Houston Tennis Association

03/31/2026

🎾 This Women's History Month, Houston Tennis Association is proud to celebrate the women who don't just play the game — they grow it.
From the courts of River Oaks to neighborhood parks across the city, these leaders are making tennis more accessible, more inclusive, and more powerful than ever.
🏅 Bronwyn Greer, Tournament Director of the US Men's Clay Court Championship, has built lasting bridges between professional tennis and Houston's junior programs — including the Clay Court Team Challenge, where young players compete and then watch the pros live.
🏅 Cindy Benzon, Community Services & Adaptive Coordinator at USTA Texas, is expanding access to tennis for individuals with intellectual & developmental disabilities, veterans, the visually impaired, and wheelchair athletes across the entire state.
And they're just two of the extraordinary women shaping our sport:
✦ Lara Lehmann — USTA Texas President
✦ Emily Schaefer — HTA Executive Director
✦ Zina Garrison — CEO, Zina Garrison Tennis Academy & Houston Parks Tennis Director
✦ Caroline Champion — HTA President
✦ Haley Wallace — USMCCC Director of Tournament Operations
Know someone who deserves to be on this list? Tag them below or send us a message — we want to tell their story. 💚

10/18/2025

Vote for Houston Area League in the Best of Texas 2025! Back for its fourth year, people from across the Texas tennis community will have the opportunity to nominate and vote for their favorites across eight categories. The categories each feature groups or teams ranging from Favorite USTA League (a new category for local area USTA Leagues) to historically popular and competitive categories like Favorite High School Team. Closes Tuesday, October 21. Go to https://www.usta.com/en/home/stay-current/texas/best-of-texas-tennis-2025.html =tournament to see all categories and vote.

The Best of Texas Tennis is a people's choice campaign to recognize those who portray excellence in the tennis community through various categories.

09/28/2025

Passionate about tennis and want to share the benefits of the game with others?

HTA is looking for advocates to join the Board of Directors for 2026. Share your skills in tennis programming and working with people, business and structure,
fund development and communications to boost growth and development in the Houston area.

If you are interested or want to nominate someone, please contact Nominating Committee Chair Samantha Savage or [email protected] by October 19. Contact Amanda Collins at 281-580-8313 if you have any questions.

09/26/2025

She is already enshrined in our hearts as a tennis hall of famer, but the designation will be made official in October.
Emily Schaefer will be inducted into the Texas Tennis Hall of Fame Class of 2025 in Waco on October 25 along with three other outstanding leaders in the sport.
Emily, a standout player at Princeton University, has served as a volunteer, a coach, a director and a leader at local, state and national levels.
She guided activities at the City of Houston Parks & Recreation Department for 22 years as its director of tennis and has served as USTA Texas president and volunteer and for the USTA national board. She has received many service recognition awards and has won several competitive national events.
In 2021 she became executive director of the Houston Tennis Association, her current position.
Joining her in this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony are David Davis of Abilene, a lifelong ambassador who coached at McMurry University and led Rose Park Tennis Center for more than two decades; Ken Sumrow of Plano, who has spent nearly five decades shaping tennis, including his leadership at High Point Tennis Center and co-founding the Children Helping Children Tennis Tournament, which has raised millions for pediatric cancer research; and Kimm Ketelsen of Hutto, known as “Coach K,” a top-ranked Texas player and coach whose career has spanned more than 50 years.
The honorees will be formally inducted and honored at the annual banquet October 25 at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco. Individual tickets, tables and sponsorship opportunities are available.

08/27/2025

Melinda Hampton is a big part of HTA's league success and tennis growth. Since September 2024 the organization has facilitated approximately 860 adult men’s, ladies and mixed doubles teams in both HTA and USTA Leagues. This includes fall and spring HTA leagues, 18+, 40+, 55+, 65+, Combo and Tri-level USTA leagues. Player skill levels range from 3.0 to 5.0.

Overseeing all this activity and keeping it running smoothly are League Coordinator Ann Wilde and Assistant League Coordinator Melinda Thompson Hamilton.

Ann does the scheduling for league play, and Melinda assists her in administering all aspects of local league activities and post-season play. It’s a year-round job, and you’ll frequently find Melinda helping players find teams, working with captains to make sure that team deadlines are met and answering questions about leagues and rules.

But Melinda’s services to HTA don’t stop there. She volunteers at USTA Sectionals when they are held in Houston and helps run special events such as Captain’s Play Days and Junior Team Tennis gatherings.

Melinda joined the HTA staff in September 2015, but she’s been a part of the Houston tennis community as a league player, captain, volunteer and administrator for 25 years.

She uses that valuable background to “help captains and ensure that all league players have a fun experience.”

“This wouldn’t be possible without the assistance and support of the entire HTA staff who are not only colleagues but also friends,” she explained.

“This wouldn’t be possible without the assistance and support of the entire HTA staff who are not only colleagues but also friends,” she explained.

08/22/2025

Meet Mary Le, a former HTA captain: My name is Mary Le, and tennis has been a part of my life since high school. What began as a fun after-school activity quickly grew into a lifelong passion. I continued playing through college as a member of the club tennis team at Texas A&M University, where I built lasting friendships and deepened my love for the sport.
For over five years, I proudly served as a team captain, leading with heart, strategy, and a deep appreciation for the game. My team, Sets in the City, is more than just a clever name—it’s a group of dedicated, supportive players who share a common goal: to grow, compete and enjoy every moment on the court.
Recently, I returned to tennis after one of the most transformative experiences of my life--becoming a mother to a beautiful baby girl. Since then, I haven’t resumed captaining, but stepping back onto the court has been a powerful and emotional experience. It reminds me of the strength I carry, not just as an athlete but as a woman and a mother. Balancing motherhood and tennis hasn’t been easy, but it’s made every serve, every rally and every win even more meaningful.
Tennis has always been a constant in my life, and now, it’s something I hope to share with my daughter one day. For now, I’m just grateful to be back on the court, doing what I love, surrounded by a team that feels like family.

08/18/2025

Congratulations!

The Texas Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame proudly welcomes its Class of 2025: David Davis, Kimm Ketelsen, Emily Schaefer, and Ken Sumrow.

From the court to the sidelines, their decades of impact as players, coaches, mentors, and visionaries have helped shape tennis in Texas...and beyond. 🎾

Read more: https://www.usta.com/en/home/stay-current/texas/2025-hall-of-fame-inductees.html =tournaments

08/13/2025

T.C. Chang is well known in tennis circles. He was president of HTA from 2003 to 2005 and twice received the Senior Spirit of Tennis Award from USTA Texas. He and his wife Margaret won their division in the HTA/LeMaster Husband-Wife tennis tournament for six years.

While Margaret always enjoyed playing in this social/tennis event, she is better known for her art strokes than for those on the court.

Margaret, born Hung Hsien in China in 1933, is a pioneering artist whose groundbreaking ink paintings bridge traditional Chinese brushwork and Western abstraction. The Asia Society Texas is currently presenting “Hung Hsien: Between Worlds” at their Houston location on 1370 Southmore in the Museum District. This landmark exhibition brings together more than 50 works spanning more than 70 years from private collections and the artist’s personal archives.
The exhibition highlights Margaret’s love of nature and traces both her physical history from China to Taiwan to the United States and her development from her traditional teachings to her engagement with abstract expressionism, surrealism and other modernist movements.

An Asia Society press release describes her as a “visionary between traditions.”
“Living in the U.S., in the mid-1960s, Hung Hsien invented a modern ink painting language entirely her own. She became one of only a few women to exhibit with Taiwan’s avant-garde Fifth Moon Group, a collective dedicated to modernizing ink painting by synthesizing Eastern and Western approaches. Inspired by artists such as Mark Tobey, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning, as well as Japanese woodblock prints, Hung developed a distinct artistic language that fused lyrical brushstrokes, abstract forms, and bold color blocks—an approach that continues to resonate with contemporary artists today.”
Institutions collecting her work include the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, Harvard Art Museums, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
The exhibition will be on view through September 21, 2025. After that, it will travel to the Asia Society Hong Kong in 2026.

08/10/2025

HTA and USTA Texas gave an introduction session to teaching wheelchair tennis today at AD-IN Tennis today. Harold Graham shared these photos.

08/08/2025

Meet Sunil Shalia, one of HTA's outstanding captains. ..My name is Sunil Shalia, and I have proudly served as captain of the USTA 4.0 team Katy Challengers since 2019. Our team is based at the Rosewood courts in Cinco Ranch, Katy. We started just before the COVID-19 pandemic with only eight players, and over time, we have built a strong and growing community of over 50 players.
With this growth, we expanded to run two teams, 4.0 and 4.5 for HTA, and also launched a local league that operates on the same day. Every Thursday, we coordinate matches for 24 players across three leagues. This would not have been possible without the dedication of my fantastic co-captains: Dale Voon, Ganesh Mohanrao, Keith Koronado, Ravi Yellisetti, and others. Their commitment and teamwork have been instrumental in shaping our success.
Our players are passionate and eager to be on the court, so we have focused on creating engaging local and internal league formats. One of our most popular initiatives has been the Round Robin Doubles series, which is now in its fourth season with 36 active participants. To bring our community together and showcase our activities, we also maintain a website: KatyChallengers.com, where we share updates and celebrate our team's fun and achievements.
My own tennis journey began in 1997, playing regularly with three neighbors on a quiet cul-de-sac in Houston. Two were basketball players, and one was the son of a tennis coach who helped us learn the game. We played every Sunday morning for three to four hours over the course of 10 years, and all of us improved as players before eventually moving to different neighborhoods.
Later, I took expatriate assignments in Indonesia and Qatar with ConocoPhillips, working as a petroleum engineer. When I returned to the U.S. in 2013, we settled in Katy, where I continued to build my tennis network and found ways to involve my family in the sport as well.
My daughter took to tennis quickly and played varsity tennis in high school. She still enjoys playing recreationally from time to time. Tennis has truly become a family affair for us. My wife plays a key role in co-hosting team gatherings and tennis parties, which have become a cherished tradition. We have also created many wonderful memories traveling as a family to attend matches and tournaments. For us, tennis has been more than just a game, it is a way to stay active, meet great people, and enjoy meaningful time together.

07/28/2025

Sunshine and rain at the Level 5 tournament at Memorial Park Tennis Center for the girls' 16 competition. We caught a few of the winners at MPTC. The girls 12s suffered the most rain-out at Missouri City Recreation and Tennis Center on Saturday. Congratulations to all the winners and participants.