When Leslie Allen was a student at Cleveland’s Glenville High School in the 1970s, her only option was to play tennis on the boys’ team. Girls weren’t provided for in this great sport or, indeed, any other.
It was a workable — but far from ideal — solution until she was blocked from competing in the state championships. A lawsuit against the Ohio State Athletic Association ensued and Allen’s career as a trailblazer, collegiate champion and Top 20 star was underway.
This week, Allen was back in her hometown for a series of engagements at Tennis in the Land powered by Rocket, a WTA 250 event celebrating its fifth staging.
While the focus of her visit was a panel at the tournament’s fourth annual Women in Business Forum, she also held mentoring sessions with young players Anna Bennett and Carmen and Ivana Corley, under the auspices of her foundation’s Win 4 Life motivational program. Another highlight was a meeting with girls from Glenville’s current tennis team, before they sat down to enjoy the matches.
Allen even paid her first ever visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, accompanied by Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.
“It is absolutely incredible,” Allen told local NBC affiliate WKYC in a breakfast interview to promote the tournament. “I never really imagined that there would be professional tennis here in Cleveland. This venue is amazing, and it’s so open and accessible for people to come and see.”
In 1981, Allen defeated Hana Mandlikova to win the Avon Championships of Detroit — the biggest title won by an African American woman since Althea Gibson’s barrier-busting Grand Slam successes, more than two decades earlier. A career-high ranking of No.17 followed.
Fast forward to 2025 and a few hours’ drive away from the scene of her famous victory, Tennis in the Land provided Allen with a trip down memory lane at a personal and professional level.
Like many tournaments in the formative years of the WTA, the competition is staged in an untraditional “pop-up” setting — one that works an inner-city vibe and Cleveland’s proud industrial heritage, on the banks of the winding Cuyahoga River.
Specifically, the event is held at the Nautica Waterfront District, in an area known as The Flats, in the shadows of the historic Main Ave Bridge.
Back in the day, Allen recalls, it was something of a no-go zone, but today the area is an entertainment and leisure precinct that even includes an aquarium. Tournament organizers hope their tennis event will inspire a permanent facility the local community can use year-round.
“One morning, as a schoolgirl, I happened to hear on a TV that Title IX existed — and that changed everything for me,” said Allen, who graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in speech communications in 1977, before joining the WTA Tour.
“Even within this tournament, there are so many opportunities for people to be a volunteer, be an intern, be a ball kid.
“Now, to know that women’s sports are embraced here, it’s not an oddity, it’s something people love. … We’ve come a long way. When I look at the prize money players receive, and the places they get to play, I’m honored to think that I had a hand in this, that I helped this happen.”