What rocking chair? Hadley Park tennis players are swinging away in their 60s, 70s, 80s

Ann Howse, 84, and her tennis partner, Jo Ann Brannon, 79, play doubles at Hadley Park in Nashville with a smile and laughter between points.

Don’t let that fool you.

“They were tricking us with warmups,” said an out-of-breath Nicole Madden, 29, after a long rally won by the silver-haired stars in August.

How do Howse and Brannon perform against tennis opponents the same age as their grandchildren?

“It’s the technique,” Madden continued. “They are going to work smarter, not harder.”

Howse and Brannon are members of the Hadley Park Tennis Club, which has served as a fountain of youth for Nashville seniors. The tennis club, which now has 43 members, formed in the early 1950s. Hadley Park, meanwhile, has served for decades as a preferred tennis venue for Blacks.

Some play tennis for the exercise. Some play because it's easier on the joints than other sports.

Still, others serve and volley because it's fun.

“Whatever your motivation is, that’s fine for our club,” said Hadley Park Club President James Ball, 73. Tennis earned Ball's attention after a 2009 hip replacement surgery.

His joints aren't the only reconstructed, soft or stiff bones on the courts. Yet they all enjoy the sport, even if the decades force them to adjust tennis tactics.

Howse was introduced to tennis at age 38. A niece lost a lot of weight playing the sports, so she decided to try it.

“It was everything I liked,” Howse said. “I played every day with my sister-in-law. We played in the cold, in the snow, all kinds of weather.”

Brannon described tennis as “one of the anchors of my well-being.” Brannon, a former Nashville teacher, principal and school board member, has played since age 15.

Gibson and Ashe to the Williams sisters

The sport's visibility has increased in America's Black communities, thanks to several generations of stars, from Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to Serena and Venus Williams. Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens and Naomi Osaka highlight this generation of Black stars. In September, Frances Tiafoe — the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone who grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland — upset 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal to become the first American man since 2006 to reach the U.S. Open semifinals, and the first Black man since Ashe in 1972.

“You see more and more Black women playing tennis,” said Hadley Park Club member Rodney Williams, 54. “There are lots of Black kids who play tennis. The odd thing now is, I teach, and I get kids who (say) there is not an influence for them to play. They just...tell their parents ‘I want to play tennis.’”

And now, Henry Caudle Sr. said Hadley Park Tennis Club members are focused on getting "young people to the point where they would be interested in joining our club."

Ball agreed.

"The resources are there," he said. "We just need to un-Earth them."

Hadley Park tennis: Join the club

The Hadley Park Tennis Club is open to the public. Members hail from across the city and several outlying counties, Ball said. There are several white members in the club.

The club meets Mondays at 6 p.m. at the Hadley Park. Prospective members can attend. Membership is $110 per year.

The club also hosts and travels to events with other clubs. Hadley Park recently invited members from a Jackson, Tennessee, tennis club to play matches and enjoy lunch.

Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on Twitter @ AndyHumbles.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How the Hadley Park Tennis Club adds years to Nashville seniors