Youths testing their tennis skills on national stage
by McKenzie Jackson
08.07.09 - 09:04 am

Tennis players (from left) Jordan Harrell, Brittany Harrell and Ja’Haun Freeman-Clark -- with their instructor James Gordon -- are competing in the World Team Tennis Junior Nationals in San Diego Ja’Haun Freeman-Clark is the state’s 10th-ranked female tennis player in her age group. Brittany Harrell, a rising senior at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, is known for her quickness and power. Jordan Harrell is the 22nd-ranked player in the Southeast.

South DeKalb tennis players Ja’Haun Freeman-Clark, Brittany Harrell and Jordan Harrell are showing off their racket skills on the national stage, while hoping to gain some attention from a tennis legend.

The USTA junior players ages 14 to 17 are on a six-player team that is competing in the 13th annual World Team Tennis Junior Nationals Aug. 5-8 at the George E. Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif.

Each year the premiere, 16-team event features many of the nation’s most promising junior tennis players going head-to-head in a co-ed tournament. The competition is hosted by tennis great Billie Jean King, a 12-time Grand Slam singes title winner and co-founder of the World Team Tennis league.

Ja’Haun, 14, a rising freshman at Cedar Grove High School in Ellenwood and the state’s 10th-ranked female tennis player in her age group, said she is excited about the tournament and facing off against some of the nation’s best players.

“The thing I’m mostly nervous about is meeting Billie Jean King,” she said. “She is a very noble person and I don’t want to embarrass myself or anything.”

The DeKalb players will be joining Atlanta tennis player Drew Anderson on the Smooth Strokes Tennis Academy team coached Alyce Meadors, a certified tennis instructor from Nashville, Tenn., who has been fielding teams in the three-day tournament for the last 15 years.

Meadors and Atlanta-based Coan Tennis Association operator and instructor James Gordon organized the Smooth Strokes team and are sponsoring the trip.

Gordon, also the District 3 director of the USTA Southern Georgia, said Meadors asked him to pick the three best tennis players he had seen in the Atlanta area.

“The first three that came to mind were Ja’Haun, Jordan and Brittany,” he said. “They are all great tennis players. They’re good kids and they have the right attitude and demeanors as tennis players. They are probably some of the best we could pick for this event.”

The event will feature teams from all-across the nation this year including USTA Southern, USTA Southwest, USTA Hawaii Pacific, USTA Middle States and Jack Kramer Club.

Brittany Harrell, 17, a rising senior at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Lithonia and Jordan’s older sister, said she was excited about the cross-country trek to San Diego.

“I’ve never been to San Diego,” said Brittany, MLK’s No. 1 singles player. “Plus we are going to do something we love.”

All three of the players are part of the United States Tennis Association, and play in up to 20 tennis tournaments year-round across Georgia and the Southeast.

Each is familiar with the others’ game on the tennis court.

Brittany said they all have different games.

“Jordan, he has the most variety,” she said. “He has the drop shots and all this other stuff. We look at that and say, ‘Hey I want to do that.’”

Fourteen-year-old Jordan, a rising freshman at M.L. King and the 22nd ranked player in the Southeast, said his older sister’s game is nice.

“She has beautiful angles [when she hits the tennis ball],” he said. “She can get to a lot of balls because she is quick.”

Jordan said Ja’Haun swings the racket with a lot of power.

“She can blow you off the court,” he said. “So, it’s hard to keep up.”

Ranette Clark, Ja’Haun’s mom and an avid tennis player, said the opportunity that Ja’Haun, Jordan and Brittany are getting is big.

“This is a great opportunity for these kids,” she said. “I would have dreamed to be in the presence of Billie Jean King. These kids have the opportunity of a lifetime. Who gets to go that far?”

James Harrell is Jordan and Brittany’s father and the director of junior development at First Serve Tennis Academy in Atlanta.

“It allows them to be exposed to other players outside of Georgia,” he said. “This is exciting because it takes them out of our section and over to a more national type of event.”