Rahman sells tennis now

Two young men were playing tennis on the Iroquois Park courts when Sharon Rahman arrived there May 13 for the Louisville Tennis Association’s Block Party, one of the local events that’s been held to celebrate May as Tennis Month.

Rahman, who is the State League Coordinator for the Louisville-based Kentucky branch of the United States Tennis Association, said the two men expected to be kicked off the courts. But they were invited to play instead.

“We recruited them for league tennis,” Rahman recalled. “We said, ‘Come play doubles with us.’ They had no idea we had these programs.”

Therein lies one of the challenges that Rahman, a former computer saleswoman, has faced since USTA Kentucky hired her in February. Although almost 600,000 people nationwide already play USTA League Tennis, there still are many who could benefit from it but don’t yet know about it.

“Tennis has always been known as kind of a solitary sport,” Rahman said. “I don’t think a lot of people understand that it’s a team sport at the recreational level.”

And that also makes it a communal sport, which Rahman considers particularly appealing. She has played USTA League Tennis for about 10 years.

“Most of all, I like the social aspects,” she said. “There’s great social support for each other.”

Established in 1979, USTA League Tennis allows adults to play against others of similar ability levels in an organized setting. Players are grouped by National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP) levels within four divisions - adult (19-and-over), senior (50-and-over), super senior 60 (60-and-over) and super senior 70 (70-and-over) - and join teams that compete within those levels in local leagues.

State Championships for adults and seniors will be held in June, and the Southern Sectional Championships and National Championships will follow in the months ahead.

Rahman, who is a Louisville native, sold computers at Entre Computer Center for 17 years before she took the USTA Kentucky position.

“It came at a good time,” said Rahman, who is divorced and has a son, Nick, a Virginia Tech sophomore who reached the 2004 Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Tennis Tournament doubles quarterfinals with former Ballard teammate Tyler Durham. “I can travel and work odd hours.”

She estimated that she has been working about 60 hours a week recently, but she describes the job as “cushy” nonetheless.

“It’s tennis,” she said. “How great is that?”