RACQUETS

Charles de Casteja, Racquets Chair

Tim Chisholm, Director of Racquets

It is hard not to be excited about a Club that offers seven racquet sports for its members: Court Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Squash, Platform Tennis, Rackets, Pickleball & Ping Pong Court Tennis!

Carlos Maldonaldo and Dean Artrip did an amazing job in getting the lawn tennis courts open for play in early May 2022 We are fortunate enough to have arguably the best Har-Tru lawn tennis courts in the tri-state area The Friday night mixers were a popular event early in the lawn tennis season, and a great way for the membership to meet the 2022 Summer Professional staff: Aizat Zholdakayeva, Clara Mantau & Evie Smart.

The summer Lawn Tennis season was among the busiest in the past 10 years at The Tuxedo Club with adults and children of all levels getting out on the courts With a bunch of new families enjoying the facilities offered at Tuxedo, the camps were populated by a large contingent of youngsters that will be the next generation of racquets players at Tuxedo

Court Tennis used to be a ‘winter sport’ at Tuxedo but has now evolved into a very active year-round sport under the leadership of Charles de Casteja and Dave Christensen June saw Tuxedo host the USCTA Mixed Doubles Championships with Tuxedo Club member Xanthe Ranger and her partner Will Hopton taking home the championship. The end of June saw Racquets Director Tim Chisholm and his partner Camden Riviere (World Singles Champion) head to Bordeaux to defend their World Doubles title Camden and Tim defended their title over Steve Virgona and John Lumley winning by five sets to two Tim & Camden will look to make it five titles in a row in 2024 at a yet to be determined US venue. A huge Thank You to Lindsay Dow and Leonard Mazzone for all of their support of Tim and Camden.

Tuxedo continues to be the epicenter of Junior Court Tennis in the US, hosting the US Junior singles and doubles championships along with the USCTPF (United States Court Tennis Preservation Foundation) camp in July

In September the Racquets Program said good-bye to Leon Smart after three years at The Tuxedo Club We were sad to see Leon head back north to Boston, but we were very excited for him and his new position as the Racquets Director at the Tennis & Racquet Club

With the weather getting colder, Platform Tennis season started warming up as Tuxedo fielded three interclub teams (2 men ’ s and 1 women ’s) for the 22’-23’ season. Congratulations to both of the men ’ s teams this past season, as Tux 1 won the regular season while Tux 2 won the play-offs in their respective divisions to move up a flight for the 23’-24’ season

The annual Hadden Tomes event in October was another roaring success in 2022! A full field of players as usual enjoyed the fantastic job that Dan Britts and his staff did in providing the ‘unique’ flavor to the Western theme of Hadden Tomes Bull riding and axe throwing complimented a fantastic party atmosphere at the Main Club A huge thank you to Maura Lennon for her creative genius in making this event such a huge success year after year.

The Turkey Handicap (Court Tennis singles) numbers continue to increase year to year, with 2022 being no exception to this trend Kurt Mueller was a buzz saw in 2022 cutting down all comers on his way to the title

US Junior Court Tennis may have its next young star coming from the stable of youngsters in Tuxedo. The USCTA Annual Dinner is held each December at The Racquet & Tennis Club in New York City, where annual awards are presented in conjunction with the playing of the Whitney Cup Tuxedo Club junior players Hazel Christensen and Calliope Yannuzzi were honored in December as the most improved juniors in the game You will hear more about Hazel and Calliope a bit later

January of each year sees the playing of ‘level’ events for the USCTA at a number of different venues.

Tuxedo hosted the Burke Cup in 2023 It took three chances by the Yannuzzi family to finally beat Gordon McMorris, but Theo Yannuzzi played a great final and emerged as the 2023 Burke Cup champion

The Tuxedo Gold Racquets has a history all of its own… and the 2023 Gold Racquets Committee and Randy St John’s staff did themselves proud with the 2023 product across the entire holiday weekend Young guns Max Trueman and Noah Motz squared off in the Court Tennis singles final and delighted the crowd with some fantastic tennis Peter Cipriano continued his dominance of the Rackets singles over very game Guy Devereux in the final.

The 2023 US Open was held in Boston with a different venue but Groundhog Day feel as Camden Riviere continues his dominance in singles and carries along his ‘long in the tooth’ doubles partner Tim Chisholm to their 11th straight US Open Doubles title

The Men’s Platform Tennis Men's Doubles title went to Jay Meyer and Jo Diedrichs over a very game Richard Jahnke and Ara Kantardjian who survived a marathon semi-final match to make the final

Court Tennis Club Championships to date saw the following emerge as Champions:

Men's Singles à Guy Devereux

Men's Doubles à George Handy & Chris Heffernan

Women’s Doubles à Xanthe Ranger & Megan Hayes

The 2023 USCTA Women’s Invitational was held at The Tuxedo Club and won by Tuxedo member Xanthe Ranger

USCTA most improved juniors Calliope Yannuzzi & Hazel Christensen qualified for the inaugural U19 women ’ s World Championship held at the Oratory School in England A huge congratulations to Calliope and Hazel for both qualifying at the age of 15.

The Racquets committee is looking forward to more participation across all racquet sports in 23’-24’ and many more trophies won by Tuxedo members