By Laurin Penland
Wilmington, NC – Almost sixty years after Althea Gibson won Wimbledon, the French Open, and the U.S. Open, officials will break ground Wednesday morning on a tennis center named after Gibson. The center at Empie Park is estimated to cost one and a half million dollars.
Wilmington officials hope the ten new tennis courts along with the club house will support thousands of Wilmington players as well as attract new tennis tournaments to the area.
Tara Duckworth, Superintendent of Recreation, says the tennis center will be one of a kind.
"There's a lot of private clubs in town. Publicly there's not something that's going to have this many courts."
The tennis center's named after Althea Gibson, who trained in Wilmington during the 1940s. In the 50s she became the first black tennis player to win at Wimbledon.
She followed up her tennis career on the golf course where she became the first black woman to play in the LGPA.
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