Q: There’s a tennis center in Atlanta named after a Bitsy Grant. Who was Bitsy Grant and what were his accomplishments?
A: The largest public tennis facility in Atlanta is named after a man who was so small, he was nicknamed "Bitsy."
Only appropriate, right?
Besides, the Bryan M. Grant Jr. Tennis Center wouldn’t strike the same chord, would it?
Grant was one of Atlanta’s first sports heroes, rivaling golfing great Bobby Jones in popularity in the 1920s and ’30s.
At 5 feet 4 and 120 pounds, he was small, even for that time, but covered the court with his quickness.
Known as “Itsy Bitsy the Giant Killer” for his ability to defeat top-ranked players who were bigger than him, Grant won the National Clay Court Championships three times and was the first Georgian to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Championships, now called the U.S. Open.
He also played on three U.S. Davis Cup teams, played at Wimbledon and was selected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1972.
“So many people who knew him well have died,” Mary McDonald, his daughter, told the AJC in 2005. “He brought recognition of Atlanta as a tennis city.”
In the early 1950s, Atlanta honored its tennis hero by building the facility and naming it for him. Grant played there until he died in 1986.
Atlanta architect Richard Aeck designed the observation and office building, and the architecture firm he started — Lord Aeck Sargent — renovated it, beginning in 2009.
Aeck’s son Tony was a part of the design team.
They returned the midcentury modern brick building to its original look by removing interior walls and partitions that obstructed the 360-degree views. Paint was stripped away and original railings and details were brought to code and retained.
Glass partitions, where needed, provide acoustical privacy without blocking the ability to check out the action on the tennis center’s 23 courts.
“That was generally one of the great accomplishments, to bring back the original character and allow it to be functional for what the needs are today,” Lord Aeck Sargent architect Jack Pyburn said.
The roof, which had been altered, also was returned to its midcentury modern look.
“That was a feature that probably 99 percent of folks won’t react to, but architecturally, it contributes to the overall quality of the outcome,” he said.
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