Westchester Tennis, Anyone?

On May 12th, the an­nual Westch­ester Ten­nis Lad­der (WTL) will be­gin its fourth sea­son — and for the first time will in­clude an in­ter­me­di­ate lad­der in ad­di­tion to its highly suc­cess­ful ad­vanced lad­der.

WTL, which launched in 2020 with 60 mem­bers and grew to 150 play­ers in 2022, is the brain­child of lo­cal ten­nis nuts Michael Moshan and David Zuck­er­man.

“For decades, ten­nis in Westch­ester was chaotic,” ex­plains Moshan, who lives in Irv­ing­ton. “Play­ers would have to join a club or play on a USTA team to find other play­ers. What­ever their level, it would be tough to find com­pet­i­tive sin­gles matches and meet other play­ers.”

In 2020, Moshan teamed up with Zuck­er­man (who lives in Edge­mont) to cre­ate a lad­der sim­i­lar to the one he helmed in Williams­burg, Brook­lyn from 2012-2016. “David knew a ton of peo­ple in Westch­ester. With his net­work and my lad­der ex­pe­ri­ence, it made for a great part­ner­ship,” said Moshan.

The ad­vanced lad­der is open to both male and fe­male play­ers who rank in the  4.0-to -5.0+ USTA (United States Ten­nis As­so­ci­a­tion) level equiv­a­lent. “This means that your skill ranges from the solid—you can hit the ball well, but your match skills need im­prove­ment—all the way to col­le­gi­ate level,” Zuck­er­man says.

This intermediate ladder, offered for the first time this year, is for players “at the 3.5 level, who are passionate about the game, but might need improvement with movement or consistency,” Zuckerman explains. “But this level of player also might enjoy singles and getting their competitive juices flowing.”

The lad­der is easy to nav­i­gate on a web­site/​app, where play­ers can chal­lenge each other and record the re­sults. Lower rung play­ers chal­lenge those above them. If the lower player wins, he/​she takes the place of the loser, who drops one rung. The cost is $45 for those who join be­fore May 12th and $55 for those who join mid-sea­son.

Last year, WTL fa­cil­i­tated more than 800 matches, capped by two tour­na­ments. Zuck­er­man sum­ma­rized the essence of WTL: “We’re happy with the va­ri­ety and ages of the play­ers – from cur­rent high school ten­nis team play­ers to for­mer col­lege play­ers; from those in their 30s, 40s and 50s wish­ing to ex­tend their glory days to those who never se­ri­ously com­peted but sim­ply want to stay in shape in a com­pet­i­tive but friendly ten­nis set­ting.”

“Matches are set up by the play­ers them­selves,” Moshan added. “There’s no set time like with USTA team ten­nis or at a pri­vate club. The play­ers work it out as to when and where they play, which al­lows for max­i­mum flex­i­bil­ity. Play­ers love that.”

One of last year’s com­peti­tors, Eric Perl­mut­ter, a life­long New Yorker who re­cently moved to Larch­mont, says he was “skep­ti­cal about mov­ing to the sub­urbs but hop­ing to use ten­nis as an en­try to ad­just­ment.” WTL was ex­actly what he was look­ing for. “It was amaz­ing. This will be my sec­ond year play­ing and I’m so ex­cited for the ca­ma­raderie, con­nec­tions and friendly com­pe­ti­tion.”

“We got to know each other. We would gos­sip about this guy’s game, or that awe­some lad­der match,” Moshan says. “Play­ers de­vel­oped friend­ships. They found hit­ting part­ners in their town with guys they never knew pre­vi­ously. A ten­nis com­mu­nity de­vel­oped in this or­ganic way.”

David Ar­nett who lives in Tar­ry­town and com­peted in the last three lad­ders, says that he has met dozens of play­ers through the lad­der. “It’s a ter­rific group of se­ri­ous (but not too se­ri­ous) ten­nis play­ers.”

The Westch­ester Ten­nis Lad­der will be­gin on May 12, 2023. In­ter­ested play­ers should con­tact Michael Moshan and David Zuck­er­man at: westch­esterten­nis­lad­ders@gmail.com to reg­is­ter.