley. How is that fearsome duo in the fourth division you might ask, but such was the level of tennis acumen in every division of this event.
The winners at 4th doubles were Lin Chyung and Jung Chyung (Drew’s team), who defeated Dan Peterson and Steve Conley (Matt’s team). This was a super satisfying win for Lin and Jung as they had been close on a few previous tries. Battle-tested, they earned their Division Championship hardware!
After all the scores were tallied, one team emerged victorious - Lucie’s Team! They triumphantly drank from the ACE Team Tennis Championship Cup and enjoyed th sweet taste of victory while others looked on and wondered what might have been.
So goes the first ever ACE Team Tennis Championships into the history books. Our first try at such an ambitious event was a success, but like any competitor worth their salt would say, we’ll do even better next year.
Thank you to all who participated and supported this event. We are thrilled that so many people support ACE’s work.
