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By Adam Kramer
The sound of tennis balls hitting tightly strung rackets and the grunts of players stretching to reach an opponent’s passing shot echoed throughout the giant white bubble covering the Alley Pond Tennis Center in Queens Village on a recent Thursday.
A group of six tennis players sat on two small couches talking while other tennis players — old and young — milled around waiting for their courts to open.
Hemel Meghani Cosme — wearing an ever-present smile — walked around the makeshift clubhouse and pro shop to make sure everything, at what might be called her youngest child, ran smoothly.
For a girl who emigrated from India to Forest Hills with her family, who did not pick up the sport until she was 12 and who fine-tuned her stroke in the borough’s parks, owning the tennis center was just a dream.
“For 8 1/2 years, I had driven by the tennis courts in Alley Pond and thought what a great location but never imagined bidding for it,” Cosme said.
Cosme, 35, was given the concession to the tennis center, which is under a large white bubble — under the shadows of the Grand Central Parkway — from mid October to the end of April, by the city Parks Department a little more than a year ago and will have the contract until 2010. The park takes back the 11 courts during the summer, but Cosme keeps the clubhouse, pro shop and lesson concession.
“We immigrated to the United States from Bombay, India when I was 5,” said Cosme, mother of a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old who lives in New Hyde Park, L.I. with her husband John. “I grew up in Forest Hills — not near the tennis center — but on the other side of the boulevard across the street from PS 175.”
Like all city kids, Cosme and her sister used the city’s parks, playgrounds, and streets as their back yards. She said they were always out in the streets playing handball, paddle ball and racquetball on walls.
“I’ll never forget the first time I saw a tennis racket,” she said. “This kid came out to the street with a Wilson T-2000 — the one Jimmy Conners used. My father saw us and he took us to tennis courts. We grew up playing in Forest Park.”
Picking up tennis at 12 and 13 — late in life for future professionals — Hemel and her sister Hareena improved from beginners to compete in sectional and national tournaments. And as the top player at Forest Hills High School, Cosme lost in the PSAL finals in her senior year and to her sister, who played for Stuyvesant High School, in the semi-finals during her junior year.
After graduating from Forest Hills High School, Cosme accepted a scholarship to Rutgers University and after a year she headed west. She said she transferred to the smaller University of California at Santa Barbara because she need to “find herself” and felt lost at a giant state university.
Cosme said after school she returned to the East to give professional tennis a shot. She competed part time on the national tour from 1987 to 1992, attaining the rank of 360 in the world out of about 2,000 to 2,500 players who are ranked by the Women’s Tennis Association.
“I always taught tennis during the summer, and while on the tour I taught tennis to supplement my income,” she said. “Towards 1991 I knew that professional tennis was not going any further. I went to India and had to decide of I wanted to go to law school or do something I love.”
Cosme said she got a job starting a tennis program in Starret City in Brooklyn and was hired by then Parks Commissioner Betsy Gotbaum to start up the Central Park Tennis Center.
Running the Central Park Tennis Center and owning the Alley Pond Tennis Center have put Cosme in a position, not to just impart her knowledge of the sport, but to show the importance of sports and to demonstrate how a minority woman can succeed in a sport long dominated by white athletes.
“We grew up playing in the parks because our parents couldn’t afford private lessons,” Cosme said. “Different pros gave us time, tennis advise, tips and court time. We were very lucky that way. The sport has been very good to me.”
She said as a minority playing tennis she did not experience outward racism but felt an undercurrent of prejudice. It pushed her and made her work harder to succeed at the sport she loved.
“There are not many tennis centers run by minorities, especially Indian,” she exclaimed. “There is such potential in diverse communities with so many people on different levels. We want to incorporate them and get them interested.”
The tennis center is open from mid-October to the end of April and in the spring and summer months the Parks Department takes over the court.
Cosme and the center’s teaching professionals give private and group lessons for beginners to advanced players of any age all year round. Private lessons cost $70 to $85 an hour and group lessons for four people cost $125 for five one-hour classes.
Court fees at the center range from $14 to $50 an hour, and during the summer fees are determined by the Parks Department.
Cosme said that during the summer the center will hold a tennis camp and there are instructional programs and leagues throughout the year. For more information on the center, camp or lessons call Hemel Meghani Cosme at 264-2600.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
