Recently, big tennis dreams came true for 24 students and parents from the Roslyn community. These young players, had the opportunity that most tennis players only dream of…to play at the US Open tennis tournament.
These children, ages 5-12, are all members of Net Generation, the official youth tennis program of the United States Tennis Association. Net Generation offers on court demonstrations at the US Open and Roslyn’s group was selected to participate. Roslyn coaches Kerri Jannotte-Hinkley and Wilfredo Abrahante were the on court coaches for the event and also got to participate in the demo.
In addition to the on-court demo, two players were chosen to the coin toss for the pro players on our court. Roslyn got to play in the Grandstand, so the kids were able to meet some pretty amazing players. The two coin tossers were East Hills 4th grader Eduardo Ramos and Harbor Hill 5th grader Ariya Shukla. Eduardo did the coin toss for mens’ doubles players Oliver Marach/ Jurgen Melzer and Miomir Kecmanovic/Casper Ruud – while Ariya had the opportunity to meet the doubles teams of Coco Gauff /Caty McNally and Victoria Azarenka/Ashleigh Barty.
Every player that participated in the on-court demo did an amazing job. When asked what the best part of the day, 7th grader Sofia Arnold said, “I loved playing on the court where the pros play and also getting to see Coco and Caty in the hallway of the Grandstand.”
Over 1,000 players from across the county participated in the Net Gen on-court demos program at the 2019 Open.
“I was thrilled for our group to be chosen for the Net Generation event. The kids practiced all summer to be ready and made us all so proud. Watching them play the sport that I love at the US Open was amazing.” said Coach Kerri Jannotte-Hinkley, “We couldn’t have done it without the hard work from the players and the support of all of the parents.”
Submitted by the Roslyn School District
