It all started with maybe.
Ivona Smith had lived in Forest Hills for years before she ever set foot on a court at The West Side Tennis Club. Her husband joined first, in 2011. A year later, her sons followed. One of them showed a real pull toward tennis, the other was willing to give it a shot.
Ivona herself had never played.
"We didn't know what to expect," she says. "We didn't have too many friends at the time that were members. It was really, let's give tennis a try because it's in our backyard."
Curiosity is how a lot of members find their start at The West Side.
For Ivona, she took a few lessons, started rallying, and found herself hooked. She met other women in the same position—newer players, figuring it out together. Those women became her doubles partners. Then, her team.
"I fell in love with it. I can do this. I can get better at this. So I kept going," Ivona says.
In the early years, club life revolved around the boys. They’d start with Saturday morning soccer, then cool off at the pool. They took midweek lessons. Her husband played the occasional weekend game. Ivona herself worked through clinics, slowly building confidence on the court.
Eventually, their family's time came together. They weren’t driving across boroughs for different activities. The club handled most of it in one place.
"Maybe I'd have a clinic, my husband might have a game. We all had our own little things going on, but the pool was a great meeting ground. And sometimes you'd just kind of get sucked into staying for dinner, we call it the vortex, because nobody's cooking at home. You're at the club playing tennis."
The Smiths fell into the “vortex” often, whether for club dinners on evenings when the junior program ran late, or when the kids joined pizza parties while the adults sat at the bar. Or, when they spent afternoons around the pool, alongside other families watching each other's kids, in an easy, unspoken way that only happens when people feel settled.
"I see parents today taking care of other members' kids while they go play tennis. It's like, hey, keep an eye on my kid while they're in the pool. There's a lot of that sense of community," Ivona shares.
That sense of community is what the club is built from years of shared Saturdays.
Fourteen years in, the club looks a little different for Ivona than it did in 2012. Her sons are now 21 and 23. The older one, Ian, plays nearly every day, he walks to the club from home, meets a friend, and runs singles. He won the men's open here in 2022. He played travel tennis at Penn State. Tennis, for him, became everything.
"My husband was pacing. My parents came out to watch, my mom was 91 at the time. We were all there. It was a multi-generational moment. A core memory," Ivona remembers.
The Club has shifted to become more hers. She's now on the club's board as treasurer, involved in the ongoing renovations and the work of building a better club for the next generation of members. She joined a ladies' team. She plays on weekends, has a glass of rosé after, and makes dinner plans with friends.
"These days it's more about me and my friends, hanging out at the club. We have this social network, and it's focused on that," Ivona says.
The club she joined to expose her kids to tennis became the place where she built a life.
"It is an investment," she shares. "You're learning a life skill. You're enjoying a sport. You're working out. You're outside in New York City with greenery around you. It's difficult to find a negative."
Her older son now works in finance, where tennis outings have largely replaced golf. He can check that box. So can she. The sport they picked up together at a neighborhood club became something that travels with them professionally, socially, and as a family.
As for the worry about fitting in:
"You have to put yourself out there. You have to join the clinics. But as soon as you do, people welcome you in. I find this club to be very inclusive. It's not a certain type of person. Everyone's just there to have a very nice time."
Fourteen years in, she's still there, playing. The West Side is still her backyard.