Francis Park – Down the line she goes!

On a beautiful Dec 1st in St. Louis – forecast for High 60’s we headed out to Francis Park in the City of St. Louis to meet our friends Toni and Laura for a few sets of mixed doubles.  Francis Park is located in the heart of the fabulous St. Louis Hills neighborhood and is a jewel.

It was donated by David Rowland Francis to the City of St. Louis in 1916. It contains walking trails, restrooms, handball courts and eight tennis courts.   Since it is the Christmas season it was hard to miss the amazing display of inflatable Christmas figures across the street.  The courts would hardly appear to be forgotten as 6 of the 8 were occupied upon our arrival.  On Dec 1st no less.

Laura and Toni are USTA 4.5 rated ladies like Stan and Scott was the lone 4.0 on the court.   We play as a group often and know each others games well.   Stan and Toni combined to take on Laura and Scott.   Usually we are dead even but on this day Stan and Toni took Scott and Laura to the woodshed.

Stan and Toni won Stan’s serve to start.  Scott’s serve game was tough and at one point he hit an amazing four lets in a row but to no avail as Stan and Toni rolled the 1st set 6-2, Second set 6-3 and third set 6-4.   First set Scott was struggling to find his backhand and by the time he found it in the second set, Toni started hitting down the line winners off Scott’s serve repeatedly.

No matter where Scott hit the ball or how hard she was able to hit a laser beam winner in the corner.  All in all we counted at least 12 clean winners.   For those who are not regular players, this is a very low percentage shot and difficult to hit with consistency.

Courts are in great shape with bathrooms nearby and a nice consistent bounce.   Location is excellent and we rate these courts a 10 for location and 10 for surface.   Nearby locations for food include St. Louis Favorite Ted Drewes Frozen Custard (Ted Drewes, Sr. is in St. Louis Tennis Hall of Fame) and Stan’s favorite for Turkish Cuisine, Aya Sofia