“The only goal here is to have fun. It’s really nice.”

Which doesn’t mean Zhou doesn’t have to play well in his doubles matches.

“The really high level athletes, they’ll expect me to play to a certain level,” Zhou said with a chuckle. “I can’t be letting them down.”

Special Pops Tennis, the only program of its kind in the country sanctioned by the USTA, and the late-summer SPUD League pair children and adults with intellectual disabilities with a unified partner like Zhou. It began in 2005 with about 30 athletes in three metro area locations, including Gwinnett.

“What we learned quickly is that this population could benefit greatly from the sports of tennis,” executive director Jim Hamm said. “But tennis also was so prevalent in the metro area that we had ready access to facilities and people wanting to give back.

“We started with local tennis enthusiasts. They had a heart for giving back to the sport and giving back to other people.”

Now there are upwards of 650 athletes and a similar number of volunteers with four locations in Gwinnett and more across north Atlanta.

The grassroots volunteer organization doesn’t charge athletes for training, subsidizing the cost through grants and donors.

“We saw the benefits of it and we had such a concentration of tennis players in the Atlanta area, we really felt like we could make it happen,” Hamm said. “With the support of local businesses and families, we’ve been able to sustain it.

“We don’t turn anyone away because they can’t afford it. We’ll find a way to fund it.”

Hamm has so often been contacted by people around the U.S. who want to start their own program that they created a step-by-step process.

“For us, it’s really about the relationships and what we can do to enrich their life,” Hamm said. “We work really hard at making sure our volunteers know why they’re there.

“We have volunteers who have played on the professional tour and make great unified partners because they’re not fueled by ego — they’re fueled by the smile on the athlete’s face.”

Hamm is out on the court most days and always leaves feeling like he got as much, or more, as the athlete who is training.

“It brought clarity to me about what people mean when they talk about unconditional love,” Hamm said.

“Some come in for recreation; some are bound and determined to get better,” Hamm said. “We can work with them at whatever level. We just want to get them there.

“The beauty of the sport is it’s adaptable. We want them to leave feeling successful — even though the ball might not have gone in.”

The weekly Saturday morning SPUD League starts July 28 on the campus of Wesleyan School in Norcross.

“It was something where we felt we could align the league and weekend tennis players with the special-needs population and allow them to benefit from the experience,” Hamm said. “What we really found is — and how we get so many volunteers — is that as soon as someone gets on the court with one of our athletes, they’re all in. Our athletes can really close the deal.”

Special Pops also is hosting the 14th Fall Classic at LifeTime Tennis Center in September, a three-day event with more than 140 athletes from 10 states and a retention rate of close to 90 percent.

This weekend, they’re in Anderson, S.C., for a tournament. That same event last year was a banner day for Suwanee’s Kayleigh Dell, who joined the program four years ago when she was 27.

And that’s not what it’s about anyway.

“I got into it because I knew people that were in the program and I had played tennis before — a long, long time ago in middle school,” said Dell, who is a student at Gwinnett Tech. “I looked into it and thought I might as well get back into it.

“I’ve enjoyed it so far.”

Zhou also heard about it by word of mouth. His best friend’s mom was a team captain and asked him to play.

“I had no idea what it was going to be like,” Zhou said. “I was super nervous because of all the rules, but once you start, it’s just a bunch of kids out on the courts having fun.”

For more information, visit www.specialpopstennis.org.