Summer Sizzler brings tennis players of all ages together Sports

Organized by Tiffany Braxton and her mother, Janie Britton, the event was designed to raise awareness and excitement about Lawton’s tennis. And the enthusiasm was there on Saturday, with 70 people of all ages in 13 divisions taking part in the tournament.

It used to be pretty big here, and one day people just stopped caring, Braxton said.

That may soon change as the number of young talent has risen its way through the ranks of local high schools. Last spring, the MacArthur and Eisenhower tennis teams each sent several competitors to a Class 5A state tennis tournament that Lawton teams are not used to going to before.

Part of the group that led this award at Eisenhower was Genevieve Young, a senior last year who was a regional champion and always advanced to the state semifinals in the girls ’No. 1 singles. Even though she finished fourth, it was still historic: Young was the first female player from any Lawton school to end up on the podium of a state tournament since 1950 (before Eisenhower and MacArthur even existed). It was also noteworthy because all three other semi-finalists all came from private schools, two of which were students of Tulsa’s nationally renowned Tucker Tennis Academy students.

We had played tennis at the Goodyear Association, and Tiffanys ’mother (Britton) practiced (Genevieve) up when she was little. He trained him, I trained him and then we started doing lessons with Cameron’s tennis coaches, Chris Young, the father of Genevieves, said. She was equal all time this year, and if you look back, we probably haven’t had a woman in tennis since the 50s either.

Young will go on to play in the Oklahoma Coaches Associations All-State presentation next week. But on Saturday, she participated in a group of women singles aged 18 and older.

Saturday’s tournament also featured other states ’tournament qualifiers from Eisenhower High, the Phelps trio, who still have a year left in Ike. While Hannah Phelps played on the girls ’high school bracket, brothers Josh and Jacob actually encountered a fork in the boys’ singles, which their father Justin said was tough.

At the state tournament in May, Josh finished fourth in the boys ’singles, while Brother Jacob reached the boys’ No. 1 singles final, claiming silver. On the girls ’side, Hannah finished the state’s win and two losses, but is still set to be a favorite so she can return to the state next year.

But Sizzlers attendees didn’t just include tomorrow’s young tennis stars. Britton and his longtime twin partner Sharon Sasser were once a nationally high-end duo in the Double Territories division. On Saturday, they were on the ground again despite being almost four times older than the waves in the wavy youth.

The real stars of the show were the new courts, which were recently reopened and which seemed to remain very much under the stress of the matches throughout the day.

It seems that both Greer Park and Lawton tennis are in good shape for the future.