CARY - There is now a definitive way to see if you really are the best tennis player in town: The Champions Ladder, a new addition to the Challenge Ladder program at the Cary Tennis Park.

The ladder is open to any level player, but more importantly, any gender.

"Recently, some players have had difficulty finding leagues that give men and women the opportunity to play against each other, regardless of gender," said Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht. "Recognizing this challenge, the town saw this as the perfect opportunity to create the Champions Ladder."

The "difficulty" of which the mayor speaks started in Raleigh, when Nancy Griffin, a local player, was basically shunned on the men's ladder she had played on since 1999.

She said she preferred playing men and wanted keener competition, even though the Raleigh area has many other women of her skill level with whom to compete, and has had its own coed ladder since 2003.

But several men on the ladder refused to play her, Griffin says.

And she was unable to garner enough points to move up the men's ladder without an "avoidance penalty" in place. The penalty was revoked in 2006.

She has since petitioned the city to reinstate the avoidance penalty, in which a player is awarded 24 points when someone refuses to meet his or her challenge.

She is suing the city for discrimination and for $10,000 or more for emotional distress.

That debacle helped Cary launch its own coed ladder.

The 12-week ladder started last month. Forty-two have joined up, five of them women.

By Oct. 30, 42 matches had been played -- eight involving women.

To promote the ladder, Weinbrecht challenged Griffin to a match. Griffin declined. She also has refused to play on the coed Cary ladder. She declined to comment.

The mayor, 52, instead played another local player, Kristen James, 25, a University of Virginia grad who attended college on a full athletic scholarship. James teaches part time at the Cary Tennis Park.

Weinbrecht lost 6-3, 6-1, but is ready for a rematch on clay courts.

When asked if this coed ladder will help validate women's tennis, the mayor said he didn't need to learn that lesson.

"Personally, I seek out players at my level or above and that includes women," he said in a recent e-mail.

He has been drilling with a female coworker at SAS for more than 15 years.

"I have always thought that women players can play on the same level as men players. Although we might not see it at the top of the game yet, we are seeing a move in that direction," he said, citing the success of sisters Venus and Serena Williams.

Others see the coed ladder as a place to diversify one's competition.

"Men and women play the game differently," said Sean Ferreira, a supervisor at the tennis park. "This provides both men and women with an opportunity to see a different ball and game style."

Ferreira also said it was important to the tennis community that a separate male ladder remain intact.

"We were concerned that we didn't want to lose the men-only offering that we had," he said. But the opportunity to create a coed ladder was exciting for both the staff, and apparently, the public.

"It's actually our largest ladder that we offer now," Ferreira said.