Baby Steps

I also starting a series, Baby Steps by Kachiki Hikaru which is a Tennis manga. I only have read one chapter of the series and it seems similar to the Prince of Tennis. The difference is that the main character, Eiichiro Maruo isn't a tennis player, but his schoolmate is a tennis player and she aiming to become a professional player.

Characters introduced in the first chapter.

Eiichiro Maruo a.k.a. E-chan by his friends(main character)
His classmate call him All- A because he is always getting perfect grades. He is also sounds like an old man because of his habit of trying to do everything in order.  He wanted to physical exercise and his mom send/force him to the Southern Tennis Club.

 Kojirou Kageyama 
A friend and classmate of Eiichiro

Natsu Takasai a schoolmate of Eiichiro
She is the school idol and is a tennis player aiming to be a pro. She is part of the Southern Tennis Club. For some reason she reminds me of Kyoko Sasagawa from Hitman Reborn, a little ditzy.

Eiichiro's mom
The one that sends him to the Southern Tennis Club since he was saying that he needed more physical exercise.

Coach Morimoto
A tennis coach at the Southern Tennis Club that Eiichiro met.

Hana Yokoyama
A friend of Natsu and a tennis player at the Southern Tennis Club.

Masumi Makihara
A friend of Natsu and a tennis player at the Southern Tennis Club.

Coach Miura
A tennis coach at the Southern Tennis Club.

Summary
  It starts off at school and Eiichirou Maruo a.k.a. E-chan is introduce being at school when the teacher called his name to do a math problem on the board that he solves easily. During the lunch break , he eating with his friend Kageyama when all the sudden a girl, Natsu Takasaki from another class asked her friend for her history's notes. The friend told  her to ask Eiichiro for his notes since his is better. Once E-chan gives Natsu his notes, she trips and falls, spilling a lunch on the notes. She just cleans the note and apologizes to E-chan as she leaves.

  After school Kageyama invites E-chan to the Shogi club since he hasn't join any clubs. E-chan just said that he had a busy schedule and that his day off he was going to do physical exercise. He arrives home, his mom had some friends over, she hands him a catalog for a tennis club nearby. Giving him money to eat out before he heads out to see the the Southern Tennis Club. Telling his mom that he is going to take the money to eat out but wasn't interesting in going to the Southern Tennis Club. Getting scold by his mom, who told him that he was the one that wanted to exercise. In the end he headed to the Southern Tennis Club, where he found his schoolmate, Natsu practicing with another tennis player. An elementary student notices him and starting yelling to Coach Morimoto that there was a spy, Natsu was the first to arrive and recognize N-chan as her schoolmate. She introduce everyone to N-chan. He told the Coach Morimoto that he was just looking and doesn't want to join. Coach Morimoto told him to stay and watch, N-chan ended up warming up with the other members of the club. He ends up collapsing during the warmup, when he comes to he decided to go home but bumps into Natsu. He gave her an excuse that he had to go study and she asked if he enjoys studying which N-chan doesn't have an answer. N-chan asked Natsu if she had fun with her hobby, which she answered that it wasn't a hobby because she wants to become a pro. Then she returns to practice and Coach Morimoto told him about the club, she also told him not to his mom that he collapsed during the warm-up. To which he agrees not to tell. He asked the Coach what he had to do to build his stamina and she answered running. He gets on the bus to go home, but ends up getting off and running. He wasn't able to make it home because he run out of stamina and had to call his mom to pick him up. That caused his mom to worry about him and asking him what happen which he assure her nothing happen.