Breaking News: For the first time in our 11-year history, we’re adding the increasingly popular sport of pickleball to the tournament. Tennis and pickleball will be operated as two separate tournaments occurring simultaneously on Saturday, November 12. We’re doubling the fun!

The Tennis with a Heart annual charity tournament is back in 2022 for its 11th year, and it’s bigger and better than ever. Presented by Ocean Edge Services and TechipFMC, the event will be November 12 at the fabulous Kingwood Country Club. All proceeds will benefit the Houston Chapter of the American Heart Association and the Texas Children’s Hospital Cancer Center.

We held the first Tennis with a Heart charity tournament in 2011. The idea stemmed from a conversation early that year between tournament director Raouf Hadad, OES COO, and John Gremp, then the President and CEO of FMC Technologies, regarding the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk and the participation of their respective organizations.

Hurricane Harvey put a damper on 2017, but we’ve held the tournament every year other than that and, to date, have raised over $320,000 for our charities...and played a lot of great tennis and made really great friends along the way. Let’s keep it going!

By popular request and the help of the Clubs of Kingwood and their Director of Racquet Sports, John Kudrick, we’re adding pickleball to the schedule for the first time. Pickleball was invented in 1965 as a new way to entertain kids who were bored with the usual summertime activities. Since then, it has exploded in popularity throughout North America and is growing internationally, as well. Just this week, the Tennis Channel is televising the professional pickleball tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For more information about pickleball, visit USA Pickleball at USAPickleball.org. As they describe it succinctly, “The rules are simple and the game is easy for beginners to learn, but can develop into a quick, fast-paced, competitive game for experienced players.”

We will have three skill-level divisions for pickleball: UTPR ratings of 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0+ (4.0 and higher). Tennis NTRP skill divisions will continue to be 3.5, 4.0, and Open (4.5+); however, we may adjust the brackets based upon the players registered in order to provide competitive matches and comparable levels of skill. Last year, for example, we had 13 teams register in the Open division so split it into NTRP 4.5 and 5.0+. The tennis and pickleball tournaments will be separate but played concurrently. There will be separate draws, schedules, and all flight winners will receive trophies.

Read the tournament announcement email, and if you aren’t already on our mailing list, be sure to subscribe here. We never share the list, and will only ever email you in a 90-day period surrounding the annual tournament.

We look forward to seeing you in November!