Boston tennis legend hasn’t forgotten his childhood courts in Springfield

Inside the green jewel of Springfield’s Forest Park lies another gem — red as ruby dust and inlaid in rectangles with the precision of a monarch’s crown.

The red clay tennis courts near the park’s Sumner Avenue entrance, created just years after the first Wimbledon Championship, haven’t always been treasured.

Today, a local hero is leading a drive to make sure these courts — all open to the public — retain their luster.

During the 1970s tennis boom, players waited for hours to get out on the courts, then nearly a century old. Springfield native Tim Mayotte remembers those years, when he and his brothers, John and Chris, were on their way to tennis scholarships and years on the professional circuit.

Fans by the hundreds climbed back then into removable stands to watch tournaments and state championships, Mayotte recalls.

“This was really the epicenter of tennis in this part of New England,” he said during a visit to the courts from his home in Boston. “And it was public. That was what was magical about it.”

Thirty-two years after ending his professional career, Mayotte and others are determined to rekindle that magic. A campaign is underway to raise money to help the city care for the courts — and restore their importance in New England’s tennis world.

The drive goes public Sept. 8, when Mayotte will host a day of events at the courts, including a free clinic for Springfield children, exhibitions, adult round robin play and awards to champions of local tennis.

“I always felt a deep connection, being here,” Mayotte said, sitting in a modest gazebo beside the courts, leafing through a family scrapbook of his clan’s tennis adventures. “There are very few red clay courts — and to have red clay courts that are public is almost unheard of.”

“It could become a real mecca,” Mayotte said. “I have no doubt that this can become a real hub again for tennis.”

Dark days

Despite the tennis boom years in Mayotte’s youth, these clay courts have seen their ups and downs. In the early 1980s, as Mayotte’s pro career began, all wasn’t so good back home.

Paul Fein, a tennis journalist and author who has played an outsized role in promoting Springfield tennis, said the city for a time stopped caring for the courts — even closing them for three years. He mounted a “Save Our Courts” campaign that resulted in the Springfield Tennis Club taking over responsibility for upkeep. Though it sounds private, the club exists, on modest membership fees and donations, to promote use of the courts by all.

“You can’t have a better comeback from being closed to being open,” Fein said. “We’re by far the best public courts in Western Massachusetts.”

“Tim takes a real interest, as a benefactor,” Fein said. “Tim is helping tremendously. He has cared about his roots here.”

Mary Martin, the club’s membership director (and a cousin to Mayotte), remembers the dark times of neglect. “The courts were covered with weeds and shrubs,” she said.

She, too, treasures the fact that the historic courts are open to everyone. “You don’t find them anywhere open to the public,” she said.

“Play the Clay,” a big sign at the court reads.

Stephen N. Cary, a childhood friend of the Mayotte family, is helping with the campaign. “The hope is to really rally people like me, who have an affinity,” Cary said. “Tim is a well-known figure and well-loved figure.”

Mayotte’s rise

Mayotte, whose family lived on Maplewood Terrace just blocks from the courts, won a tennis scholarship to Stanford University, attending in the class a year behind tennis great John McEnroe. He says that in his third year the moment seemed right to go pro.

Mayotte won the NCAA men’s singles title in 1981 and played his first professional match that year in Hawaii.

In his 11-year career, Mayotte reached a high point of seventh in the ATP rankings, in 1988, and finished with a career record of 340 wins and 202 losses, with 12 titles, as well as an Olympic silver medal in Seoul in 1988.

He reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1982 and the semifinals of the Australian Open the next year. Before retiring in 1992, he had scored wins (and, of course, losses) against players including Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Jimmy Connors. His demeanor on the court, partly in contrast to McEnroe, earned him the nickname “gentleman Tim.”

On the clay

On a recent afternoon at the courts, Mayotte ran into Peter Krupczak, a senior staffer in the city’s Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management Department, and invited him to hit a few balls.

“We’re fully supporting all your efforts,” Krupczak told Mayotte courtside. “Whatever you want to do.”

On a swing through town in late May, Mayotte and Cary briefed Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on the fund campaign. Sarno said he remembers Mayotte’s deep run at Wimbledon in 1982.

“We were all glued to the TV and the front page for update stories in the Springfield Daily News,” Sarno said. “Tim has never forgotten his Springfield and Forest Park roots.”

While the city owns the courts, members of the Springfield Tennis Club work during the playing season to keep them in shape, including, recently, replacing four nets. Mark Rypysc of Chicopee helps the club maintain the courts.

“The last couple of years, the weeds have been really horrendous,” he said.

Mayotte said early proceeds from the campaign will help with “refreshing” the courts. Longer term, one bigger project may seek to clear silt out of drainage pipes, an issue that prevents the courts from drying as quickly as they should.

Separately, the city’s Community Preservation Committee will be considering a grant to fully overhaul two of the courts, including the one that sports a small wooden plaque honoring Mayotte.

Martin, the club member, said she believes Mayotte sensed a “new energy” among tennis players and others to bring the courts up a peg.

“This was a time he could get the support to do a fundraiser,” Martin said. “It’s just taken off. It’s very exciting because the funds are needed to take it to the next level.”