Play on grass courts using wood racquets at Woodie Classic event

Throw on some vintage tennis clothing, dust off your old wood racquet and register to participate in the third installment of the Woodie Classic, a fun-filled social tournament taking place Saturday, July 20 at Tower Grove Park. Proceeds from the grass court-based Woodie Classic benefit grassroots community tennis associations (CTAs) in the St. Louis area.

USTA St. Louis and Racketman are again partnering to run the Woodie Classic, which was selected as the 2022 USTA St. Louis Outstanding Event of the Year. Four divisions—men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles and coed doubles for families/juniors—are available for entry, with registration closing July 15. Individuals can sign up for the Woodie Classic by clicking here.

“I’m super excited,” said Megan Kovacs, USTA St. Louis executive director and Woodie Classic tournament director. “How often do you get to play on grass? Tower Grove Park has three grass courts that can be reserved by members of the public, which is extremely rare in the United States. But just to take it back to that era, too, of lawn tennis where you played on grass. Bringing that element back in and bringing in the wood racquets is fun.”

The Woodie Classic is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m. with play wrapping up around 9:00 p.m. Participating doubles teams will play two timed matches (five-minute warm-up followed by 45 minutes of match play) on the grass courts as well as one timed match on Tower Grove Park’s hard courts.

A dinner of pulled pork/pulled chicken sliders, potato salad and a cookie is included, as are snacks, sports drinks and water. Players can bring their own beverages as well. Participants will also receive a free Woodie Classic T-shirt, and winning teams will earn a small award. Piped-in music will be played throughout the day, and players will have the opportunity to try Red Ball Tennis on Tower Grove Park’s pickleball courts.

“Really at the end of the day, this is an unsanctioned tournament that is just for fun,” Kovacs said. “It’s going out there, playing with wood racquets, seeing how you do and having a good time with it. It’s not about truly winning. Players can bring wood racquets if they have them. If they don’t have one, we can help them out.”

Participants don’t need an NTRP rating or paid USTA membership to register for the Woodie Classic, and there is no age limit. Adults can sign up for the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles divisions, while the coed division is geared toward families—including grandparents, grandkids, siblings, etc.—with juniors able to join in on the fun.

Players will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis determined by the earliest registration date of one of the partners, and both players must be registered. Space is limited to six teams per division, so individuals/doubles teams are encouraged to register early for the Woodie Classic. Teams will be grouped based on their World Tennis Number (WTN) rating to help ensure competitive matches.