As the high school women’s tennis season comes to an end we can look back on the season and women’s tennis as a whole. Page High School has been home to many successful professional athletes through the years including tennis. Women’s tennis has had its difficulty in the past with becoming a large sport. Wimbledon was started in 1877 and it took 7 years to allow women to participate in 1884.
In the late 1800s mixed doubles was established to help strengthen the relationship between couples through athletic activity. Tennis was one of the few sports that women were allowed to play during the 1800s in England. There are many successful figures across the history of women’s tennis. Serena Williams is one of these great figures who across her 27 year career she won 4 Australian Opens, 2 French Opens, 6 Wimbledons, 2 U.S. Opens, and 4 gold medals.
Her older sister Venus Williams has over the same 27 years won 4 Australian Opens, 2 French Opens, 6 Wimbledon, 2 U.S. Opens, and 4 Olympic gold medals. They both won the same events because they played doubles together. Billie Jean King played tennis for 24 years and won 2 Australian Opens, 4 French Opens, 20 Wimbledons, and 13 U.S. Opens. Steffi Graf won 4 Australian Opens, 6 French Opens, 7 Wimbledons, 5 U.S. Opens, and 1 gold medal in the Olympics across her 17-year career. There are many more great people across women’s tennis all over the world across many years.
One of Page High school’s great women’s tennis players is Matti Skeen Senior. She prefers playing on concrete courts because it isn’t as messy as clay and likes a temperature that is not too hot or too cold. Matti enjoys playing doubles the most because she likes playing at the net. Her father affects her tennis career the most because he helped her with her form by giving useful tips. She hopes to see herself as a nurse in the future. She feels excited before matches and only feels nervous if she is down a large number of points in a match. During a match she wears a tennis skirt and tank top. Her practice schedule includes school practices twice a week as well as playing matches twice a week.
Page High School has also had the men’s tennis player John Isner who graduated in the class of 2003. He led PHS to win the state championship in 2001. He has made it to Wimbledon, the French Open, and the U.S. Open in his successful career.
