New York Tennis Magazine - January/February 2013

57NYTennisMag.com • November/December 2012 • New York Tennis Magazine

Also inside this issue: Guide to Where to Get Fit for Tennis

58NYTennisMag.com • January/February 2013 • New York Tennis Magazine

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Statements of fact and opinion in New York Tennis Magazine are theresponsibility of the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the partof United Sports Publications Ltd. New York Tennis Magazine reservesthe right to edit, reject and/or postpone the publication of any articles,information or data.

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Feature Stories8 NY Tennis Community Cleans Up the Aftermath of Superstorm

Sandy By Adam WolfthalSuperstorm Sandy swept through the area and left in its wake, several local tennis facilitieswho were left to deal with its destruction … here is their story on rebuilding and rebounding.

12 2013 Australian Open PreviewThe Australian Open kicks off the 2013 Grand Slam season … the men, the women, thecontenders, the sleepers and pretenders all vying for Grand Slam glory in Melbourne.

18 New York Tennis Magazine’s 2013 Gym GuideNeed to supplement your on-court workout? Look no further as we present the top condition-ing centers geared toward taking your tennis game and off the court fitness to the next level.

Additional Features3 Reality & Fantasy: Don’t Overplay … Playing Your Game is the Best Bet By Rohan Goetzke4 Junior Player Spotlight: Jennifer Bright By Adam Wolfthal16 Is NYC Tennis History in Jeopardy? By Richard Thater23 Looking to Fix Technique? Examine Your Movement By Tim Mayotte25 Ten and Under Tennis By Lesley Rosenthal26 Warning: Improper Use of This String May be Hazardous to Your Health! By Fritz Buehning36 Fix Your Toss and Get More Power on the Serve By Lisa Dodson38 A Look Back at the 2012 Tennis Season46 Keep the Fun in the Game By Xavier Luna47 Seems My Kid Likes Tennis … Now What? By Mike Silverman48 The Balance Between Practice and Playing Tournaments By Gilad Bloom

Columns6 Court Six: New York Tennis Magazine’s Gossip Column By Emilie Katz10 The Jensen Zone By Luke Jensen24 College Tennis Spotlight: The Five Myths of College Recruiting By Eric Rebhuhn28 Adult League Recap: USTA Leagues Update By Deborah-Rose Andrews29 Tips From the Tennis Pro: Tennis the Opposite Hand By Bill Longua31 USTA Eastern Metro Region Update32 Metro Corporate League Recap, Presented by Advantage Tennis Clubs50 Upcoming Events50 New York Tennis Club Directory52 New York Rankings55 USTA/Metropolitan Region 2013 Tournament Schedule

Cover photo credit: Rebecca Taylor/MSG Photos

20 Big Apple Braces for Big Stars on the CourtOn March 4, Madison Square Garden will host the Sixth Annual BNPParibas Showdown featuring Rafael Nadal taking on Juan Martin delPotro and on the women’s side, Serena Williams taking on VictoriaAzarenka.

Cover storyTABLE OF CONTENTSJanuary/February 2013

Volume 3, Number 1

65NYTennisMag.com • November/December 2012 • New York Tennis Magazine

Also inside this issue: Guide to Where to Get Fit for Tennis

Brent ShearerEditorial Contributor


By Rohan Goetzke

Being a tennis coach ne-cessitates a unique ability toconnect with the player.Tennis is a game of skill,

strength and strategy. As a coach, the chal-lenge is to guide a player to perform theirbest in all of those aspects and then comeback the next day reaching for more. As inany sport, there is that elite group of athletesat the top that we are inspired by. Thoseplayers, whose names are all too familiar,impress and amaze us with their talent andpassion for the sport. They are, if not heroesof the sport, symbolic of what can beachieved.

In a tennis training center, from technicallyfine-tuning a swing, to tweaking a serve, toinspiring a player’s game strategy, one ofthe most pressing issues for coaches is bal-ancing a player’s expectation of what theyare capable of doing at that moment andwhat they would love to be able to do.

If you have been around the game longenough, it is evident how the top profes-sional players are influencing the game stylefor the rest of us. From the powerful groundshots, to exceptional movement, penetrat-ing serves, and the return of serve, watchinga match is often a truly inspiring event. Nowconsider that junior player who just saw anastonishing match and decides to try thatspectacular first serve or to make every shota winner. What’s the big deal? Well, the bigdeal is that junior player we is trying to hitthe same balls as the professionals and for-getting what they are physically, if not emo-tionally, capable of. And the result is oftentrying to hit too hard, trying for too manywinners, which often results in unforced er-rors. They often attempt to serve too hardor possess too great a sense of urgency toend the point rather than work the point. All-the-while, the player is only 5’4”, they areplaying entirely the wrong style of game,and so they become negative and begin adownward spiral.

We all know working on fundamentals is

critical for development and that the moresolid and developed the mechanics, thelower the chances are that things will fallapart under pressure. It is also important tofactor in that players progress and maturephysically and emotionally at different ratesand at different stages in their training.

While many coaches focus on an all-courtgame, young players need to work more ontheir serve and also their return of serve. Ipersonally believe that these elements areoften overlooked and under-trained. Achiev-ing a higher percentage of first serves, andin the return game, trying to make as manyfirst serve returns and do more with the sec-ond serve return, are elements that needmore attention. Learning how to work thepoint—when to rally, open the court up or hitthe ball deep or deep and down the middle,and not always going for winners— needsto be a training priority. The professionalsplay long points and shifting to that mindsetcan help a young player progress.

In today’s world of tennis, coachingneeds to focus even more on balancing theexpectations of players with their own per-sonal reality, addressing with players andparents how to formulate clear goals thattake into account the age and physical ca-pabilities of the player, all while acceptingthat there is a learning curve. While watch-

ing other players or professional matchesare useful training tools, each player needsto stay true to himself and his own game.Those flashy shots that younger players aretrying to emulate won’t win the match, buta commitment to playing a point properlyand competing hard will. It might be acliché, but there really aren’t any short cutsto the top, so train hard and don’t forget toenjoy the ride.

Rohan Goetzke is the IMG Academy Direc-tor of Bollettieri Tennis. As director, Rohanoversees all aspects of the tennis programand ensures delivery of the optimal trainingand highest level of development to eachmale and female tennis athlete at the jun-ior, high school, postgraduate, collegiateand professional levels. A native of Aus-tralia, Goetzke joined IMG Academy fromthe Dutch Tennis Federation, where he wasresponsible for the development and im-plementation of the nation’s tennis programfrom the junior through professional ranks.Prior to joining the Dutch Tennis Federationas technical director, Goetzke served as thenational head coach of the Federation,working with top professionals includingRobin Haase, Michaella Krajicek, ThiemoDe Bakker and Arantxa Rus. For more in-formation, visit imgperformance.com.

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4 New York Tennis Magazine • January/February 2013 • NYTennisMag.com

Jennifer BrightBy Adam Wolfthal

From the moment you meet JenniferBright, it is obvious that she is not likemost others her age. She knows her

skills, sets her goals high, and does what ittakes to achieve them. Whether it’s spend-ing an extra 10 minutes at the end of a ten-nis practice working on her down the linebackhand, or putting in the maximum ofnecessary five to eight recommendationsfor one of the most prestigious awards inacademia.

Growing up on the Upper West Side ofManhattan, it is generally difficult to standout with so much greatness on every cor-ner. Be it the Julliard School of Music, Cen-tral Park or the American Museum ofNatural History, it is known that to make aname for yourself in this area, you have tobe special, sophisticated and maybe a lit-tle bit lucky.

As a young girl, Jenny was involved inmany sports, including basketball, softballand soccer, but eventually tennis won out asher primary sport due to its combination ofteam and individual aspect.

Jenny began playing tennis at RooseveltIsland Racquet Club (RIRC) at the age ofseven, and spent her first few years learningthe basics from Aston Lawson. She waschosen to be on the varsity team at TrinityHigh School, while still in eighth grade, andanchored the team at first singles for fiveyears.

“Sports is a funny thing, tennis is very dif-ferent from other situations, you are on afriendly field of competition, and two peopleare put together with a set of rules and toldto just play,” said Jenny. “The rigidity ofsports, the repetition and the mental tough-ness that you gain from sports helps you out

in all aspects of life, especially handlingstress.”

While on the high school team, sheswitched coaches at RIRC to the club’s di-rector of tennis, Jason Spiers, who remainsher coach to this day.

“It was obvious from the beginning thatshe had a great deal of potential,” saidSpiers. “All she needed was better manage-ment on court to be able to use her smarts inthe game, and once she got a handle of howto think on the court, everyone knew shewould make it at Yale.”

And make it she did. Jenny became en-grossed in academics and put her all into re-alizing her goal of learning all she couldabout urban development and planning. Fo-cusing her studies on ethics, politics and

economics with a concentration on urbanhealth, Jenny also interned for the past threesummers working in urban health policy inNew York City.

In her junior fall semester at Yale, the ten-nis team held open tryouts and Jenny couldhave been on the team, but she was not ableto take on the commitment to the full extentthat she wanted to. She declined the spot,but became a supporter of the team. In-stead, she focused her attention on other,albeit, less demanding, intramural competi-tions. Whether it was touch football, ping-pong, or soccer, Jenny helped lead herslump-ridden Davenport College to its firstsuccessful intramural season in decades.

Jenny is the former president of the YaleUrban Collective and the editor-in-chief ofthe Yale Undergraduate Law Review. If shedecided to cruise to her graduation andcome home with a degree, it would havebeen considered an overwhelming successand an outstanding college career, but that’sjust not Jenny. She began the long and ar-duous process of applying for a RhodesScholarship to Oxford to study public policyand urban health. The characteristics soughtout for the Rhodes are physical vigor, self-lessness, literary and scholastic achieve-ments, and leadership abilities. Theseattributes were the beginning of a procedurethat included obtaining eight letters of rec-ommendation, getting an endorsement fromYale, writing a personal statement, and in-terviewing with a group from her district,New York State.

“On a different day, it might have been an-other person going to Oxford, but it hap-pened to be my day,” said Jenny … the firstof many days that will be hers.


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Tweets from the tennis pros

Caroline Wozniacki(@carowozniacki):I’m so excited itssnowing!! @mcilroy-rory snowball fightcoming up!! I wouldwatch my back;)

Jesse Levine @jesse-levine7: You know itsgoing to be a rough day infantasy football when yourkicker puts up morepoints than your #1 over-all! HAHA!

Shahar Peer @shaharpeer:Master Chef!!! Love thisshow :-)

Justin Gimelstob (@justin-gimelstob): Early morninghoops at UCLA, great wayto start the day!

Laura Robson @lau-rarobson5: Cannot stopwatching Criminal Minds.On my 5th straightepisode.

Amer Delic @AmerDelic:Last time I was at the Or-ange Bowl, I watchedFederer, Lopez, Robredo,etc. On my way there now.Let’s see what this classhas to offer.

Ryan Harrison (@ryan-harrison92): Having agreat off season so far!Lots of work, but so readyto get back at it next year.Enjoying some great homecooking for a change :)

Serena Williams (@sere-nawilliams): I could bethe moodiest person alive.

Caroline Wozniacki(@carowozniacki):Really enjoyed mytime here in Aspen,but now bags arepacked and Brazilhere I come :)

Justin Gimelstob (@justin-gimelstob): Sitting be-tween @kanyewest and@andyroddick on flightfrom Miami-LAX. Toughfor me to accept third

alpha male status on flight :(

Wedding bellsMike Bryan hasmarried LucilleWilliams in Cali-fornia. AmericanATP stars andpersonalities inattendance atMike‘s wedding

included his twin brother Bob Bryan,Mardy Fish and Justin Gimelstob. Mikehimself and James Valentine from rockband Maroon 5 (fresh off of a SaturdayNight Live stint) played songs on guitarfor guests a half-hour before the cere-mony began.

Former world number four James Blakemarried Emily Snider in California. ATPstars in attendance included Andy Roddick,John Isner, Mardy Fish and RobbyGinepri, among other sports and enter-tainment notables.

The joys of marriage keep coming forATP players, as Aussie Matt Ebden be-came the latest to tie the knot at the Se-cret Garden. Ebden is a frequent doublespartner to budding young gun, AmericanRyan Harrison.

From the local coaching ranks, a sin-cere congratulations are in order forSportime coaching legend Eric Meditz,who is well-known for his “My Opinion”columns in Long Island Tennis Magazine,on tying the knot as well. Meditz can nowfinally put his focus back on his writing aswell as righting the ship with his fantasybaseball and hockey teams which havestruggled as Meditz was busy weddingplanning.


Mid-match massagePhoto credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

Novak Djokovic was inBrazil for an exhibitionmatch against Braziliannative Gustavo Kuerten,and during a stoppageof play, Novak noticed agroup of young modelsstanding behind his

chair. That’s when the top-ranked Djokovicsprung into action by removing his shirt andreceived a “multi-model” massage for theages … the video can be found online, and ifDjokovic wasn’t already the idol of youngtennis players throughout the world, he cer-tainly will be now.

Christmas giftC a r o l i n eW o z n i a c k isnatched a mi-crophone froma reporter dur-ing boyfriend

Rory McIlroy’s press conference to ask a

personal question: “If you win this week, amI going to get a really nice Christmas pres-ent?” “Have you not already got a lot of nicepresents,” McIlroy responded. Rory then as-sured his lady that she’s going to have amemorable Christmas regardless of the out-come of this weekend’s tournament. “I havebeen looking, I have been looking,” McIlroysaid. “But it won’t take winning this week tobuy you a nice present–I’ll get you a nicepresent anyway.” This back and forthbrought laughs from all in attendance.McIlroy certainly won’t have any problem af-fording a nice gift, as he made in excess of$13 million in PGA and European Tour tour-naments alone this year, let alone the mil-lions he rakes in from endorsements.

CSIInternat ionalTennis Hall ofFamer ChrisEvert, OlympicGold Medalist

Lindsay Davenport and tennis commenta-tor Justin Gimelstob will guest star in an

episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigationin January 2013 on the CBS Television Net-work. The three tennis personalities will ap-pear as themselves when the CSI teaminvestigates the death of a professional fe-male tennis player.

Evert, winner of 18 Grand Slam singles ti-tles, including two Australian Opens, sevenFrench Opens, three Wimbledons and six U.S.Opens, owns the best winning percentage(.900) in pro tennis history. She won 154 sin-gles titles (second all-time in the Open Era).

Joining Evert will be former world num-ber one and 1996 Olympic Gold MedalistLindsay Davenport, who won 55 singles ti-tles, including seven Grand Slams (two Aus-tralian Opens, three Wimbledons, two U.S.Opens) and 38 doubles titles.

A former top-ranked U.S. junior andNCAA doubles champion at UCLA, JustinGimelstob rounds out the guest stars fromthe professional tennis world. He reached acareer-high ranking of 63rd in singles and17th in doubles. He is also a correspondentfor CBS THIS MORNING.

CSI airs Wednesday nights (10:00 p.m.-11:00p.m., ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.


It was late Sunday, Oct. 28th, mostNew Yorkers were just beginning tothink about what the Halloween cos-tume we were going to try and rig to-gether, on the way home fromwatching the game. The announceron the radio said something about a

major storm coming the following day, andmost folks figured, “I hope he’s right,maybe if it’s bad enough, I’ll have off workon Tuesday …” Having weathered the ef-fects of Hurricane Irene just over a yearearlier, and being jaded to the weathermenpredicting catastrophic events every otherweek, it was brushed off as “No big deal.”A few folks headed out to fill their cars withgas if they had a long commute, somebought water and other supplies, much tothe chagrin of the masses, those preparingwere deemed worrywarts. As the nightwent on, the winds kept picking up. Then itwas calm. Overnight, calm. Even early inthe day on Monday, public facilities werepreemptively closed for the storm and itwas a beautiful and calm. As the morningbecame the afternoon and the winds nevergave a hint of slowing, it started to becomeclear that this was not an average storm

heading our way. Reports started comingin over the television that parts of West Vir-ginia and Virginia were being blanketedwith snow. Outside, the clouds overheadwere rushing by as if they were running latefor a subway during peak hours. Radio sta-tions began advising folks that they shouldfill up with gas and then stay in for thenight. Little did anyone know how impor-tant a full tank would be over the next fewdays. Hardware and home improvementstores had sold out of generators. As dayturned to night, the darkness outsideswiftly gave way to darkness indoors, asthe winds picked up and trees began fallingon power lines, taking out the electricity inmost neighborhoods. Once the powercompanies saw that poles and power sta-tions were in harm’s way, they began pre-emptively shutting down the power to thebulk of the island. Then the water came …

Sandy was officially only a Category OneStorm, and what it lacked in force, it madeup for in sheer size and more effectively,timing. Had Sandy come through duringthe middle of the day, in the middle of thelunar cycle, it would have been handled.But Sandy was a Superstorm, and it hit

New York and New Jersey at high tide, dur-ing a full moon and had a footprint ofroughly 1.8 million square miles, from theMid-Atlantic to Ohio and up into Canada.This was no ordinary, average storm. Cou-ple the massive size and effect of the stormwith the complacency that had been brew-ing ever since New York had “handled”Hurricane Irene just 15 months prior, andwhat you get is a state of shocked emer-gency and unprepared terror.

At its peak, the new record high tide rosea full nine-feet above average, nearly three-feet higher than the previous record set in1821. Sustained winds reached 90 milesper hour and gusted up over 110 miles perhour. Any free-standing structure wasunder duress and anything not tied downbecame a projectile. Homes and busi-nesses near the water were especiallyjeopardized due to the extreme high tidepouring water into the ground floor of manybuildings. Particularly susceptible were anyoutdoor tennis facilities that had recentlyraised its bubble to insulate the courts. Thenewly-raised tennis bubbles, with penetra-ble outer linings and delicate footing, wereleft standing in a few cases, however most

NY Tennis Community Cleans Up the Aftermath of

Superstorm Sandy

B y A d a m W o l f t h a lCredit Photos to Aaron Klipstein


were not so fortunate, including, Sportimeat Randalls Island, West Side Tennis Cluband the Tennis Club of Riverdale.

Once the wind jostled the bubble off itsbase, and with the power down, backupgenerators could not push the amount ofair needed to keep the bubble standing.At 3:00 a.m. during the worst stretch ofthe storm, 100-plus mile per hour windswere pushing the inflatable structures offtheir foundations and most would notmake it through the night. At West SideTennis Club, one of their bubbles wentdown, but luckily, the larger of the twostayed up and they were able to keepprogramming going through the weekwhile repairs were made. Due to the ini-tial power outages, the influx of out oftown help coming to the area and the in-ability for fuel tankers and trucks to get totheir original destinations, fuel and partic-ularly gas were in very low supply. Ra-tioning began one week after the storm asgas lines grew from minutes to hours. Co-ordinating the rebuilding effort became in-creasingly difficult with a new premium on

the necessity of such a vital element asfuel.

The Tennis Club of Riverdale saw thisevent as an opportunity to take one of thebest clubs in New York and make it evenbetter. After losing its inflatable structure inthe storm, Tennis Club of Riverdale has im-proved their facilities with a brand newbubble structure boasting the brightest ten-nis courts in New York City.

The Sportime complex at Randalls Island

also lost its bubble temporarily due to thehigh winds and tidal swells. Luckily, theyhave a number of other indoor facilities andwere able to continue programming unhin-dered for the five days it took to repair theinflatable structure and get the club backto full operation.

Those who were lucky enough to make itthrough the devastation relatively un-scathed, poured out to volunteer and do-nate what they could. People from all overthe continent flooded our streets with elec-tric repair vans and construction trucks.Many local tennis clubs have used the dev-astation as an opportunity to upgrade theirfacilities. That sentiment is a very commonone among effected communities. Al-though we were battered, and in somecases, broken, the strength of the NewYork tennis community will move forwardand rebuild these impacted facilities.

Adam Wolfthal is director of business de-velopment for New York Tennis Magazine.He may be reached by e-mail [email protected].


I would like to salute the cap-tains of our league teams.From coast to coast, thelargest demographic of pas-sionate and competitive tennisplayers in the nation are the

adult league players.The unsung hero in a no-win situation is the

team captain. Whenever I meet a team cap-tain, I never fail to get a roll of the eyes when Iask them if they like to set the lineup. Being acaptain and being a coach is very similar …taking many different personalities and capa-bilities and attempting to unite all of theirstrengths into one cohesive unit.

Now, notice I did not say the word “WIN!” Ifwinning is the goal, then here is my story …

Entering my freshman year at the Universityof Southern California, I was this junior tennisplayer hot shot. I was the number one Interna-tional Tennis Federation singles and doublesplayer on the planet coming out of high school.I was loaded with game and confidence. En-tering my first team dual match for the USCTrojans, I was pretty set on playing number onein singles and doubles. In all my matchups withmy fellow Trojans, I felt that I had earned thenumber one spot. I can still feel the cold steelof sitting in the bleachers as my team sat wait-ing for our College Hall of Fame Coach DickLeach to run down the lineup assignments.

I was convinced that I was going to playnumber one, but I remember saying to myselfthat I could see him going with an upper class-man instead so that I can get my feet wet inthe dual match format. Rick Leach, who endedup winning multiple Grand Slams and U.S.Davis Cup ties before he retired, was given thetop spot. Yes, Rick was Coach Leach’s son,but Rick was more than worthy of being ourtop player, receiving All-American honors hisprevious two years in singles and doubles.

Now, number two was going to be my spotfor sure … NOPE! Jorge Lozano, a senior and

Davis Cup player from Mexico filled that spot.I was thinking “Come on already!” I am goingto have a serious talk with Coach Leach aboutthis crime of putting me at number three sin-gles. So you can understand my surprise whenCoach Leach named Senior Tim Pawsat atnumber three. Tim was an outstanding playerat all levels and ended up reaching the top 10in the ATP world doubles rankings, but I wasso mad it did not matter at that point … I wasready to transfer schools! I have not hit one ballin a team dual situation in my life and I was seton leaving USC for another school as I took mygear to Court #4. My mind was not on any op-ponent or tactic … I was in BEAST MODE andI blew out the guppy on the other side at num-ber four singles and number two doubles eventhough Jorge and I were the top doubles teamin the college rankings at that point.

I was not a team player the next 24 hours,but more like a Tazmanian Devil spinningthrough trees out of control. After playing thesame positions and winning the next day witha massive chip on my shoulder, I was ableschedule a meeting with Coach Leach in his of-fice. I had not spoken to anyone for 72 hoursand was beyond upset with the situation. Be-fore the door was even closed and I was able tosit in my chair across from Coach Leach (in hisoffice that had more trophies and All Americanson the walls than most conferences have com-bined), Coach asked, “What’s up?” like he hadno idea why I was storming around with somuch frustration. All I could get out was “Num-ber four? Come on … number four?” It was notmy best approach, but it was all I could get outat that point. Coach Leach leaned back and re-sponded simply and calmly, “ Did we win?” Ireplied, “Well, yea but …” He continued to saythat on the USC team, that the team winningwas the most important thing. That my positionwas a privilege and numbers five and six, andthe other players below me were not happywith their assignments either but USC won.

Coach Leach is a tremendous teacher, andfor the next hour or so, he explained my role onthe team as important, but no more or less im-portant than every other player on the team. Iwalked out of that meeting with a new andfresh perspective that I still use today with myteam at Syracuse University.

No matter what level or league, team com-petition is about the success of the team andhow the parts of the team all contribute to theteam’s win. The team captains put up with somuch through the season and the lineup is atough part of it. The best teams are the onesthat take responsibility for their roles. Fromcaptain to player, the little details make a bigdifference. Everyone being on time, attendingall the team practices and functions, are thingsthat make a team move towards their com-mon goals. I have learned so much from mymany team experiences on and off the courtthat made the game more fun through myyears as a tennis player.

Enjoy your team and wherever you play onit. It my not be where you feel you should play,but the power of many is stronger than thepower of one.

Crush the ball and poach more than youdon’t.

Born in Grayling, Mich., Luke Jensen is headcoach of the Syracuse University Women’sTennis Team. Jensen’s resume includes 10ATP Tour doubles titles and singles victoriesagainst Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, IvanLendl, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, JimmyConnors, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and JimCourier. Jensen and his brother, Murphy, wonthe 1993 French Open doubles title. He wasalso a member of the 1991 and 1992 DavisCup Teams. His ambidextrous play, includinghis ability to serve the ball with either hand at130 mph, earned him the nickname “DualHand Luke.” He may be reached by phone at(315) 443-3552 or e-mail [email protected].


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The men’s sideof the drawThe contenders …

Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

Novak Djokovic is the de-fending champion, reigningworld number one, and thefavorite heading into the2013 Australian Open.Djokovic, who defeated

Rafael Nadal in an epic five-set final at thisevent a year ago, will look to start 2013 offon the right foot.


Last year, Roger Federerlost in the semifinals DownUnder to Nadal. Federeris now 31-years-old andis no longer a lock for

success, but his consistency in majorsthrough the years is unmatched, and onthe hard courts of Melbourne, he is a goodbet to challenge for a championship.


The year 2012 was the yearAndy Murray finally brokethrough and moved into theupper echelon of the ATPTour. Murray won both theOlympics and U.S. Open to

finish off the best year of his career. He willbe looking to build upon that momentum in2013. Murray‘s game is well-rounded, andafter winning on the hard courts in NewYork, another hard court major title in Mel-bourne is within reach.

The pretenders …Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga madethe semifinals of the Aus-tralian Open in 2010, butthe last two years have notgone as well for him “DownUnder.” In 2011, he lost in

the third round and last year he fell to KeiNishikori in the fourth round. Both defeatscame in tough five setters and Tsonga willneed to be in peak physical condition to fightthrough the Australian heat this time around.While he comes into the year’s first majorranked eighth in the world, Tsonga is a longshot to win his first major title.


Janko Tipsarevic had thebest year of his career and isnow a top 10 player, but thatdoesn’t mean he is ready towin a major. Janko lost instraight sets in the third round

in Melbourne a year ago to Richard Gasquet.A similar finish is more likely than a run to thetitle in 2013 as well.

The sleepers …Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

John Isner is one playerwho, on hard courts orgrass courts, strikes fearinto all players. His servecan be so dominant thaton his best days, even the

top guys are in trouble. Isner is the bestAmerican hopeful this year, especiallywith Mardy Fish out of the event and AndyRoddick retired. If Isner can limit the longearly round matches that have plaguedhim of late, he has the game to make adeep run in Melbourne.


Tomas Berdych was anAustralian Open quarterfi-nalist a year ago, falling toRafael Nadal in four sets. Healso made a nice run inFlushing Meadows in Sep-

tember at the 2012 U.S. Open, reachingthe semis before falling to eventual cham-pion Andy Murray. Berdych is a big serverwho can beat anyone if he is on. If he canget a little lucky with the draw, expect anice run from Berdych this year.

The 2013 Australian Open will take place at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Aus-tralia from Jan. 14-27, the 101st edition of the Open. ATP top-ranked NovakDjokovic from Serbia will return to defend his men’s singles title for a thirdtime, as WTA top-ranked Victoria Azarenka of Belarus will defend the women’ssingles title. Here is a look at this year’s contenders, pretenders and sleepersas well as an overview of what’s new this year in the land Down Under.

2013 Australian Open PreviewA N E W S E A S O N K I C K S O F F D O W N U N D E R



The women’sside of the drawThe contenders …


Victoria Azarenka, thedefending women’s cham-pion, is back and is playingwell. The hard courts ofMelbourne suit her gameand she will be looking to

keep her crown. Last year, Azarenka wasquite impressive winning the title by defeatingMaria Sharapova easily 6-3, 6-0 in the final. Inher last Grand Slam (the U.S. Open), she lostto Serena Williams in a tough three-set final.Odds are, they meet again Down Under.


Regardless of herranking at the time,Serena Williamsis generally the fa-vorite in every tour-

nament she plays. When she is focusedmentally and on top of her game, she is al-ways tough to beat. She will be looking toavenge a fourth round loss from a year ago,where she fell in straight sets to the un-seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia. WithAzarenka, Sharapova and others looking toknock her off, it won’t be an easy road, butSerena is certainly a major contender inAustralian.


Maria Sharapova lostin the finals of last year’sAustralian Open to Vic-toria Azarenka and shewill be attempting to goone step further thisyear and win the title.Sharapova is coming off

an impressive 2012 season and will hopeto build on that this year. She is one of thetop threats.

The pretenders …Petra Kvitova cameinto Australia as thenumber two seed in2012 and lost to MariaSharapova in a toughsemifinal. Her game hasslipped a bit since, how-

ever, she still remains within the top 10 ofthe WTA Rankings. While she is still athreat, until she regains her top form, shelikely will not be able to string together thesix wins necessary to win the title.


Venus Williams sat outlast year’s tournament withan illness, but she will re-turn in 2013. Venus has yetto regain top form sinceher return to the courts

and overcoming the Australian heat andthe field of women may be too much forher. She is currently ranked 24th in theworld. Expect an early ouster for Venus.


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Samantha Stosur is thehometown favorite and2011 U.S. Open Cham-pion. However, in the past,she has had trouble deal-ing with the pressure of

playing in her home country. Last year, shelost in the first round in straight sets to theunseeded Sorana Cirstea. While a betterresult is expected this year, she is not athreat to win it all.

The sleepers …Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

Maria Kirilenko has herranking up to 14th in theworld. She had a toughdraw a year ago, losing toPetra Kvitova in the thirdround, but a good draw

may spark a long run this year. She hasbeen playing some of her best tennis and2013 could be her year.


A year ago, Sara Erraniwas unseeded and stilladvanced to the quarterfi-nals of the AustralianOpen before Petra Kvitovaknocked her off. Since

then, Errani has been on fire, and her rank-ing is now up to number five in the world.While this may not be her best surface, shehas been playing well enough to be a threatto win on any surface. Look out for Errani in2013.

New this year atthe Aussie OpenOrganizers of the Australian Open have in-creased the event’s prize money to a record$31.1 million for 2013, in response to playerconcerns about compensation at GrandSlam tournaments. In addition, stage oneof the $360 million-plus redevelopment of

Melbourne Park is currently underway andset for completion in 2015.

“We are proud to announce this major in-crease in prize money,” said Tennis Aus-tralia CEO Steve Wood. “We have led theworld in prize money for these incredibleathletes, and we want to ensure that theAustralian Open continues to make a majorcontribution to the financial well-being ofprofessional tennis players.”

Wood noted that Tennis Australia offi-cials would seek further input from theplaying group regarding a more equitabledistribution of prize money to help ensurefinancial viability for lower ranked players.



The $4 million hike is the biggest single in-crease in the history of the event.

Other additions to the 2013 AustralianOpen include:

� Andre Agassi to present the men’schampionship trophy

� Hawk-Eye to be introduced on ShowCourts 2 and 3

� New practice and recovery facilities forplayers, including eight new clay courtsin the new National Tennis Centre

� An expanded Australian Open TrophyTour throughout Australia, China andJapan

� The inaugural Asia-Pacific AustralianOpen Wildcard Playoff (to be held inChina)

� The new Edwin Flack footbridge con-necting the MCG with Melbourne Parkand AAMI Park

� An expanded Women’s Legends event,including former Australian Openchamps Amelie Mauresmo and LindsayDavenport, along with Martina Hingisand Martina Navratilova

� A special Legends Lunch on the finalSaturday to honor six-time AustralianOpen winner Roy Emerson

� New multi-year deals with Rolex, ANZ,

Maxxis, Powerade and Mount Franklin� Australian legend Judy Dalton to be in-

ducted into the Australian Tennis Hall ofFame

� Two new balcony areas overlookingthe Grand Slam Oval on the westernside

� An elevated viewing deck over majorpractice courts

� Dedicated MLC Tennis Hot Shots courtsin Garden Square and CourtFour so kids can experiencethe game, with professionalcoaches on hand to providetips and advice

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By Richard Thater

Watching the televi-sion show Jeop-ardy recently, I

wondered why my mind iscrammed with seemingly useless infor-mation? And, worse, why am I proud ofit?

As the calendar turns into anotheryear, it seems that more of the oral his-tory of tennis in our city will disappear.I am a thorough researcher, but callingfriends and using Internet search en-gines have proven disappointingly un-successful when tracking down tennisfacts that interest me.

I discovered that the Works ProgressAdministration built many New YorkCity public parks during the late1930s. But finding information aboutthe tennis courts built in those parkswas elusive—I found none. Refugeesfleeing the havoc brought to Europe bythe World War II found homes on theseNew York courts. And they brought

with them the cultivated tra-ditions they learned in manysmall tennis clubs scatteredon the continent. Everyonewore all white, they broughtpicnic baskets with them, and many ofthem spent the day. I found a welcom-ing home among these émigrés whocreated unofficial clubs on courts builtby unemployed Americans during theGreat Depression.

Barry MacKay died this year. I had achance to speak briefly with him at theU.S. Open a few years back. This long-tenured broadcaster was very honestwhen he told me that the questionmost people ask when they first meethim is, “How did you get into tennis,did you ever play?” Can we try to re-member that in 1959 he defeated RodLaver in a Davis Cup match played atthe West Side Tennis Club in ForestHills, N.Y.?

Jeopardy question one: Which Ital-ian tennis star would repair the stringson his racket on crossovers during a

match? Stories are told that he wouldeven begin to completely restring aracket at his beloved 45 pounds oftension. Who is Beppe Merlo? Heplayed off both sides with a two-handed grip, and was best describedby Rod Laver as a “real weirdie.”Rackets were strung by hand backthen, and stringers would pluck thestrings like musical instruments to de-termine the tension.

Jeopardy question two: What wasthe price of a can of tennis balls in1960? What is $3-$4 for a can ofthree? Plus, you had a drinking con-tainer as a bonus—just fill the tin canwith water from the public fountain. Noworries about plastics seeping intoyour drink.

Pancho Gonzalez was an insightfultelevision commentator, but some-times he missed big. I heard him criti-cizing Jimmy Connors on the air forputting the spare ball in his pocketduring a match (Connors was one of thefirst two-handed players). Gonzalez’sprojection was that Connors washeaded for major hip problems in thefuture. What would Pancho havethought about all the women tuckingthe spare ball under their panties?

Jeopardy question three: In 1960,how many balls did you hold in yourtossing hand while serving? What istwo? You always held two balls in yourhand for the first serve, and if youmissed, you were ready for the secondserve without delay. You then held theball in your non-dominant handthroughout the point.

Is NYC Tennis Historyin

Author Richard Thater (right) stringing racquets in the early1970s

Jeopardy?


I managed a tennis shop during theearly 1970s, a period that saw theweight of wood rackets drop signifi-cantly. I remember the thrill of finding afew 12 ¼ ounce Dunlop Maxply Forts inmy deliveries. But those light framescame at a price—increased breakage,especially at the shoulders.

One evening, a Snauert representativewith time to kill stopped by and edu-cated me on how the desire for lighterframes was forcing manufacturers tochange. He explained that wood fromthe top, middle and bottom of a moun-tain was used in different parts of aracket, and that the newer weights usedwood with less water. Manufacturershad to change their traditional tech-niques. As a trivia aside, I asked himhow the very light and poor quality rack-ets being shipped from Pakistan couldbe labeled as “Made in England?”

He told me that only the grip had tobe wrapped in England in order to qual-ify for the label.

Of course the times were quickly

changing and racket technology andnames were now heralding a new age.“Autograph” and “Player’s Special” mod-els were being replaced with numericaldesignations like the Tony Trabert C-6and the Jimmy Connors T-2000. Alu-minum, steel and graphite were the de-sired materials.

I admit to another research failure …years back, winter tennis in New Yorkwas mostly a frigid exercise in devotionto the game, and only offered rare op-portunities to play indoors. One year, Iplayed in a National Guard Armory inWashington Heights, a community inuptown Manhattan. The courts were setup on a highly-polished drill floor, sur-rounded by two-and-a-half-ton Armytrucks with their hoods open. If youwere opposing a superior player, as Ioften did, the ball skidded at you ratherthan bounced. And when you missed,you sometimes had to climb up on atruck to retrieve your ball from insidethe motor. After many telephone callsand Internet searches, I have to con-

clude that memories of this very uniquemoment in NYC tennis history are gone.

One last thought about how the gameand the players have changed. When theU.S. Open was played at Forest Hillsduring the early 1970s, it was commonto see the top players get off the subwaythey had taken from their hotels in Man-hattan, and stop at McDonald’s for take-out. If you follow the game today, youknow how strange that seems.

Are these the tired reminiscences of aguy nursing a drink in the corner of theclubhouse bar? Or are they part of thepowerful oral history of tennis in NewYork City?

Should we lobby Jeopardy to estab-lish a “History of Tennis” category? Inthat case, Mr. Trebek … GAME ON!

Richard Thater is director of 10 & UnderTennis at the West Side Tennis Club inForest Hills N.Y. He is PTR-certified in Jun-ior Development. He may be reached byphone at (917) 749-3255 or [email protected].


IMG Academy5500 34th Street WestBradenton, Fla.(800) 872-6425www.imgacademy.comTennis is a very complex game which demands high energy out-put and muscular engagement. At IMG Academy, we develop astrength and conditioning routine tailored to the individual athletethat addresses these demands. With a combination of work instrength, movement, and footwork, we seek to prevent injuries,while helping to build the absolute best tennis body possible. Interms of strength, we look to produce a solid and strong body thatis able to generate power and develop a lot of momentum withrotational movements. For injury prevention, scapula stabilization,hip mobilization, core strengthening, and knee and ankle proprio-ception, are the main focus. Lastly, footwork and movement train-ing, which includes court drills and a variety of equipment likemedicine balls, bungees, and balance boards. Our main focus isto provide better self awareness, balance, eye-to-hand and eye-to-foot coordination, and speed of reaction. All these points arevery important to maintaining good technique throughout a stroke.As part of the IMG Academy training program, we take all of ourathletes through our i360 sports performance tests, which give ourcoaches an indicator of what areas of development the individualathlete needs to work on in order to take his/her game to the nextlevel. Within the IGNITE 360 performance training system, we con-tinue to work on the athlete’s strengths, but spend more time onfixing the athlete’s weaknesses and improving any muscular im-balances or deficiencies. This approach grants the athlete the bestopportunity to maximize their energy output and muscular en-gagement capabilities.

Cassiano Costa is IMG’s physical conditioningcoach. He completed a bachelor’s degree in sportsscience, a master’s degree in sports injury preven-tion, and specialist in tennis biomechanics. Beforejoining IMG Academy, Cassiano was a strengthand conditioning coach for a number of profes-

sional players on the ATP and WTA Tours.

Manhattan Plaza Health Club482 West 43rd StreetNew York, N.Y.(212) 563-7001www.mphc.com

Manhattan Plaza Health Club(MPHC) has one of the mostunique facilities in all of Manhat-tan. Amid the hectic pace of mid-town Manhattan there is an

escape to a calm, peaceful environment, committed to fit-ness and relaxation. Professional and dedicated staff mem-bers provide you with programming that cannot be beat, aswell as caring and efficient service to help you achieve yourgoals. MPHC has a class for just about any exercise level andour staff of trainers is second to none. MPHC takes greatpride in offering one of the most diverse aerobic programsaround! Take a look at the different programs we have avail-able for the whole family and the classes we provide ourmembers. With a swimming pool, a climbing wall, and tennisfacility along with the cardio mezzanine and weight trainingfacilities, there’s something for everyone. Want to work onyour tennis game? Five indoor tennis courts on a rooftopoverlooking the midtown Manhattan skyline. And they’re justwaiting for you next door at Manhattan Plaza Racquet Club!Our climbing facilities cater to experienced climbers and eventhose who are just starting. For a more relaxed feel MPHC’srenowned 75-foot pool and roof deck offer members an oasisnestled in the heart of midtown. The retractable glass atriumroof and lush tropical plants make you feel like you are on va-cation. Try lounging poolside or on our outdoor roof deck.Check our Web site at www.mphc.com for new specials andget fit the MPHC way!


Sportime Randall’s Island, Home of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy1 Randalls IslandNew York, N.Y.(212) 427-6150www.sportimeny.comThe John McEnroe Tennis Academy (JMTA) fitness programis an integral part of Sportime’s tournament training at Ran-dall’s Island. Each session begins with a proper warm up thatcorrelates with the on-court JMTA curriculum developed byJohn McEnroe and Sportime’s Academy director. Dependingon the day, students focus on lower body strength, controland power along with speed and endurance, circuit-basedtraining. Our fitness development program also caters toeach individual athlete based on a movement screening testthat identifies key areas of injury and performance enhance-ment goals. Our fitness program encompasses sports med-icine and conditioning that is designed to improve overallhealth while focusing on injury prevention and rehabilitation.

Pilates and dance instructor Mari Mathers hashad an extensive dance background, with an em-phasis in modern, jazz, tap, ballet, African, andhip hop. She graduated with a BFA in dance fromUniversity of Wisconsin Milwaukee where shetrained in yoga, pilates and somatics. Mari has

been dancing and training since the age of four, and has beenteaching for the past nine years. Mari is pilates certified. Sheteaches individual, semi-private and group lessons for bothdance and Pilates.

The Club of Riverdale2600 Netherland AvenueRiverdale, N.Y.(718) 796-9099www.tcr-nyc.com

Residing in the heart of Riverdale isone of the Bronx’s best-kept se-crets: The Club of Riverdale (TCR),a full-service health club that pro-vides its members with a vast array

of health, fitness, and recreational options to help them achievetheir fitness goals, improve their tennis game, or just have a funday at the pool with the kids.

The Club’s reinvented Fitness Center features brand new,state-of-the-art equipment that is both effective and easy-to-use. Upon entry into the gym, one cannot help but notice thevast number of cardio options the gym offers. You will also findan extensive weight training area and 25-yard swimming pool.

Group classes are run daily, with everything from Zumba toBoot Camps in the group exercise studio. TCR also features aPersonal Training Area, where Certified Personal Trainers workwith their clients. The trainers at TCR have the ability, knowl-edge and experience to work with a wide variety of clients, in-cluding those who participate in TCR’s famed tennis and golfprograms. When players come off any one of the six indoorcourts at this amazing club, or from the cutting edge virtual golfcourse, they can either head to the spa for a steam or sauna,or to the fitness center to improve their bodies and improvetheir games. For any members looking to work with a trainer,but perhaps not ready for one-on-one training, the Club alsooffers Small Group Training Packages.

One would be hard-pressed to find any club that offers thelevel of amenities and customer service found at TCR. Duringgood weather in the summertime, TCR has even held earlymorning yoga classes on the sundeck, allowing members tobe at peace with an amazing view of the City. And since theyoffer a transport option as well, TCR is a health club that evenwith so much to offer, is constantly striving toward excellence.


New York area tennis fans are in for an-other great night of tennis with someof the world’s top players scheduled

to appear at the Sixth Annual BNP ParibasShowdown at Madison Square Garden onMonday, March 4. Current world numberone-ranked Victoria Azarenka, the 2012Australian Open champion and OlympicBronze Medalist, will get the night startedagainst Wimbledon champion and OlympicGold Medalist Serena Williams. Followingthe women, Argentine Davis Cup star, 2009U.S. Open champion and Olympic BronzeMedalist Juan Martin del Potro will steponto the Garden court against one of thegame’s all-time greats, former world num-ber one and 11-time Grand Slam cham-pion, Rafael Nadal.

Here are what the starts are feeling as theyhead to the Big Apple for a night of tennis inthe World’s Most Famous Arena …

Photo credit:

Kenneth B. Goldberg

“While I am dis-appointed tohave missed thetrip to New Yorkfo r t h e U . S .Open, I am

happy to announce that I will be coming toNew York to play at Madison Square Gar-den on March 4. New York has many greatmemories for me and I am really lookingforward to playing against Juan Martin infront of all of the New York tennis fans thatnight.”—Rafael Nadal

“New Yorkand the NewYork fans rep-resent some-thing specialfor me as I

had my first Grand Slam win here. It will begreat to come to Madison Square Gardenand play in a world famous arena againstRafa which should bring out a lot of flagsfrom Spain and Argentina, making it an ex-citing night of entertaining tennis. I am reallylooking forward to playing in the Showdown.”—Juan Martin del Potro


“I always love playing inNew York and at Madi-son Square Garden. Thelast time I played there, Iwon the Billie Jean KingCup which was a hugehonor for me. It will beexciting to be back at the

Showdown with the other great players. Iam sure it will be another fantastic night.”—Serena Williams


“I have heard from someof the other players howexciting it is to play in theShowdown at MadisonSquare Garden so I am re-ally looking forward tobeing part of the event. It

should be a great night for tennis.”—Victoria Azarenka

Tale of the Tape:Nadal vs. Del Potro


Rafael NadalFormer world number one, Rafael Nadal iscurrently ranked fourth in the world. “TheKing of Clay,” Nadal has won 11 GrandSlam singles titles, including an all-timerecord seven French Open titles, the 2008Olympic Gold Medal in Singles, a record 21ATP World Master 1000 tournaments andwas also part of the Spain Davis Cup teamthat won in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011. Hecompleted the career Grand Slam by win-ning the 2010 U.S. Open, being the sev-enth player in history, and the youngest offour in the Open era, to achieve it. He is thesecond male player to complete the CareerGolden Slam (winner of the Career GrandSlam and the Olympic gold medal) afterAndre Agassi. Nadal has at least two GrandSlam titles on each of the three surfaces(hard court, grass, and clay), the secondplayer to achieve this feat after Mats Wi-lander. By winning the 2012 French Open,he became one of three mens players to winany Grand Slam tournament seven times (PeteSampras’s and Roger Federer’s seven Wim-bledon titles). Nadal was ranked worldnumber two, behind Federer, for a record

Big Apple Braces for Big Stars of the Court

Sixth Annual BNP Paribas Showdownat Madison Square Garden


160 consecutive weeks before earning thetop spot, which he held from Aug. 18,2008-July 5, 2009. He regained the worldnumber one ranking on June 7, 2010,after winning his fifth French Open title.He held it until July 3, 2011, when NovakDjokovic replaced him as world numberone. Nadal has held the number tworanking for an ATP record 241 weeks (asof July 9, 2012).

Juan Martin del PotroJuan Martin del Potro is currently thehighest-ranked Argentine and the sev-enth-ranked player in the world. Del Potroachieved a top-10 ranking for the firsttime on Oct. 6, 2008. In January 2010, hereached a career-high ranking of numberfour in the world. Soon after attaining thisranking, del Potro had to withdraw frommost tournaments in 2010 due to a wristinjury. In 2008, he became the first player

in ATP history to win his first four careertitles in as many tournaments. He alsocompleted the second-longest winningstreak in 2008, and the second longest bya teenager in the Open Era, behindNadal—with his winning streak spanning23 matches over five tournaments. DelPotro captured his first Grand Slam title atthe 2009 U.S. Open, defeating Nadal inthe semifinals and Roger Federer in the fi-nals—the first man to defeat them both in

the same Grand Slam tournament. DelPotro is the only player other than the“Big Four” of Novak Djokovic, RafaelNadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray tohave won a men’s Grand Slam singlestitle since 2005. He became the secondArgentine and the fifth-youngest man towin the U.S. Open title in the Open Era.Del Potro also won the bronze medal inmen’s singles at the London Olympics in2012.

Nadal vs. Del Potro: Head to Head

26 (06.03.86) Age 24 (09.23.88)

Manacor, Mallorca, Spain Birthplace Tandil, Argentina

Manacor, Mallorca, Spain Residence Tandil, Argentina

6’1” Height 6’6”

188 lbs. Weight 214 lbs.

Left-handed Plays Right-handed

2001 Turned Pro 2005

42-6 YTD Won/Lost 65-17

4 YTD Titles 4

583-122 Career Record 254-107

50 Career Titles 13

$50,061,827 Career Prize Money $10,853,349

Rafael Nadal vs. Juan Martin del Potro


Tale of the Tape:Azarenka vs. Serena


Victoria AzarenkaTwenty-three-year-old Victoria Azarenka is thecurrent world number one. She won the 2012Australian Open singles title, becoming the firstBelarusian player to win a Grand Slam in sin-gles. Her other achievements include winningthe Bronze medal at the 2012 SummerOlympics in London, two mixed-doublesGrand Slam titles—the 2007 U.S. Open withMax Mirnyi, the 2008 French Open with BobBryan—and the Gold Medal in mixed-doublesat the 2012 Summer Olympics with Max Mirnyi.


Serena WilliamsSerena Williams has been the world num-

ber one in singles on five separate occa-sions. She became world number one forthe first time on July 8, 2002, and re-gained this ranking for the fifth time onNov. 2, 2009. She is the only femaleplayer to have won over $40 million inprize money. Already regarded as one ofthe greatest tennis players of all time, her30 Grand Slam titles ties her for eighth onthe all-time list: 15 in singles, 13 inwomen’s doubles, and two in mixed-dou-bles. She is the most recent player, maleor female, to have held all four GrandSlam singles titles simultaneously (2002-2003) and only the fifth woman ever to doso. Her total of 15 Grand Slam singles ti-tles is sixth on the all-time list, and fourthin the Open Era, behind Steffi Graf (22 ti-tles), Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova(18 titles each). Among active players,male or female, she holds the most majortitles amid singles, doubles, and mixed-doubles. She won 13 Grand Slam dou-bles titles with her sister Venus Williamsand the pair is unbeaten in Grand Slam fi-nals. Serena is also a three-time winnerof the WTA Tour Championships. Williamshas won four Olympic Gold Medals, onein women’s singles and three in women’sdoubles.

Azarenka vs. Serena:Head to HeadSerena and Azarenka have met a total of12 times, including seven times in Grand

Slams, with Serena leading their head-to-head series with an overwhelming11–1 record and is a perfect 7-0 inGrand Slams. Their first meeting was atthe 2008 Australian Open, with Serenawinning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Theirnext meeting would also be at the Aus-tralian Open, in the fourth round in 2009,and again, Serena was victorious whenAzarenka was forced to retire due to ill-ness, having won the first set 6-3, butwas trailing 2-4 in the second. Two-and-a-half months later, Azarenka wouldachieve her first victory over Serena, de-feating the American in straight sets inthe final of the Miami Masters. Serenalater won a quarterfinal match betweenthe pair at Wimbledon on her way towinning that championship.

Once again, the pair met at the AustralianOpen, in the 2010 quarterfinals. Azarenkahad won the first set 6-4 and was leading 4-0 in the second set before Serena cameback to win the three-set match, 4-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-2, once again on her way to win-ning the title for the second consecutiveyear. Serena’s dominance over the Belaru-sian continued at the 2011 U.S. Open,when the 28th seed, whose ranking plum-meted to 175th after Wimbledon, defeatedthe fourth-seeded Azarenka in the thirdround in straight sets, 6-1, 7-6(7-5), on herway to reaching the final. The rivalryreached its peak in 2012 with the pairmeeting five times, as Serena was victori-ous on each occasion.

• All instructors are full time professionals with years of experience

• 10 Indoor Har-Tru courts with excellent lighting and heat

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GEORGE GARLAND, DIRECTOR OF TENNIS • MARIA ALIVENTI, GENERAL MANAGER

Go!Tennis welcomes MARVIN DENT to our Tournament Team Staff!

Session 2:January 21 - April 21


Looking to Fix Technique? Examine Your MovementBy Tim Mayotte

Early in my coaching career,the following scenario wouldtake place with me andmy students repeatedly … I

would work long and hard with a player andachieve a smooth, efficient stroke, only to seethe shape of the swing fall apart when theplayer moved more than one step to the ball.I also noticed that technique would often de-teriorate further with each shot in a rally.

Perhaps one of the single most valuableand exciting insights I was ever given as ateacher came from my colleague Lee Hurst.He showed me that technique and movementto and from the ball are inexorably interwoven.

One day at the USTA Training Center, oneof our top players was not able to achieve aefficient shape on his forehand and could notaccelerate the racquet equal to his back-hand. I focused on the racquet in an attemptto isolate and fix the problem. Lee took a dif-ferent approach. He suggested that the pathto the ball of the loading steps was incorrect.

When the player took a better path to the ball,he was able to load better, clear his hips andthe technical and acceleration issues werecleaned up right away. Also, I was excited tosee the player recovered much more easilyfor the next shot.

To help break this process down into man-ageable pieces, Hurst argues that eachstroke has seven stages:

� The split-step� Unit turn� Racquet preparation� Loading (steps)� Unloading� Contact� Recovery

This very helpful framework looks at move-ment and racquet together. The unit-turn isthe easiest to see. A good turn serves to ro-tate the shoulders and pivot the hips (move-ment), but it also prepares the racquet(technique) or what we used to call in the olddays “getting the racquet back.” Great tech-

nical coaching involves getting to know thecomplex elements of each of these stages ofthe stroke and how one should flow into theother. No easy task. This framework dividesup a shot in a useful way that allows inter-mediate coaches to more easily identify theroot of a problem.

I hope you will find, as I have, fixing themovement often leads to immediately fixingthe shape of a swing, while not needing toaddress your student’s racquet technique.

Tim Mayotte was one of the nation’s best ten-nis players during the 1980s. Twice during the80s, he finished the year ranked in the world’stop 10. Besides reaching the semifinals ofWimbledon and the Australian Open, he alsowon a Silver Medal in the Olympics and rep-resented his nation in Davis Cup action. Forthe last decade, Tim has shifted his focus todeveloping top American players and is cur-rently running 360 Tennis at the CunninghamTennis Center with his partners, Lee Hurst andCarl Thorsen. He may be reached by phone at(917) 596-0746 or visit 360Tennis.net.

Submissions for both advertising and editorial are due by February 1, 2013.For more information, please call 516-409-4444 or e-mail [email protected].

COMING IN MARCH 2013

This edition will feature:• NYTM’s guide to The Top Tennis Camps• New York Tennis Expo Preview• Guide to New York’s Top Court Builders

& Suppliers• Australian Open Recap

Distribution scheduled for 03/01/13

Distribution across the New York Metro area at 300+ locations:• Country clubs• Tennis camps

• Retail stores• Gyms

• Indoor tennis clubs• Supermarkets and more!

Don’t miss the advertising opportunities in the next edition of New York Tennis Magazine March/April 2013


By Eric Rebhuhn

1. Junior players shouldwrite long e-mails tocollege coaches.From the player’s perspec-

tive, he/she wants to introduce themselvesto their prospective coach, and nowadays,it seems that e-mail is the easiest way tocommunicate with coaches. Long e-mailsare considered more than three paragraphs,

The reality is that coaches are extremelybusy, therefore, a short introductory e-mailis best with pertinent information, includingname, rankings, GPA and SAT scores. Aftera month or so, then follow up with anothere-mail. Then wait and see if you get a re-sponse. Keep in mind that many coachesare receiving in upwards of 50 e-mails perweek from potential recruits.

2. Junior players need to focus ontheir rankings more than developingan all-court gameMany times, the top juniors focus so muchof their energy attaining rankings believingthe college coach is always looking for thehighest ranked player. The truth is thatcoaches want players who are able to winin singles as well as doubles. Most collegecoaches want players who can play the netand have the ability to serve and volley. Butmost personal coaches, parents and playersare too focused on the “win now” mentality,believing that the college coach only usesrankings as an indicator. Overall, college

coaches take many variables into accountwhen deciding on who they want to recruit.

3. Receiving a scholarship does notalways indicate a full scholarshipMany times, juniors hear that a particularplayer received a scholarship to a particu-lar university and the assumption is that it isa full scholarship. For Men’s Division I, thescholarship allotment is 4.5, which meansthat the coach usually divides that amountamongst the players on the team. But sincethere are usually eight players, each playerreceives a different amount; usually basedon the number they play on the team. ForWomen’s Division I with eight full scholar-ships, the scholarships cannot be divided!

4. The most important ranking crite-ria is the USTA ranking, Tennis Re-cruiting, or ITF ranking?One of the most important parts of the re-cruiting process is the ranking. Obviously,the ranking serves as a baseline measure-ment to a players ability. But is one rankingmore important than another? When evalu-ating a player, the most valuable area iswho the player beat and when they beatthem. Some players play great locally butstruggle nationally, while others thrive whenthey are playing away from home. All ofthese factors are taken into considerationwhen recruiting a certain player. In addition,players who play in ITF events will give thecoach another variable that will help in therecruiting process. Overall, all three types

of rankings are used by the college coachin the recruiting process.

5. Junior players should not play ontheir high school team if there areconflicts with sectional, national orinternational tournaments.College coaches like players to play fortheir high school team to understand howthe team dynamic works. Tennis is an indi-vidual sport, but in college, the team iswhere a player spends the most time andteams that come together are more likelyto succeed than a bunch of individuals.When the match is on the line, you wantyour teammate to fight for that point just asmuch as you would. The camaraderie thatis established in a team environment is es-sential for all players to learn as early aspossible. If a conflict occurs, try to work itout with the school so that not only is theplayer helping the team, but the school ishelping the player succeed off the court.

With more than 100 career wins and the2011 Big East Coach of the Year Awardunder his belt, head men’s tennis coachEric Rebhuhn has solidified himself as oneof the most successful coaches in St. John’stennis history. Last season, Rebhuhn’ssquad finished with a 17-9 record, whilepeaking at number 50 in the national pollsduring the season, the highest ranking inschool history. He may be reached byphone at (718) 990-5549 or e-mail [email protected].

The Five Myths of College Recruiting


By Lesley Rosenthal

Tennis is a fun and en-joyable sport for allages. Students 10

years of age and youngerare most likely in the beginning stages oftheir tennis careers. As an instructor, it isessential to ensure that students in thisage bracket start learning important fun-damentals of the game. By following a 10and under curriculum and learning thefundamentals of tennis, this will greatlybenefit the next generation of young ten-nis players.

There are many benefits to players start-ing in the 10 and under age bracket. Someof these advantages include smaller tennisnets and modified tennis balls, which arelighter and softer moving through the air.Smaller nets and modified balls allow play-ers to become comfortable on the tenniscourt, while learning how to control theball. In addition, 10 and under players learnon a smaller court, which accelerates foot-work development and confidence. Mosttennis programs use modified balls be-cause they are lighter and travel more

slowly through the air. This allows the stu-dent to work on their strokes at a slowerpace and really gain necessary hand-eyecoordination needed in tennis. Smaller rac-quets are also used in ten and under tennis.Using smaller racquets at the beginning ofone’s tennis career allows students to be-come comfortable using the equipment,and allows them to create a grip favorableto them and their individual game.

As students get older, their games willprogress and, with that, the size of thecourt they play on and the racquets theyuse should change as well. Ten and undertennis can be learned and played anywhererecreationally. You can set up cones in agym, or garbage cans in a driveway, or youcan simply work on your strokes and hit atennis ball against the wall. Setting up cau-tion tape and using that as a barrier is alsoa good way to learn. There are many recre-ational ways that young players can beginto learn and practice tennis.

Tennis is great exercise for smaller kids,as it teaches them good hand-eye coordi-nation, balance, and sportsmanship. It isalso a great cardiovascular workout as kidsare running constantly.

Tennis is a sport that allows students tostay in shape, gain confidence, learnmany aspects of the game and have agreat time. To be a great tennis playertakes hard work and continued dedica-tion, though the main ingredient in my ex-perience is to have fun and enjoy thegame. The student that has fun and en-joys learning the game is always a winner.The 10 and under format is a great newway of teaching the game providing ouryoungest players with a strong foundationaccelerating skill development in a funand supportive environment.

Lesley Rosenthal is a PTR certified ten-nis director at Gotham Tennis Academyand Stadium Tennis Center, where sheteaches all age groups and all skill levels.She was raised in Queens, New Yorkwhere she trained at the Port Washing-ton Tennis Academy. Lesley was a topranked player and graduated from Tem-ple University, in Philadelphia where shereceived a full athletic scholarship fortennis and played first singles and dou-bles for four years. She can be reachedby e-mail at [email protected].

PLAY ON RED CLAY at this fabulous,public 10-court facility in Riverside Park along the Hudson River Greenway,maintained by the Riverside Clay Tennis Association. Present a NYC ParksDepartment tennis permit, or pay $15 at the gate to play on these courts.

• The RCTA offers clinics, tournaments, ladders and “speed tennis” meets.

• FREE CONCERTS Saturday nights at 7pm throughout the summer!

Get more information about the RCTA and its programs at at www.rcta.info.

Find out about the GreenOutlook, the RCTA’s plan to provide New Yorkerswith the greenest buildings in the city atwww.greenoutlook.info.

Phot

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tenAND UNDER TENNIS


By Fritz Buehning

Let me go on record … I thinkevery package of polyesterstring needs to come with thiswarning label due to improper

usage by the general public. Is this a prettybold statement? I believe so. Why is it a boldstatement? In my opinion, the improper useof polyester string is responsible for the bulkof tennis-related arm injuries. I hear aboutmore arm injuries now than ever before—wrist, shoulder and elbow (tennis elbow andthe newer golfer’s elbow). Since I predomi-nantly work with children, I’m talking about,not just nagging, but potentially long-termserious and damaging injuries to your chil-dren. Do I dislike polyester? Not necessarily.Do I think it should be used by children? Ingeneral, no … and by children, I mean 95percent or more of kids that are age 14 andyounger. I do not believe that many of thesekids really can tell or know when the polystring needs to be replaced, namely, whentheir strings are dead. Dead strings meanthey have lost their elasticity or resiliency andtension. Remember, just because they don’t“break” doesn’t mean they are still good!Why am I passionate about this? Because forthe last few years, I am seeing and hearingabout arm issues, and in almost every case,the player or parent does not understand thenuances and dangers of playing with polystrings.

Most people know that there are a widevariety of string manufacturers with hundredsof different types of string on the market, allclaiming theirs is the best, the most durable,creates the most spin and now is the softest,

from the names we know like Luxilon, Wilson,Technifibre, Dunlop, Solinco, Head, Babolat,Mantis, Prince, Donnay, etc.

Tennis strings fall into five categories:

� Natural Gut: The most expensive type ofstring that used to be the string of choicefor the vast majority of the pros beforepolyester was developed. It holds tensionwell and is considered the softest of all thestrings.

� Nylons: Generally known as “syntheticgut” and “multi-filaments.” These are con-sidered comfort strings, not as soft as gut,but these strings fray and then break be-fore they go dead. They were designed asa cheaper solution to Natural Gut. Mosthold tension well and have been aroundfor many years.

� Polyester: Generally considered durablestrings. A newer technology that hasgained in popularity over the last five to 10years in the U.S. and worldwide, the polyis the choice for many pros due to its abil-ity to produce extra power and spin. How-ever, Poly is also considered a stiffer typeof string.

There are two other lesser used andknown types of strings. Aramid (Kevlar),which is more durable than polyester, how-ever, in my opinion, I don’t want to be hittingtennis balls with a material that stops bullets.Another is, Zyex, a newer product I am notyet familiar with.

My first experience with polyester stringwas about six years ago. My son was given

some free packs of “great, new string” out atthe U.S. Open. We strung up one of his rac-quets with it, and after two to three hours ofplay, our balls started flying. The string andracquet looked fine, so how can strings godead after two to three hours? I spoke to themanufacturer’s rep, and it turned out that thiswas the first generation of poly strings, andhe told me to just re-string the racquet! Whilethe strings played well, it made no sense tome to use them if I would only have to cutthem out and restring after just a couplehours of play.

Fast-forward a couple of years … myteenage son who now lives and plays inFlorida, started mentioning some shoulderpain. I found out he had switched to usingpoly strings for “durability” (he was tired ofthe restringing costs). I knew he was leavingthem in the racquet too long, that they were“dead,” and he admitted to leaving them infar too long, sometimes up to two monthswhile playing around three hours per day. Iwanted more specific info on these strings,so I turned to my stringer, Larry Hackney.Larry has a small tennis shop in New Jersey,is a certified master stringer, and suffice it tosay that Larry knows more about string thananyone else I know. I started to pick Larry’sbrain and listened more attentively to the nu-ances of polyester strings, in particular, thespecs, playing life, his reviews and play testsof particular poly strings.

After several conversations with my son,he agreed to rest his arm and go back toplaying with a multifilament string. Shoulderproblem resolved. Interestingly enough, acouple of months later, he reported that heattended a seminar with some racquet and

Warning:Improper Use of ThisString May be Hazardousto Your Health!


string customization experts and guesswhat? All the info that I gave him about polywas 100 percent on point … guess dad doesknow what he’s talking about!

How do we know if we’re potentially in-jured? Well, it usually hurts and there is pain!And the “hurt” is different from the muscle fa-tigue we feel from a good workout, wheresomething is “aching.” So why am I so con-cerned about potential injuries? I’m the guywhose pro career was cut short at age 27 byplaying on an injured foot for six months be-fore having it looked at. I failed to recognizethe difference between “ache” and “pain.” Isee it almost every day, children in pain onthe tennis court, forced to determine whetherthey can “play through” the pain of someminor injury. In my case, it turned out to be acareer-ending injury so when it comes to thepain of any injury—me, you, my kid, yourkid—I prefer to err on the safe side ratherthan the sorry side.

The most important thing I have learnedand you should know is that polyester has a“playing life” in your racquet. Although we arenow in who knows what generation of poly-ester strings—the life of any particular polystring falls between four and 20 hours—de-pending on different factors. Another fact isthat polyester string will lose tension, even ifthe racquet is not being used. So think of itlike a cell phone battery … there is “life” and“talk life.”

But let’s remember there is also the elas-ticity and resiliency issue. What happenswhen poly string loses its elasticity? Thestrings become elongated and reach theirelasticity threshold, become hard, and toyour arm, it’s like hitting the ball with a board.Unfortunately, visually, the strings look thesame, but your arm is now absorbing moreof the impact. Injuries now may occur be-cause the player has to swing harder toachieve the same amount of power and spinthat they are used to generating with freshstrings. With the string life over, the playermust now cut out the strings and restringtheir racket. Top junior players (16U) willbreak their poly before it goes dead, but formost of the younger kids, they don’t hit hardenough to break them!

There is no doubt that polyester stringshave hugely impacted the pro game. Theamount of power and spin players can nowgenerate is unprecedented. So why do all thekids want to use a poly string? Because the

pros use it. The polyester string was de-signed for professional players. Initially madepopular by clay courters because of the clay“grit” that also adhered to strings and addedto strings being broken, pros wanted some-thing more durable. To a pro, durabilitymeans playing for nine games or a full set orone to three hours in practice. Remember,pros use multiple racquets during a matchand will freshly string six or more racquetsbefore they walk out on the court. On top ofthat, the top pros will cut out all their stringsfrom all their racquets–used and unused–after each match. Pros correctly understandand use the technology. In this case, durabledoes not mean forever or until it breaks.

Polyester is considered, and quite franklyis, a “stiffer” type of string, which is tough onthe arm to begin with. Now we hear the man-ufacturers are coming out with “softer” poly-esters. Are they developing better and“softer” poly? Yes. Have they significantly im-proved playing life? No. Do I think it stillneeds a warning label? Yes. Do I think thereis a correlation between the use of poly andmore arm injuries? Yes. And what I find mostdisturbing of all–when you purchase certain25-inch or 26-inch junior racquets, they comepre-strung from the manufacturer with poly! Idon’t even know how you attempt to justifythis practice! Reality check … how often domost kids under the age of 11 break strings?Since we don’t know how long a racquet hasbeen sitting in a warehouse or on a shelf, it’svery possible you’re already giving your kid aracquet with dead strings. Please, check yourchild’s racquet and restring immediately if ithas poly!

In the July 2012 issue of Racquet SportsIndustry magazine, there is an editorial enti-tled “We Need a ‘Restring’ Campaign” by Ed-itorial Director Peter Fancesconi. Although hedoesn’t mention any types of strings specifi-cally, reading between the lines, I think he’stalking about polyester when he states, “Weneed to make sure consumers know theyshould restring their racquets more fre-quently” and “Playing with dead strings mayactually hurt the player too.” Interestingly, inthe same issue, there is an interview and Q&Awith Lucien Nogues, one of Babolat’s topstringing experts where he discusses the ne-cessity of changing strings more often andthat pros are stringing at lower tensions. Andmy personal favorite snippet in the IndustryNews was an ad for new orthopedic braces

being developed for sports injuries, includinga photo for a new elbow brace!

I have used gut, full polyester, various hy-brids of poly/multifilament, synthetic gut andmultifilament. What do I use? I use a 16-gauge full multifilament that holds tensionwell, frays like gut, is easy on my arm andbreaks before the strings go dead. My stringof choice is Technifibre NRG2.

What do I suggest you do? Educate your-self. Do your due diligence when your kidasks for the latest and greatest strings. Finda certified master stringer who keeps abreastof the industry, pick their brain, and thenstring accordingly. And watch the TENSION!Did you know it is recommended to stringpoly at least 10 percent lower than a multi orgut? Did you know that humidity and tem-perature can impact your string? So don’tleave it in the car or trunk, especially duringthe winter or summer. Did I mention thatstrings lose tension even if they sit in yourcloset? If you are breaking strings too fre-quently, try a thicker gauge string or a hybridstringing configuration. Still want to use fullpoly? Then track both the number of playinghours and the amount of time that the rac-quet has been “strung.” Get the stringchecked by a certified master stringer if youare not sure and cut out appropriately. And ifyour child’s arm starts bothering them, ice,rest, change to either natural gut, multifila-ment or synthetic gut strings. If the pain be-comes worse, see an orthopedist before anyreal damage can happen … its better to besafe than to be sorry!

Lastly, let’s get after those string manufac-turers to add a warning label, tell us aboutstring “life” specifications and give us stiff-ness info on their strings. To me, it’s a win-win situation—good for the player’s healthand with players restringing more often, itcreates more of a demand for string from themanufacturers!

Fritz Buehning is associate director of theJohn McEnroe Tennis Academy at SportimeRandall’s Island. A New Jersey native, Fritzhas had a long and distinguished tennis ca-reer, from top junior, to successful ATP Tourprofessional, achieving a career-high rankingof 21st in singles and fourth in doubles be-fore suffering a career ending foot injury atthe age of 25. He may be reached by phoneat (212) 427-6150 or e-mail [email protected].


USTA Leagues UpdateBy Deborah-Rose Andrews

Hurricane Sandy interrupted the startof our Manhattan Mixed-Doublesseason. Players and clubs had

damage and our thoughts and prayers goout to those who are still suffering. TheQueens Mixed-Doubles season kickedoff on Jan. 2. The Bronx and BrooklynMixed-Doubles Leagues will start in earlyFebruary. If you are still looking for ateam or are looking to captain a team,please contact one of the followingleague coordinators immediately (Brook-lyn, Joe Miano at [email protected] or the Bronx, Lauren Kende [email protected]).

The new 40 & Over League for men andwomen will begin in February. This leaguewill not be borough-specific, as matcheswill be held at Manhattan, Brooklyn,Queens and Bronx clubs. The format isthe same as the regular 18 & Over League,

with five courts for 3.0-4.5 Levels andthree courts for 2.5 and 5.0 Levels. Wewill need two independent teams in orderto run any level.

Our 18 & Over League (the “old” leagueformat) will start in Manhattan in lateMarch and the outer boroughs in May.Additional information will be posted onour Web site (www.metrotennis.com) andour Facebook page (Metro Tennis LeaguePage) as it becomes available.

Are you ready to play League Tennis?If you know your rating, you can contactthe appropriate level coordinator throughour Web site (www.metrotennis.com). Clickon USTA Leagues, click the appropriateborough on the left, and then “Coordina-tors.” Fill out the form completely, whichwill be sent on to the level coordinator.

If you do not know your rating, pleasee-mail [email protected] with yourfull name, current age, area you wish toplay in and tennis background. If youplayed collegiate tennis, please includethe college name, years played and po-sition(s) played. A coordinator will getback to you.

You can also go to TennisLink(www.tennislink.usta.com), completeyour self-rating in advance of the leagueand then contact the appropriate levelcoordinator.

Deborah-Rose Andrews is the LocalLeague Coordinator for the Metro Re-gion. She is also vice chair of the AdultLeague Committee and a member ofthe Metro Region board of directors.She may be reached by [email protected].

The Hamptons—Westhampton, New York

TENNIS ACADEMY FOR SALEThe Eastside Tennis Academy has been ranked as “one of the World’s Best Tennis Camps”

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Tennis the Opposite Hand

By Bill Longua

The higher you are onthe ability chart, themore you will be aware

of how important your op-posite hand and arm plays in hitting yourstrokes correctly. If you are just beginningor have only been playing a little while, youprobably do not, but should. If you are inthe intermediate levels, pay more attentionto it to help improve more quickly. Let’s goover some areas.

On the fore-hand the oppo-site arm shouldbe extendedout from thebody about thesame distancethe hitting arm

is in preparation on your backswing tomaintain an equal balance of the weightand body.

If you hit a two handbackhand, the oppositehand is the power handon the shot. That is thehand that will snap upthe backside of theball, thus creatingpower and spin. Whenpreparing to hit either

the one hand backhand topspin or slice,the opposite hand is holding the throat ofthe racquet to maintain the proper anglebetween forearm, wrist and racquet shaft.The topspin preparation has the head andhandle of the racquet parallel, while thehead is above the handle when preparing

for the slice backhand. The hand stays onthe throat until you step forward to hit,this will maintain proper form.

The opposite arm on theoverhead must go upwhen you bring the rac-quet back behind yourhead. Some players like topoint at the oncoming lobto help track it, which isfine, but the real reasonyou need it up there is for

shoulder balance.The serve is pretty self-explanatory,

because it is the opposite hand and prob-ably is not used to doing a whole lot,practicing your toss is a must to developa consistent toss for a consistent serve.

The opposite hand on the volley is very im-portant in two areas. First, the hand is onthe throat of the racquet when in the ready

position and helps to keepthe head of the racquetabove the handle formingthe correct angle. Just likeon the one hand backhand,it stays on the throat untilyour forward step, if you vol-ley with two hands, the op-

posite hand reaches forward to makecontact with the ball.

So, both hands are needed to play goodtennis.

Bill Longua is the tennis director/head pro atPalm Island Resort in Cape Haze, Fla. Bill is amember of the USPTA, has been teachingtennis for more than 35 years, and is theauthor of Winning Tennis Strokes. Bill alsoenjoys teaching tennis on his Web site,http://onlinetennistraining.com. To pur-chase Bill’s book, visit http://onlinetennis-training.com. He may be reached by e-mailat [email protected].

© 2012 USTA. All rights reserved.

Our facility features 18 outdoor courts, including 4 stadium courts, 12 indoor courts and 4 bubbled clay courts in our state of the art, 245,000 square foot indoor tennis facility.

We are open 11 months of the year and offer the following:

For more information call718.760.6200 (ext. 0) or visit ntc.usta.com



USTA METRO REGION

USTA Eastern to Recognize LocalSection Accomplishments

USTA Eastern will honor more than 35 jun-iors, adults and organizations on Jan. 26,2013, as the section holds its AnnualAwards Luncheon and Dinner at the Ren-aissance Westchester Hotel in White Plains,N.Y. At the Luncheon, eight juniors will be

recognized for the outstanding sportsmanship they showed inUSTA-sanctioned tournaments in 2012. The Section will also giveout awards for parent sportsmanship, tournament director of theyear, and present the Henry Benisch Award, a scholarship givento a top junior player who has exemplified good sportsmanship.

The adults and organizations at the Annual Dinner will be rec-ognized for the many ways in which they helped grow tennis inthe Eastern Section, from developing and coaching teams at localschools, to organizing programs for children with special needs.

The following Metro juniors and adults will be recognized:

2012 Junior Awards� Edith Martin Girls’ 14 Sportsmanship Award: Brianna

Williams (Brooklyn, N.Y.)� Lawrence A. Miller Boys’ 16 Sportsmanship Award: Felipe

Osses-Konig (Rego Park, N.Y.)� Lawrence A. Miller Girls’ 16 Sportsmanship Award: Sabrina

Xiong (Fresh Meadows, N.Y.)

2012 Adult Awards� Family of the Year: Spigner Family (New York, N.Y.)� Club Service Award: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis

Center (Queens, N.Y.)� Regional Volunteer of the Year (Metro Region): Greg Jackson

(Brooklyn, N.Y.)� Lifetime Achievement Award: Bob Ryland (New York, N.Y.)� USTA League Award: Deb-Rose Andrews (Queens, N.Y.)

USTA Metro President SummerlinAmong 16 USTA MulticulturalGrants Recipients

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) andUnited States Tennis Association (USTA) have an-nounced the 16 recipients of the 2012 USTA Multi-cultural Grants. These $1,000 grants will assistcoaches in covering the cost of attendance at theITA Coaches Convention, held at the Waldorf As-toria in Naples, Fla.

While in Naples, the group of beneficiaries will participate in a seriesof clinics and events to assist them in their profession, including the Mul-ticultural Coaching Education Symposium presented by USTA PlayerDevelopment. This training session will provide college coaches with in-sight into the teaching and coaching philosophy of USTA NationalCoaches, while also serving as a forum for strategies to increase thenumber of multicultural tennis coaches and players.

Among the 16 Multicultural Grant recipients is Carl Lynn SummerlinSr., women’s tennis coach of the Long Island University CW Post teamand 2011-2012 president of the USTA Eastern Metro Region.

The honorees are African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-American coaches of teams competing in NCAA Division I, II and III, aswell as NAIA and JUCO. First-year and veteran head coaches, in addi-tion to one assistant coach, were selected as recipients.

In asking coaches how attending the ITA Convention, through thehelp of this grant program, would benefit them, some felt it would be agreat networking opportunity while others looked forward to participat-ing in clinics to grow their skills and knowledge as a coach.

“This is my second year of coaching tennis and I am still learning the nu-ances of Division II coaching,” said Summerlin. “Attending this conventionwould allow me to network with other coaches and attend helpful semi-nars. Participating in group settings allows a variety of information to bepassed and disseminated which would allow me to enhance my program.”

Appointed in 2011, Summerlin is currently the president of USTAMetro and is also an Executive Board Member of the USTA Eastern Re-gion. From 2008-2010, Carl was the executive vice president for theUSPTA Metro where he assisted the Metro president at board meetingsand monitored Grant dispersals.

During a 13-year period spanning from 1997-2010, Summerlin wasalso a Multicultural Representative for the USTA Eastern. Prior to this ap-pointment, USTA recognized him with the Eastern Volunteer of the Year(1996).

Summerlin began a career in law enforcement back in 1974, wherehe served up until June 2008 as a police officer for the NYPD. Also upto 2008, beginning in 1993 he served as on the Joint Terrorist Taskforcefor the NYS Police Department and FBI. Coach Summerlin also workedon various cases as a lead investigator for incidents such as the EastAfrica Bombings and the second World Trade Center bombing. Duringhis time as an investigator, Carl was awarded with the Investigator ofthe Year NYSP in 1998 and 2002.

In 2007, Summerlin became the CEO of SummTennis LLC, as thecompany provides tennis services for adults and tournament level play-ers. He also earned in 2007 the role of president and CEO of the QueensLong Island Junior Tennis League Inc. Summerlin has also spent time asa hitting instructor, practice partner, site director and head coach formany locations a part of the New York City tennis scene. He also as-sisted St. Johns University’s women’s tennis squad as a volunteer as-sistant coach for one season in 2004-2005.


The 2012 Fall Metro Corporate Ten-nis League, presented by Advan-tage Tennis Clubs, came to an end

in December. The Metro Corporate Ten-nis League is a joint initiative of theMetrotennis Community Tennis Associa-tion (MCTA) and the USTA Eastern MetroRegion.

In the Advanced Division, for the sec-ond consecutive year, the New York Jun-ior Tennis League (NYJTL) team got pastGoldman Sachs in the first round of theplayoffs to advance to the finals wherethey defeated the team from ThomsonReuters. The final regular season pointsleaders in the Advanced Division are asfollows:

2012 Fall Advanced DivisionTeam PointsNYJTL ..................................................190Thomson Reuters ................................178PwC......................................................178Goldman Sachs ..................................155

In the Advanced Intermediate Division,Fall 2012 champs the Deloitte Aces openedthe first round of the playoffs with a win overBloomberg (Boris). Advanced Intermediaterunners-up Cleary defeated Mitsubishi inopening round action and advanced to thefinals where they faced eventual champs,the Deloitte Aces. The final regular season

points leaders in the Advanced IntermediateDivision are as follows:

2012 Fall Advanced Intermediate Division ITeam PointsDeloitte Aces ......................................194Mitsubishi............................................183

2012 Fall Advanced Intermediate Division IITeam PointsCleary..................................................200Bloomberg (Boris) ..............................194

In the 2012 Fall Intermediate League,eight teams entered the playoffs, and inthe end, the team from HBO II wascrowned 2012 Fall League IntermediateChamps. They defeated Nielsen in roundone action, TWC in the second round andclinched the title with a win overBloomberg (Arthur) in the finals. The finalregular season points leaders in the In-termediate Division are as follows:

2012 Fall Intermediate Division (First Place)Team PointsDeutsche ............................................206Nielsen ................................................195Paul Weiss ..........................................181TWC ....................................................167

2012 Fall Intermediate Division (Second Place)Team PointsAkin ....................................................178Barclays ..............................................173HBO II..................................................167Bloomberg ..........................................166

2013 Winter Seasonset to launch

The 2013 Winter Metro Corporate Ten-nis League will begin lateJanuary/early February and includes

a minimum of six matches. Each match isplayed for two hours on two courts, and ten-nis balls are provided. The 2013 Winter Sea-son will conclude with an awards party andincludes trophies, t-shirts and networkingopportunities as well. Teaching clinics arealso available for an additional cost. Allleague champions have the right to advanceto the National WTT Championships.

Each team entering play requires a min-imum of four players, two women and twomen to play an entire match, but you cancarry as many players as you like. Play for-mat for each match consists of six “no-ad”sets:

� One women’s singles� One men’s singles

PRESENTED BY ADVANTAGE TENNIS CLUBS

2012 Fall Season Winners Crowned


The entry fee is $2,100 per team for theseason. For more information on the 2013Fall Metro Corporate Tennis League, callDebra Leffe at (914) 482-8471 or visitMetroTennis.com under the “Corporate” tab.

Matches for the 2013 Winter League willbe held weekday evenings at the followinglocations:

CityView Racquet Club43-34 32nd Place, PenthouseLong Island City, N.Y.(718) 389-6252

Roosevelt Island Racquet Club281 Main StreetRoosevelt Island, N.Y.(212) 935-0250

West Side Tennis Club1 Tennis PlaceForest Hills, N.Y.(718) 268-2300

� One women’s doubles� One men’s doubles� Two mixed-doubles

The total games won for each of the sixsets are recorded and totaled at the endof the evening. Total games won are tal-lied throughout the season, with playoffsat the end of season party. Coachingand player substitutions are permittedduring the match, and allows for moreplayers to get involved and creates a funatmosphere!


“All kinds of tennis programs for all kinds of players.”

718-639-8936

metrotennis.comLow cost adult

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The largest corporate league in the country!

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By Lisa Dodson

As a veteran teaching pro-fessional, the top twoquestions that I am askedabout the serve are: “How

do I get more power”? and “How do I fixmy toss?”

In the real world of the serve, the toss isthe most misunderstood action. Playersare so focused on striking the ball and theoutcome that they neglect to pay due at-tention to the details of the toss. The tossis the single most important vehicle to agreat serve and to gaining power. Withoutconsistency, accuracy and dependability ofthe toss, our serve is sunk.

Simplicity in producing strokes andstroke segments is the key to success.There are numerous schools of thought asto what is the best way to produce everystroke and action in tennis. Arguably thereis no best way to toss, but there are simpleguidelines and principles that work foreveryone. The point is to combine the ac-tions of our strokes so that they fit effi-ciently and rhythmically together.

It is pretty standard for players to copywhat they see done on television. Thismust be done with caution because it canbe very dangerous to your tennis game totry to copy the touring pros. For example, Ijust reviewed a teaching video that showedthe toss motion of eight ATP players. Itstressed that their toss arm moved alongthe baseline, all the way down between thelegs, and that the ball toss is located at 12o’clock. Most of this is very advanced stuffand if it is interpreted or produced incor-rectly can have a disastrous effect on theserve and cause injury.

So, let’s go with a more mainstream sys-tem that will provide a great foundation fora successful serve technique. If we breakthe toss action down into understandable

chunks then we can better focus on theparts. As I see it, there are three extremelyimportant functions that the toss arm andhand provide. Of course there are manymore details, but just for the sake of ease,we’ll concentrate on three Chunks followedby the details that make it successful.

� Chunk #1: The toss arm/hand is used toplace the ball precisely where it needsto be for contact.

� Chunk #2: The hand and arm hold thenon-dominant side of the body up in astrong manner and set shoulder angle(toss shoulder higher than hitting shoulder)

� Chunk #3: The toss arm is responsiblefor pulling out of the way quickly en-abling the hitting side to swing fire withforce. The faster the toss arm pullsaway, the faster the racket can comethrough.

Let’s examine some details that makethe chunks work:

Chunk #1

Most players just use the toss arm/hand tolaunch the ball up to hit and pay no atten-tion to how they are holding the ball or tothe position or direction of the toss arm.This is understandable since the mainfocus is on hitting the ball and getting it inthe box and not on HOW it is done.� The ball is best held with a flat hand (this

simply means that the fingers are not

curled around the ball) with the thumbover the top. The wrist is laid slightlydown so that when the ball is released itwill go forward as opposed to travelingin a forward-back arc.

� The hand is at an angle to the groundnot held with the top side of the handflat to the ground. When you look at thetoss hand, you will see more of the ballto the left side of the thumb than to theright side of the thumb.

� The toss arm is straight at the elbowand wrist. This is one of the major diffi-culties with the toss. The two arms havecompletely different functions. Theswing arm is loose and whippy, whilethe toss arm is straight and has no flex.Our arms like to be balanced and doingthe same thing on either side of thebody. The massive difference in the ten-sion and flexibility of the arms is toughto conquer. They are connected, buthave two entirely different jobs.

� The toss comes from the shoulder andwith weight shift and rotation. It is an en-tire body action not a single, stand-alone movement.

Chunk #2

The toss arm/hand must hold the body upin a strong position to help pull the chestand racket side up to contact. Typically, a

Fix Your Toss andGet More Power

on the Serve


player tosses up and the hand comesdown immediately. Hold it up much higherand longer than you think necessary andyou will begin to understand what it feelslike to hit “up” to a ball.� The toss shoulder finishes under the

chin and finger tips stretched to the sky.� The toss arm and side firmly hold that

side of the body up. It is the counterforce to pressing the feet against theground for “loading” of weight.

� Shoulder angle is achieved. The tossingshoulder sets substantially higher thanthe hitting shoulder. This will enhanceupward drive to the ball with the legsand chest.

Chunk #3

“Pulling” the toss arm out of the way for

power is a foreign idea to most players.Typically, the toss arm just drops whenit finishes launching the ball.� Upon completion of the toss and set-

ting shoulder angle the toss elbownow needs to bend. If you keep itstraight it will simply pull your bodydown.

� Initiate toss arm action with the backof the tossing shoulder. Sharply pullyour toss arm to the outside and at adownward angle by driving theelbow, triceps and bicep down. Thisis similar to “elbowing” someonewith the intention of hurting them.You’ve probably never done this but,come on … you wanted to once ortwice in your life!

� With the initiation of the pulling ac-tion with the toss arm, the front legis driving up, the back foot/leg drivesthe hip forward and the chest drivesup to contact. The racket arm is stilllagging behind.

� At this point all body and racketpower is heading up. The racket cannow get the best results possible. A

common term for this is “slinging”the racket head. All upward and ro-tational forces are in action in ad-vance of the racket head moving tothe ball.

In summary, great toss technique willdirectly affect power on the serve andadd to your consistency. A powerful de-liberate toss arm is key to creatingracket head speed for power. You can-not create power from a racket swingalone. Start with Chunk #1 and makesure that you are producing the mostbasic of the toss movements. If youprogress through the steps, your tosswill be consistent and you will gain thefluid power that has otherwise beenelusive. Start today to measurably in-crease the speed and power of yourserve.

Lisa Dodson is owner of The Total Serve, aUSPTA Pro 1, and a formerly WTA world-ranked player. She may be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or visitwww.thetotalserve.com.


2012 Grand Slam ChampionsCrowned …2012 Australian Open

January 16-29, 2012 at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia

� Men’s Singles Final: Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5

� Men’s Doubles Final: Leander Paes & Radek Stepanek de-feated Bob & Mike Bryan 7-6, 6-2

� Women’s Singles Final: Victoria Azarenka defeated MariaSharapova 6-3, 6-0

� Women’s Doubles Final: Svetlana Kuznetsova & VeraZvonareva defeated Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci 5-7, 6-4, 6-3

� Mixed-Doubles Final: Bethanie Mattek Sands & Horia Tecaudefeated Elena Vesnina & Leander Paes 6-3, 5-7, 10-3

2012 French OpenMay 27-June 10, 2012 at Roland Garros in Paris France

� Men’s Singles Final: Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5

� Men’s Doubles Final: Daniel Nestor & Max Mirnyi defeatedBob & Mike Bryan 6-4, 6-4

� Women’s Singles Final: Maria Sharapova defeated SaraErrani 6-3, 6-2

� Women’s Doubles Final: Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci defeatedMaria Kirilenko & Nadia Petrova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2

� Mixed-Doubles Final: Sania Mirza & Mahesh Bhupathi de-feated Klaudia Jans-Ignacik & Santiago Gonzalez 7-6, 6-1

Wimbledon 2012June 25-July 8, 2012 at All-England LawnTennis and Croquet Club in WimbledonLondon, England

� Men’s Singles Final: Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4

� Men’s Doubles Final: Frederik Nielsen & Jonathan Marray de-feated Robert Lindstedt & Hotia Tecau 4-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3

� Women’s Singles Final: Serena Williams defeated AgnieszkaRadwanska 6-1, 5-7, 6-2

� Women’s Doubles Final: Serena & Venus Williams defeatedAndrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka 7-5, 6-4

� Mixed-Doubles Final: Mike Bryan & Lisa Raymond defeatedLeander Paes & Elena Vesnina 6-3, 5-7, 6-4

2012 U.S. OpenAugust 27-September 10, 2012 at theUSTA Billie Jean King National TennisCenter in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

� Men’s Singles Final: Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2

� Men’s Doubles Final: Mike & Bob Bryan defeated LeanderPaes & Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-4

� Women’s Singles Final: Serena Williams defeated VictoriaAzarenka 6-2, 2-6, 7-5

� Women’s Doubles Final: Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci defeatedAndrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 6-2

� Mixed-Doubles Final: Ekaterina Makarova & Bruno Soares de-feated Kveta Peschke & Marcin Matkowski 6-7, 6-1, 12-10

A Look Back at the2012 Tennis

SEAS NB y E m i l i e K a t z



SEAS N2012 Summer Olympics

July 27-August 12, 2012 in London, England

Men’s Singles� Gold Medal: Andy Murray (GBR)� Silver Medal: Roger Federer (SUI)� Bronze Medal: Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)

Men’s Doubles� Gold Medal: Bob & Mike Bryan (USA)� Silver Medal: Michael Llorda & Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (FRA)� Bronze Medal: Julien Benneteau & Richard Gasquet (FRA)

Women’s Singles� Gold Medal: Serena Williams (USA)� Silver Medal: Maria Sharapova (RUS)� Bronze Medal: Victoria Azarenka (BLR)

Women’s Doubles� Gold Medal: Serena & Venus Williams (USA)� Silver Medal: Andrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka (CZE)� Bronze Medal: Maria Kirilenko & Nadia Petrova (RUS)

Mixed-Doubles� Gold Medal: Victoria Azarenka & Max Mirnyi (BLR)� Silver Medal: Laura Robson & Andy Murray (GBR)� Bronze Medal: Lisa Raymond & Mike Bryan (USA)

2012 ATP World Tour FinalsNovember 5-12, 2012O2 ArenaLondon, England

Singles FinalNovak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 7-6(6), 7-5

Doubles FinalMarcel Granollers & Marc López defeated Mahesh Bhupathi &Rohan Bopanna 7-5, 3-6, 10-3

2012 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships

October 23-28, 2012Sinan Erdem ArenaIstanbul, Turkey

Singles FinalSerena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-3

Doubles FinalMaria Kirilenko & Nadia Petrova defeated Andrea Hlavackova &Lucie Hradecka 6-1, 6-4

Men’s Award WinnersPhoto credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

ATP World Tour Number One (deter-mined by South African Airways ATPRankings): Novak Djokovic—The 25-year-old Serbian is the first player toclinch the year-end number one SouthAfrican Airways ATP Ranking in consecu-tive seasons since Roger Federerachieved four straight world number onefinishes from 2004-07. Djokovic success-fully defended the Australian Open title

and reached the final at six ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tourna-ments, winning titles in Miami, Toronto and Shanghai. He alsolifted the Beijing trophy and was a finalist at Roland Garros and theU.S. Open.

ATP World Tour NumberOne Doubles Team (de-termined by ATP DoublesTeam Rankings): BobBryan & Mike Bryan—TheAmericans finish as the topduo in the ATP DoublesTeam Rankings for a fourth

successive year and record eighth time overall (2003, ‘05-07, ‘09-12). They captured seven titles–their 11th straight season of win-ning five or more–highlighted by a record-equaling 12th Grand



SEAS NSlam trophy at the U.S. Open and the Gold Medal at the London2012 Olympic Games. The Bryans also won a pair of ATP WorldTour Masters 1000 tournaments in Monte-Carlo and Toronto, andwere runners-up at the Australian Open and Roland Garros. Theyhave won the most doubles team titles in the Open Era with 82,and Mike Bryan broke Todd Woodbridge’s individual record whenhe won his 84th trophy with the twins’ victory in Beijing.


Stefan Edberg SportsmanshipAward (voted by ATP players):Roger Federer—Fellow players votedthe Swiss as the winner of the StefanEdberg Sportsmanship Award for the

eighth time and second year in a row. He had won the award sixstraight years from 2004-09 before Rafael Nadal broke the streakin 2011. Marin Cilic, Juan Martin del Potro and David Ferrer werealso nominated in this category.


Comeback Player of the Year (voted by ATPplayers): Tommy Haas—The 34-year-old Ger-man rolled back the years as he re-establishedhimself in the Top 25 in the South African Air-ways ATP Rankings, having started the sea-son outside the Top 200. Haas had beensidelined for 14 months between February2010 and May 2011 following hip surgery, butfound top form once again in 2012. The for-

mer world number two defeated Roger Federer to win the Halletitle, finished runner-up in Hamburg and Washington andrecorded his 500th match win with victory in the Vienna secondround in October.

Newcomer of the year(voted by ATP players):Martin Klizan—The 23-year-old has jumped 88places in the South AfricanAirways ATP Rankingssince the start of the sea-

son to hit a career-high world number 29. The left-hander com-piled a 19-15 mark, highlighted by winning his first ATP WorldTour title in St. Petersburg with victory over Fabio Fognini. A fewweeks earlier, the Bratislava native had knocked out Jo-WilfriedTsonga en route to a fourth-round showing at the U.S. Open.

Most Improved Player of theYear (voted by ATP players):Marinko Matosevic—At the ageof 27, Marinko Matosevic enjoyed acareer-best season that saw himfinish 2012 as the number one Aus-

tralian with a career-high position of world 47th. The right-handerfrom Melbourne reached his first ATP World Tour final in Delray Beachwhere, as a qualifier ranked 173rd, he beat four top 80 players beforefinishing runner-up to Kevin Anderson. He also reached the semifinalsin Los Angeles and compiled a 17-19 match record on the year.


Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year:Novak Djokovic—The Serb joined RafaelNadal, Roger Federer, Carlos Moya, formerSouth African president Nelson Mandelaand Arthur Ashe as winners of the Arthur

Ashe Humanitarian Award, recognized for his contributions throughthe Novak Djokovic Foundation, his role as a UNICEF ambassadorand other individual ventures. His Foundation raised $1.4 million forearly childhood education through its inaugural fundraising dinner inNew York in September and a week later he visited the “Beneath theLinden Trees” kindergarten, a UNICEF initiative in Lesnica, Serbia, toraise awareness of the importance of early childhood education. InOctober, Djokovic collaborated with UNIQLO to develop and launch‘Clothes for Smiles,’ a new program that aims to give children of allages a chance for a better future. The program has established a $10million fund that helps nurture the dreams of children worldwide.


ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite (Sin-gles): Roger Federer—The 31-year-oldSwiss has been voted ATPWorldTour.comFans’ Favorite presented by RICOH for arecord 10th straight year, receiving 57 per-

cent of all votes cast. British number one Andy Murray finishedsecond, just ahead of Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite (Dou-bles) Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan—TheBryan twins received 40 percent of votes tobe named the ATPWorldTour.com Fans’Favorite for a record eighth time. MichaelLlodra & Nenad Zimonjic came in as the

second most popular duo for a second straight year, followed closelyby Leander Paes & Radek Stepanek.



SEAS NRetirements in 2012 Following is a list of notable players (winners of a main tour title,and/or part of the ATP Rankings top 100 (singles) or top 50 (dou-bles) for at least one week) who announced their retirement fromprofessional tennis, became inactive (after not playing for morethan 52 weeks), or were permanently banned from playing, duringthe 2012 season:

José Acasuso (born Oct. 20, 1982 inPosadas, Argentina) turned professional in1999, reaching career-high rankings ofsingles number 20 and doubles 27th, bothin 2006. Mainly a clay-court specialist, theArgentine took three singles and five

doubles career titles, all on the surface. Playing for Argentina,Acasuso competed in two Davis Cup finals (2006 and 2008), buthelped claim one World Team Cup title in 2007. Acasuso an-nounced his retirement in February, less than a year after his lastmatch in the French Open qualifying in May 2011.

Juan Pablo Brzezicki (born April 12,1982 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) joinedthe tour in 2001, reaching a career-highranking of singles number 94 in 2008.Winner of one doubles titles on the maincircuit, Brzezicki competed for the last

time in Buenos Aires in February.

Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina leavesthe sport of tennis with six ATP singles ti-tles and three in doubles, all on clay. The33-year-old announced his decision on hisTwitter account (@JuanIChela). Chelareached three Grand Slam quarterfinals,

the French Open in 2004 and 2011, and the U.S. Open in 2007.Known as “El Flaco” or “The Skinny One,” Chela is retiring with hissingles ranking at 176th and career earnings of $6.5 million.

Arnaud Clément (born Dec. 17, 1977 inAix-en-Provence, France) became a ten-nis professional in 1996, peaking with asingles ranking of 10th in the world in2001, and doubles of eighth in 2008. Insingles, Clément won four titles, made the

quarterfinals at all majors but one (the French Open), and reached

one Grand Slam final at the Australian Open (2001, losing to AndreAgassi). In doubles, he collected 12 titles and made two major fi-nals with Michaël Llodra, winning one at Wimbledon and losingthe other in Australia (2008).

Brian Dabul (born Feb. 24, 1984 inBuenos Aires, Argentina) turned pro-fessional in 2001 and reached a ca-reer-high ranking of 86th. His highestdoubles ranking was 88th. He won

only one ATP titles in doubles in Viña de Mar in 2009, partneringwith Pablo Cuevas. He played his last singles match in Guayaquilon Nov. 21, 2011.

Juan Carlos Ferrero (born Feb. 12, 1980 inOntinyent, Spain) joined the main circuit in1998, and reached the world number one rank-ing in singles on Sept. 8, 2003, holding the spotfor eight straight weeks, and finishing threestraight seasons in the top 10 (2001-2003).Ferrero won 16 singles titles during his 14-year career, including four Masters events,

and one Grand Slam trophy at the French Open (2003). A one-time semifinalist at the Australian Open (2004) and two-timequarterfinalist at Wimbledon (2007 and 2009), the Spaniard alsomade two additional major finals at the French (2002, lost toCosta) and the U.S. Open (2003, lost to Andy Roddick), andreached one year-end championships final (2002, lost to LleytonHewitt). As part of his country’s team, Ferrero took part in threevictorious Davis Cup campaigns (2000, 2004, 2009). TheSpaniard retired after playing in Valencia in October.

Fernando González (born July 29, 1980 inSantiago, Chile) joined the main tour in 1999and reached his best singles ranking, num-ber five, in early 2007, finishing two seasonsin the top 10 (2006-2007). A junior worldnumber one, winner of the boys’ doubles atthe U.S. Open in 1997 and the boys’ singles

and doubles at the French Open in 1998, González won 11 singlesand three doubles titles on the pro circuit, and gathered threemedals at the Olympics: The bronze in singles and the gold in dou-bles (with partner Nicolás Massú) in 2004, and the silver in singles(lost the finals to Rafael Nadal) in 2008. The Chilean reached thelast eight at every major, making three quarterfinals at Wimbledon(2005) and the U.S. Open (2002 and 2009), one semifinal at the



SEAS NFrench (2009), and one final at the Australian Open (2007, lost toRoger Federer). Struggling with injuries for more than a year beforedeciding to retire, González played his last event in Miami inMarch.

Mark Knowles (born Sept. 4, 1971 in Nas-sau, The Bahamas) joined the pro tour in1992 and reached a high singles ranking of96th in 1996. Knowles reached the doublesworld number one ranking in June 2002,keeping the spot for a total of 65 weeks be-tween 2002 and 2005. Partnering withDaniel Nestor for most of his career, andlater Mahesh Bhupathi, Knowles won 55

doubles titles, including one year-end championship (2007),and three Grand Slam trophies (all with Nestor). He retired aftercompeting in the U.S. Open doubles in August.

Ivan Ljubicic (born March 19, 1979 in BanjaLuka, Yugoslavia) turned professional in1998, peaking at third in the world in sin-gles in 2006 and ending two seasons inthe top 10 (2005-2006). During his career,Ljubicic won 10 singles titles, including oneMasters at Indian Wells (2010), and wentpast the fourth round twice in Grand Slamtournaments. Playing for his country, the

Croatian partnered with Mario Ancic to win a Bronze Medal indoubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics Games and took part inone successful Davis Cup campaign (2005). Ljubicic played hislast tournament in Monte Carlo in April.

Peter Luczak (born Aug. 31, 1979in Warsaw, Poland) joined the maincircuit in 2000, peaking at 64th inthe world in singles in 2009. Com-peting mainly on the ITF Men’s Cir-cuit and the ATP Challenger Tour

during his career, Luczak’s best result came with a Gold Medalin doubles (with Paul Hanley) at the 2010 New Delhi Common-wealth Games. The Australian retired from the sport after los-ing in the second round of the Australian Open doubles lastJanuary.


Andy Roddick (born Aug. 30, 1982 inthe United States) turned professionalin 2000 and became the sixth Ameri-can player to be ranked number onein the world in singles when hereached the top spot on Nov. 3, 2003,

holding it for a single spell of 13 straight weeks. Roddick finished nineseasons in the ATP Rankings singles top 10 (2002-2010), includingone year as number one (2003), and also reached the 50th ranking indoubles in 2010. As a junior, Roddick took two singles Grand Slamtitles at the Australian Open and the U.S. Open in 2000, finishing theseason as junior world number one. Over his 12-year pro career,Roddick collected 32 singles titles, on every surface, among whichfive Masters and one Grand Slam title, at the U.S. Open (2003, de-feated Juan Carlos Ferrero). Roddick’s other best results in majorscame with four semifinals at the Australian Open (2003, 2005, 2007and 2009), three finals at Wimbledon (2004, 2005 and 2009, all lostto Roger Federer), and another final at the U.S. Open (2006, lost toFederer). In doubles, Roddick won four titles including one Masterstrophy. Part of the United States Davis Cup roster for 25 ties over 10years, Roddick helped the U.S. Davis Cup team to a final in 2004,and a title (the country’s 32nd) in 2007. The American retired in Sep-tember, after losing in the fourth round of the U.S. Open.

Rainer Schüttler (born April 25, 1976in Korbach, West Germany) turnedprofessional in 1995, reaching a ca-reer-high singles rankings of fifth in2004, and doubles ranking of 40th in2005. Schüttler won four singles andfour doubles titles during his stint on

the main circuit, his best Grand Slam results coming with a final atthe Australian Open (2003, lost to Andre Agassi), and a semifinalrun at Wimbledon (2008). Alongside countryman Nicolas Kiefer,the German also took the Silver Medal in doubles at the 2004Athens Olympics, losing the final in five sets. Schüttler last playedat the Australian Open in January.

Alexander Waske (born March 31, 1975 inFrankfurt, West Germany) turned professionalin 2000 and reached a career-high ranking of89th in singles and 84th in doubles. He wonfour ATP doubles titles and played his lastdoubles match on Oct. 15, 2012 in Vienna,partnering with Janko Tipsarevic.



SEAS NWomen’s Award WinnersWTA Player Award WinnersWTA Player Awards were voted for by the international media.

Comeback Player of the Year: Yaroslava Shvedova


Newcomer of the Year: Laura Robson

Doubles Team of the Year: Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci


Most Improved Player: Sara Errani


Player of the Year: Serena Williams

WTA Player AwardsPhoto credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award:Kim Clijsters—As voted upon by WTA tourplayers, this award recognizes professional-ism, attitude and sense of fair play.

Player Service Award: VenusWilliams—As voted upon by WTA tourplayers, this award recognizes theplayer who has done the most to sup-port fellow players through the WTAPlayers‘ Council and other initiatives.

Fan Favorite AwardsFan Favorite Singles Player:Agnieszka Radwanska—Thoughthere were 13 players to choosefrom, a whopping 42.8 percent of thevotes went to Agnieszka Radwanska(Li Na came in second with 27 per-cent).

Fan Favorite Doubles Team:Serena Williams & VenusWilliams—There were fiveteams to choose from, and itwas the Williams Sisters whofinished first with 36 percent of



SEAS Nthe vote (Maria Kirilenko & Nadia Petrova came in second placewith 25.5 percent of the vote.


Fan Favorite Twitter: CarolineWozniacki—There were five Twitterpages to choose from, and it wasCaroline Wozniacki who finished firstwith 42 percent of the vote while

Serena Williams came in second with 24.9 percent.

Fan Favorite Facebook: AgnieszkaRadwanska—There were five Face-book pages to choose from, and itwas Agnieszka Radwanska who fin-ished first with a whopping 46.5 per-cent of the vote, while MariaSharapova came in second place

with 24 percent of the vote.

Fan Favorite Video: AgnieszkaRadwanska & The Bee—Therewere five videos to choose from,and in the most dominant Fan Fa-vorite victory of the day, it wasAgnieszka Radwanska’s battle

with a bee that won, earning 48.7 percent of the vote.

Retirements in 2012 …Kim Clijsters (born July 8, 1983 in Bilzen, Belgium) turned pro-

fessional in 1997, reaching career-high rankings of world number one insingles and doubles. Clijsters haswon 41 WTA singles titles and 11WTA doubles titles. She has won fourGrand Slam singles titles, three at theU.S. Open, in 2005, 2009 and 2010,and one at the Australian Open in 2011.She has also been runner-up in four

Grand Slam singles tournaments, and won the WTA Tour Champi-onships singles title in 2002, 2003 and 2010. In doubles, she won theFrench Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters has retired oncebefore in 2007, but almost two years later, on March 26 2009, shepublicly declared her intent to return to the WTA tour for the 2009summer hard court season. In only her third tournament back, shewon her second U.S. Open title, becoming the first unseeded playerand wild card to win the tournament, and the first mother to win amajor since Evonne Goolagong in 1980. Clijsters announced in Maythat her second retirement would occur after the completion of the2012 U.S. Open.

Gisela Dulko (born Jan. 30, 1985 in Buenos Aires, Argentina)turned professional in 2001, enjoying an 11-year career before an-

nouncing herretirement inN o v e m b e r2012. Despitehaving a mod-erately suc-cessful careerin singles play,

winning four titles on the WTA tour andreaching a career-high ranking of 26th in2005; Dulko experienced more successon the doubles tour, winning 17 titles overher career, including the 2011 AustralianOpen and the 2010 Year-End Champi-onships, both playing with Flavia Pen-netta. In addition, Dulko spent 24 weeksas the top-ranked doubles player fromNov. 1, 2010, including seven as the jointnumber one with Pennetta.

All Expenses Paid TripA once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for

Jewish tennis players, ages 15 to 18 years old,to train, travel and compete in Israel.

• Compete in an ITF Tournament.

• Participate in invitational tournaments.

• Spend three summer weeks competing in local competitions,

training and traveling in Israel.

www.Israeli-sports-exchange.comCall Larry Seidman at (973) 952-0405

or e-mail [email protected]



By Xavier Luna

If you are serious about anysport or activity, you’re goingto have to work long and hardto get to the level you want to

reach. Very often, the activity that was funwhen you started can become more like agrind as your practice gets more intense.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Specifi-cally with tennis, surrounding yourself withthe right people and practicing in the rightenvironment can motivate you to improveyour game and keep you enjoying thesport. Sometimes training centers and in-structors need to use motivational tech-niques to keep the game fun—while stillgiving students something to strive for,even when they might feel burnt out.

Here are a few techniques instructorsmay rely on to help improve your game.

Systems progressionSystems progression is based on groupingstudents according to their skill levels(novice, intermediate, advanced and ex-pert). By doing this, instructors are able tocoach students at exactly the right level. Asstudents progress, they are moved up tothe more advanced groups. This systemkeeps students motivated and focused onimproving their game. Think about it … ifyour friends move up to a more “ad-vanced” level and you’re still in the “inter-mediate“ group, you will likely feel left out

and work harder to play at the same levelas your peers.

This technique is used successfully at Ad-vantage All-City, with an addition—studentswear color-coded wristbands to signify theirskill level. These color levels group studentsbased on skill set, physical conditioning andmental state. Instructors work to motivatestudents and set goals for them to achieve,including specific requirements for movingup in color rankings. The program is ideal foradolescents, as pre-teens often feel theneed to belong and be part of a group.

IncentivesAs students perform well and progress, theyare rewarded accordingly. Just as when youperform well at your job and your boss re-wards you with a bonus, tennis players alsorespond to incentives for good work. For in-stance, instructors may make students usesmaller racquets when their skills are lessdeveloped. The small racquets leave lessroom for error, but help hone accuracy. As astudent improves, the instructor can increasethe racquet size so there’s more room forerror and more skill is required. Gradually in-creasing the racquet size will likely make astudent perform better, so the larger racquetis an incentive for improvement.

Setting goalsSetting specific short- and long-term goalsare determined based on the improve-ments you wish to make over a given time

span. Arguably the most important type ofmotivation, setting goals is a direct chal-lenge to boost your skills by a certainamount within a certain time.

Motivational environmentsWorking with a coach and/or teaching facil-ity that creates a positive atmosphere. Mo-tivation starts with the setting. If your goal isto lose weight, for example, you’re going tosurround yourself with fresh, healthful foods.If you’re looking to improve at tennis, you’regoing to look for a coach and/or instruc-tional facility that enables success. This canbe as simple as posting inspirational quotesaround a practice area. More advancedmethods might include a library of tennis in-struction books or as staff that focuses onpositive reinforcement techniques.

Tennis is a game and games are sup-posed to be fun. With the right motivationalpsychology methods from both an instruc-tor and a training institution, students willalways view tennis in a positive light whilereaching their developmental goals. Greatskills, a love of the game, no burnout …who could ask for more!

Xavier Luna is director of Advantage All-City Junior Programs (Roosevelt IslandRacquet Club, Manhattan Plaza RacquetClub and New York Tennis Club). He maybe reached by phone at (917) 570-9650 orvisit www.advantagetennisny.com.

Keep the Fun in the GameUsing motivational psychology to improve tennis play


By Mike Silverman

Acommon questionthat tennis instructorsoften hear from par-

ents is what is the right rac-quet to buy for their kids. Unlike adultracquets, junior racquets come in differentlengths to complement a child’s musculardevelopment, eye/hand coordination andskill level. Choosing the right size can makeit easier to hit the ball, which of coursemakes the game more fun! Here are a fewtips if you are thinking of buying a tennisracquet for a child.

Most kids under the age of 10 require ashorter racquet than the standard 27-inchlength of a full-sized racquet. Starter juniorracquets come in four common lengths:19-inch, 21-inch, 23-inch and 25-inch, andare relatively inexpensive, starting at about$20. Most are made of lightweight alu-minum and have the same grip size, whichis fine for novices. For more experiencedplayers, graphite and composite racquetsare “cooler” and add more power to shots.These racquets are at least double thecost, however, and are generally availableonly in the 25-inch and 27-inch sizes.

When choos-ing the rightsize, the firstconsiderationis the heightof the child. Ifthe height isunknown, age

is the second option. In general, tots three-to five-years-old and less than 40-inchestall should start with a lightweight, alu-minum 19-inch racquet. Below are generalguidelines for older children:

� 21-inch racquet 41- to 44-inches inheight (ages five and older)

� 23-inch racquet 45- to 50-inches inheight (ages seven and older)

� 25-inch racquet 51- to 56-inches inheight (ages eight and older)

So now you think you have the right rac-quet for your child, how about the right ten-nis ball? The standard, yellow tennis ball isnot the only ball you can buy any more.Thanks to national initiatives led by theUSTA, ITF and the tennis industry, low-compression tennis balls are now widelyavailable and recommended for youngplayers. Like racquets, these balls come invarious sizes and are designed to be slowerand bounce lower than standard tennisballs. The balls can be found now in manysporting goods stores and are sold in cansof three, as is the tradition in tennis.

Junior tennisballs are color-coded based onage and ability.For young chil-dren, especiallykids ages fiveand under, we

recommend starting with a foam ball, whichtravels the slowest and allows the most

time to track and hit. These balls are avail-able in a standard and “grapefruit” size.The next step up is the red/yellow ball,which is the same size and feel as a ten-nis ball, but moves slower and travels lessdistance. This is a good choice for mostbeginners eight and under. The next stageis orange/yellow, followed by green/or-ange. If you are buying as a gift, a safechoice would be purchasing several typesthat can be used progressively as a child’sskills improve.

Finally, for the kid who has everything,lightweight portable tennis nets are nowavailable from many tennis manufacturerssuch as Head and Wilson that can turn adriveway or street into a temporary tenniscourts in minutes. With proper supervi-sion, this can provide a fun alternative forparents and kids who like to practice ordon’t live near a public tennis court. Costsfor these makeshift courts range from$60-$150.

Our experience has shown that justhaving tennis equipment at home canmake a big difference whether a childwants to take up or continue playing the“sport of a lifetime.”

Good luck and hope to see you andyours in the parks next summer!

Mike Silverman is the director of sports forCity Parks Foundation. A widely-respectednational expert in youth sports programs,Mike is a certified Level 1 USPTR tennisteaching professional. He may be reachedby e-mail at [email protected].

Seems My Kid Likes Tennis …

Now What?Buying the proper tennis equipment for a child


By Gilad Bloom

Many parents haveapproached meover the years with

questions about how earlyto start having their kids play tournamentsand how often they should compete inthem. Naturally, there are different views onthe subject. The answer depends on howold the child is and how advanced a levelplayer they are. With kids beginning to playat the tender age of four- or five-years-oldnowadays, this question comes pretty earlyon, especially if the child is talented andshows great potential at an early age.

In general, as soon as the child can hit asecond serve in the court consistently, theycan play a tournament. The mainstreamthought is that it is always good to get theirfeet wet early on and get their competitivejuices flowing because it would “makethem tougher mentally.” Tournaments arefun and are “the real deal,” but is it con-structive to their long-term development toplay many tournaments as eight- through12-year-olds and get caught up with theranking hunt? Yes … to a degree, but prob-ably not if you look at the bigger picture.

The early years are all about shot devel-opment and creating good practice habits,winning is always fun and so are trophies,but the main goal should be to learn thegame and to try to improve upon and learnfrom every match or practice. That is thecorrect message that should be sent to thekids from their parents and coaches.

Unfortunately, it is not often enough thecase. Too many times, I see parents andcoaches putting too much emphasis onwinning and “rankings,” which sends thewrong message and creates a scaredplayer who will have a tougher time when itcomes to making the transition from the10-12 and under tennis to the more ag-

gressive style of game that is requiredtoday.

We all know how naturally competitivemost kids are which is not a bad thing atall. But many times when kids are young,they revert to playing “ugly” negative ten-nis in official matches, looping moon ballsto the middle of the court, pushing likecowards and playing cynical defensive ten-nis that will win them matches, but in thelong run, will not be very effective or useful.This happens because of the looming fearof losing.

The transition to a higher level tennis re-quires constantly adding things to yourgame and starting to take more risk, goingfor shots and taking the ball earlier, stayingcloser to the baseline and coming in to thenet more. To work on these elements, aplayer needs to train and repeat shots cor-rectly, thousands of times, without the fearof missing … the primary point behind“practice.” The problem starts when thereare not enough periods of “no tournamentplay” and there is not enough time to relaxand gain the confidence to implement it ina real tournament match situation.

What happens often is that the kids re-vert back to the old habits and become ad-dicted to winning because they put toomuch importance on something thatshould be a low priority at the early ages.When I was a kid, my coaches kept pump-ing into my head that the goal is to be acomplete player at the age of 18—that’swhen the results will start to count. That ap-proach helped me fulfill my potential as aplayer.

The job of the coach and parent is to ed-ucate the child and make them realize thatthis is a long-term process, the tourna-ments played while ages 10 through 14should be approached casually and treatedsimply as a learning experience, the win-ning part should be minor.

The players should be complementedfor the important stuff, such as havinggood footwork during the match, for keep-ing a positive attitude, or for playing smartand constructive points. Obviously, thekids are upset when they lose and happywhen they win; however, both winning andlosing should be downplayed, they need toknow that there is a bigger picture, there-fore before they go to celebrate a win orsulk over a loss, they should first try to fig-ure out why they lost (or won) and how theycan improve in the future. For me as acoach, the matches are merely a source ofinformation on my students. I can learn alot by watching them play real matches. Itreat every one as just another match, oneof many in their career. A tennis playershould learn from each match, but alsomove on and forget about the last one be-cause there is always the next match andthe last one should be considered as an-cient history five minutes after it ends (un-less you win Wimbledon in which case youcan celebrate a little).

Often when you make adjustments toyour game as a junior, it can take weeks oreven months until the shot becomes auto-matic in a match. And during that adjust-ment period, the player may lose a fewpractice sets or even a tournament. Thekids who are mature enough to understandthat will usually excel. When Pete Sampraschanged from a two-handed backhand to aone-handed backhand, it probably costhim a few national junior titles in the short-term (he had zero national junior titles), buthe did wind up with 14 major titles as anadult.

In some European countries, they havea different approach to junior tennis. Thephilosophy is that kids should not reallycompete in events until a later age whenthey are already technically sound and ca-pable of playing “the right way.” The kids will

The Balance Between Practice

and Playing Tournaments


do repetition drills for hours every day andplay monitored practice matches amongthemselves as their coaches supervise. Thevolume of tournaments is much lower thanthe average USTA player, and in somecases, they don’t even play in a tournamentuntil the age of 12.

Let’s ask ourselves the following question:Who is going to have more solid fundamen-tals and footwork?

� An eight- to 12-year-old who hits mil-lions of balls the same way for hours aday and hardly played any tourna-ments; or

� The child who plays 20-30 tournamentsa year (in more than 100 matches) andwho cares more about their rankingthan their form?

A few years back, I had a chance do myown little “Williams Sisters Experiment” ona young player that I coached. The kid wasliving in the Bronx, very close to my cluband the parents could not take him to anytournaments at all (dad was working andmom had no car). For two years, all thechild did was train in my program, workingon tons of drills, hitting cross-courts andplaying practice sets with my students andstaff as I monitored. The child had a lot oftalent and great a work ethic, but literallyplayed zero tournaments for two yearswhile other kids his age and level played atleast one to two tournaments per month.All he did for two years was work on hisgame without worrying about ranking orwinning … just playing the right way, step-ping in, playing a form of freestyle and ag-gressive tennis.

When he reached the age of 12, I told hismother that it was time to get him to com-pete. In his first tournament (to which hehad to take the public bus to) in the 12s Di-vision, he came through the qualifying andwon the whole tournament without losinga set, nobody knew him and he playedwithout pressure.

That player, Andrew Adams, went on tobecome one of the top players in the East(ranked number one at one point in the Eastin the 14, 16 and 18 Divisions) and was top15 in the nation in the 16 and 18 Divisions.He is currently playing on a full scholarshipfor the University of South Carolina and wonFreshman of the Year in his first season,

posting a record of 28-10 in singles. There isno doubt he is on his way to having a greatcollege career at the very least even thoughhe is the only kid I know that played zerotournaments from the ages of 10 to 12.

In the 12 years that I have been livingand teaching in the U.S., I found that thereis an overall general obsession with instantresults and instant gratification … counter-productive to developing top players in myopinion. This is not to say that I am againstcompetition, on the contrary, I encouragecompetition and a competitive nature.What Andrew Adams did was unique andquite extreme. He did well when he startedcompeting at the age of 12, but still it tookhim a few years to develop the mental andstrategic aspects of the game and to learnhow to close out matches … that part takesexperience which he didn’t have comparedto the “veteran” players who competedsince the day they could walk. I rememberAndrew struggling against pushers andplaying naive tennis at the 12 to 14 agelevel, having trouble closing out matchesand losing confidence due to it. But afterhe got some matches under his belt, he fig-ured it out, and by the time he was 18, hewas one of the top players in the nation andas match tough as anyone, only lessburned out than most others since hestarted competing late.

This is no small matter, I have often seenkids waste all of their mental strength onmeaningless junior matches looking forranking points and trophies and missingthe big picture, only to reach the collegeranks or the Pro Tour to realize that theirbest tennis and mental effort was left in thejunior years. They had holes in their game,holes that did not quite allow them to reachtheir potential.

My approach is the fusion approach. Istrongly believe in developing shots in theearly ages and putting results as a low prior-ity for the first few years. However, I am alsoa believer that children need to compete inorder to be able to perform under pressurebecause it’s fun and ultimately the best wayto learn. When I do send kids to participatein tournaments, I put it in perspective andmake sure that they try to implement thethings we work on in practice as much asthey can and not revert to the bad habits. Itcan be a long process, and I certainly un-derstand that sometimes the will to win will

overcome the discipline to do the right thing(after all, I too was once a junior player).

I have been preaching this philosophy tomy high performance students with sporadicsuccess. Some parents listen to me andmost just sign the kids up to as many tour-nament as they can thinking that getting agood ranking is insurance to being a greatplayer. The pressure to get a good rankingor rating and to think constantly about re-sults is making them blind to so many basicmistakes.

When I was a kid, we always had periodsof no tournament play during which you tookthe time to add new elements to your game.It seems that it is harder to find periods likethis anymore and it is often smart to cutdown the match play for a while in order totake it to the next level.

The “Williams Sisters Approach,“ althoughquite extreme, certainly worked for Serenaand Venus. They skipped their junior careerand went straight to the Pro Tour. Now deepinto their respective careers, both sisters, es-pecially Serena, are still playing on the tourand are capable of beating anybody in theworld on any given day. Their late start andthe many breaks that they took during theircareer kept them relatively fresh comparedto the other female players who may haveburned out by their mid-20s.

A tennis career should be looked at as amarathon … you want to pace yourself andget to the last few miles in good shape andhave enough energy for the finish which isbasically the last four years of college wheneverything is supposed to click (or when youturn pro if you just so happen to make thecut). In order to make it click at the right time,there should be a long-term game plan anda realization that when it comes to tourna-ment play, sometimes less is more, espe-cially in the younger age groups.

Gilad Bloom is a former ATP touring pro-fessional who, at his peak, was ranked 61stin singles and 62nd in doubles in the world.Five times an Israel’s Men’s Champion,three times in singles and twice in doubles,Gilad is currently the director of tennis atThe Club of Riverdale. He was the directorof tennis at John McEnroe Tennis Academyfor two years, and before, that ran GiladBloom Tennis for nine years. He may bereached by phone at (914) 907-0041 or e-mail [email protected].


UPCOMINGEVENTSFEBRUARY 2013Friday, February 1Round Robin Doubles PartyMidtown Tennis Club341 8th AvenueNew York, N.Y.8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. • $45 per personFor reservations, call (212) 989-8572, ext. 104.

Saturday-Sunday, February 2-3Centercourt Winter Classic: USTA Sanctioned Tournament(L1B G 10 & 12 & B16)CenterCourt Athletic Club of Mt. Olive184 Flanders-Netcong RoadMt. Olive, N.J.For more information, call (973) 584-9322.

Friday, February 8Round Robin Doubles PartyMidtown Tennis Club341 8th Avenue • New York, N.Y.8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. • $45 per personFor reservations, call (212) 989-8572, ext. 104.

Friday, February 15Round Robin Doubles PartyMidtown Tennis Club341 8th Avenue • New York, N.Y.8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. • $45 per personFor reservations, call (212) 989-8572, ext. 104.

Saturday-Sunday, February 16-17Centercourt Winter Classic: USTA Sanctioned Tournament(L1B B/G 10 & B18)CenterCourt Athletic Club of Mt. Olive184 Flanders-Netcong Road • Mt. Olive, N.J.For more information, call (973) 584-9322.

Friday, February 22Round Robin Doubles PartyMidtown Tennis Club341 8th AvenueNew York, N.Y.8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. • $45 per personFor reservations, call (212) 989-8572, ext. 104.

Saturday-Sunday, February 23-24Centercourt Winter Classic: USTA Sanctioned Tournament(L1B B/G 10 & B18)CenterCourt Athletic Club of Mt. Olive184 Flanders-Netcong RoadMt. Olive, N.J.For more information, call (973) 584-9322.

NEW YORK TENNIS CLUB

DIRECTORY360 Tennis @ CunninghamTennis CenterTim Mayotte—Director of 360 TennisCunningham Park Tennis in Queens718-740-6800cunninghamsportscenter.com

Butch Seewagen TennisAcademy @ CATS of 49th St.Geri Goetz—Director235 East 49th Street • New York, NY 10017(212) 832-1833, ext. [email protected]

Centercourt Athletic ClubClay Bibbee—Managing Partner andAcademy Founder222 N. Passaic Avenue Chatham, NJ 07928(973) 635-1222 • [email protected]

Go! Tennis at North ShoreTennis & Racquet ClubGeorge Garland—Director of Tennis34-28 214th Place Flushing, NY 11361-1720(718) [email protected]

Manhattan Plaza Racquet ClubGertrud Wilhelm450 West 43rd Street • New York, NY 10036(212) [email protected] AdvantageTennis NY.com

Midtown Tennis ClubJennifer Brown—Director341 8th Avenue • New York, NY 10001(212) [email protected]

New York Tennis ClubLauren Hartman3081 Harding Avenue • Bronx, NY 10465(718) [email protected] or AdvantageTennisNY.com

Prospect Park Tennis CenterPaul Campbell—Director of Tennis50 Parkside Avenue • Brooklyn, NY 11226(718) 436-2500, ext. [email protected]/Visit/Activities/Tennis

Roosevelt Island RacquetClubTom Manhart—Assistant GeneralManager281 Main Street Roosevelt Island, NY 10044(212) [email protected] or AdvantageTennis NY.com

SPORTIME Randall’s IslandTed Dimond—Director of Tennis1 Randall’s Island • New York, NY 10035(212) [email protected]/Manhattan

Stadium Tennis Center at Mill Pond Joel Kassan—Tennis Director725 Gateway Center Boulevard Bronx, NY 10451(718) [email protected]

The Country Club ofRiverdale (TCR)Gilad Bloom—Director of Tennis2600 Netherland AvenueRiverdale, NY 10463(718) [email protected]

USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis CenterWhitney Kraft—Director of TennisFlushing Meadows Corona ParkFlushing, NY 11368(718) [email protected]

West Side Tennis ClubBob Ingersole—Director of Tennis1 Tennis Place • Forest Hills, NY 11375(718) 268-2300tennisdirector@foresthillstennis.comForestHillsTennis.com/index.html



N E W Y O R K R A N K I N G SBoys & Girls Metro Rankings(as of 11/14/12)

BOYSMetro Boys 12 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........Nicholas Pustilnik ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

2 ........Derek Lung ....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

3 ........Kemal Irfan Aziz..............Staten Island, N.Y.

4 ........Alexander Petrov............Middle Village, N.Y.

5 ........Stevan Stojkovic ............Flushing, N.Y.

6 ........David Dylan Pines..........New York, N.Y.

7 ........Wesley Zhang ................Staten Island, N.Y.

8 ........Shawn Jackson..............Staten Island, N.Y.

9 ........Henry Hochfelder ..........New York, N.Y.

10 ......Mizel Stevens ................New York, N.Y.

11 ......Joseph Wilkanowski ......Long Island City, N.Y.

12 ......David Krasner ................Staten Island, N.Y.

13 ......Scott Fischer ..................New York, N.Y.

14 ......Jacob Livianu ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

15 ......Blake Frank ....................New York, N.Y.

16 ......Pieter Wernink ................New York, N.Y.

17 ......Ryan McCook ................Saint Albans, N.Y.

18 ......Brandon Torres ..............Bronx, N.Y.

19 ......Igor Maslov ....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

20 ......Logan Gruss ..................New York, N.Y.

21 ......Robert Shinder ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

22 ......Anthony Cataldo ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

23 ......David Weiner ..................Rego Park, N.Y.

24 ......Joseph Shulkin ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

25 ......Christian Rabinowitz......Bayside, N.Y.

26 ......Noah Edelman................New York, N.Y.

27 ......Sidharth Chawla ............New York, N.Y.

28 ......Rudolph Merlin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

29 ......Isaac Rose-Berman ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

30 ......Brandon Cohen..............New York, N.Y.

31 ......Ameer Hosain ................New York, N.Y.

32 ......Jonathan Glinsky ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

33 ......Elias Rabayev ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

34 ......Jeffrey Yu........................Forest Hills, N.Y.

35 ......Mitchell Mu ....................Oakland, N.Y.

36 ......Eitan Khromchenko ......Staten Island, N.Y.

37 ......Alex Huynh ....................Astoria, N.Y.

38 ......Daniel Maseyev..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

39 ......Felix Levine ....................Long Island City, N.Y.

40 ......Leonidas Vrailas ............New York, N.Y.

Metro Boys 14 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........Kermal Aziz ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

2 ........Andrew Zucker ..............New York, N.Y.

3 ........Adam Bernstein ............New York, N.Y.

4 ........Robert Millman ..............New York, N.Y.

5 ........Kevin Yan........................Brooklyn, N.Y.

6 ........Derek Lung ....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

7 ........David Moldovan ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

8 ........Barak Harari....................Hollis, N.Y.

9 ........Ray Fishman ..................New York, N.Y.

10 ......Emil Nadyrbekov............Brooklyn, N.Y.

11 ......Daniel Schaw ................New York, N.Y.

12 ......Horia Negru ....................Middle Village, N.Y.

13 ......Mizel Stevens ................New York, N.Y.

14 ......Noah Solano ..................Brooklyn, N.Y.

15 ......Wiley Schubert ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

16 ......Daniel Ertel......................New York, N.Y.

17 ......Andrew Hauser ..............New York, N.Y.

18 ......Jordan Rey-Anatole ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

19 ......Leaf Fagerberg ..............New York, N.Y.

20 ......Logan Gruss ..................New York, N.Y.

21 ......Jorge Arenas ..................Bronx, N.Y.

22 ......Josh Charap ..................New York, N.Y.

23 ......Daniel Corona ................Fresh Meadows, N.Y.

24 ......Jack Metzger..................New York, N.Y.

25 ......Jake Laurence................New York, N.Y.

26 ......Brandon Zhang ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

27 ......Dan Ion Negru ................Middle Village, N.Y.

28 ......Max Lederman ..............New York, N.Y.

29 ......Mitchell Mu ....................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

30 ......Gabriel Broshy................New York, N.Y.

31 ......Robert Shinder ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

32 ......Alex Huynh ....................Astoria, N.Y.

33 ......Mark Karpovas ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

34 ......Eric Ryklin ......................New York, N.Y.

35 ......Kristjan Tomasson..........New York, N.Y.

36 ......Nicholas Kingsley ..........New York, N.Y.

37 ......Jacob Daly......................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

38 ......Leonidas Vrailas ............New York, N.Y.

39 ......Scott Glauber ................New York, N.Y.

40 ......Cameron Gruss..............New York, N.Y.

Metro Boys 16 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........Kevin Huynh ..................Astoria, N.Y.

2 ........Jonathan Cohen ............New York, N.Y.

3 ........Christopher Huynh ........Astoria, N.Y.

4 ........Leonard Margolis ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

5 ........Jordan Selig....................New York, N.Y.

6 ........Leonardo Escudero ......Ozone Park, N.Y.

7 ........David Farina....................New York, N.Y.

8 ........Samuel Caloras..............Little Neck, N.Y.

9 ........Joshua Freud ................New York, N.Y.

10 ......Michael Jasienowski......Middle Village, N.Y.

11 ......Justin Selig ....................New York, N.Y.

12 ......William Trang ..................Staten Island, N.Y.

13 ......Garrett Sopko ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

14 ......Peter Sillis ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

15 ......Michael Lesser ..............New York, N.Y.

16 ......Teddy Drucker................New York, N.Y.

17 ......Ira Rey-Anatole ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

18 ......Lorenzo Soo ..................New York, N.Y.

19 ......Robert Millman ..............New York, N.Y.

20 ......Adam Bernstein ............New York, N.Y.

21 ......Andrew Hauser ..............New York, N.Y.

22 ......Jahmall Forde ................Jamaica, N.Y.

23 ......Kumiel Hosain ................New York, N.Y.

24 ......Zachary Kaplan..............New York, N.Y.

25 ......Marc Betito ....................Floral Park, N.Y.

26 ......Andrew Penn..................New York, N.Y.

27 ......Michael Sklar..................New York, N.Y.

28 ......Josh Weiner....................New York, N.Y.

29 ......Sam Krevlin ....................New York, N.Y.

30 ......Benjamin Beruh..............Bronx, N.Y.

31 ......Evan Liberman ..............New York, N.Y.

32 ......Ray Fishman ..................New York, N.Y.

33 ......Christian Gloria ..............Queens Village, N.Y.

34 ......Alexander Newhouse ....New York, N.Y.

35 ......Massimo Costantini ......New York, N.Y.

36 ......Kristjan Tmoasson ........New York, N.Y.

37 ......Stephen Fields ..............Bronx, N.Y.

38 ......Dhruv Bhatia ..................New York, N.Y.

39 ......Gurjot Singh....................Flushing, N.Y.

40 ......Eric Ryklin ......................New York, N.Y.

Metro Boys 18 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........David N. Zhukovsky ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

2 ........Jonathan Cohen ............New York, N.Y.

3 ........Jordan Selig....................New York, N.Y.

4 ........Justin Selig ....................New York, N.Y.

5 ........Benjamin Erichsen ........Bronx, N.Y.

6 ........Kevin Ching ....................Bayside, N.Y.

7 ........Lorenzo Soo ..................New York, N.Y.

8 ........Christopher Huynh ........Astoria, N.Y.

9 ........Josh Weiner....................New York, N.Y.

10 ......Joshua Freud ................New York, N.Y.

11 ......Michael Lesser ..............New York, N.Y.

12 ......Alexander Pintilie............New York, N.Y.

13 ......Teddy Drucker................New York, N.Y.

14 ......Sean Solomonoff ..........New York, N.Y.

15 ......Nolan Crawford..............New York, N.Y.

16 ......Jordan Jordan................Astoria, N.Y.

17 ......Matthew Glaser..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

18 ......Enrique Torres ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

19 ......Jahmall Forde ................Jamaica, N.Y.

20 ......Michael Leon..................Woodhaven, N.Y.

21 ......Travis Arffa ......................New York, N.Y.

22 ......Zachary Kaplan..............New York, N.Y.

23 ......Alexander Fallone ..........New York, N.Y.

24 ......Kevin Huynh ..................Astoria, N.Y.

25 ......Mitchell Cheung ............Woodside, N.Y.

26 ......Mark Semerik ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

GIRLSMetro Girls 12 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........Sabrina Boada ..............Woodhaven, N.Y.

2 ........Miriam Aziz ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

3 ........Dakota Fordham ............New York, N.Y.

4 ........Christina Huynh..............Astoria, N.Y.

5 ........Nadejda Maslova ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

6 ........Zoe Kava ........................New York, N.Y.

7 ........Lorraine Bergmann ........Forest Hills, N.Y.

8 ........Caroline Kantor ..............New York, N.Y.

9 ........Isabella Cooper ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

10 ......Sofie Levine....................New York, N.Y.

11 ......Maryna Bohdanovska ..Brooklyn, N.Y.

12 ......Anastasya Menshikova..Brooklyn, N.Y.

13 ......Jean Soo ........................Flushing, N.Y.

14 ......Amalia Parrish ................Queens Village, N.Y.

15 ......Theodora Vrailas ............New York, N.Y.

16 ......Victoria Judy Hanuman Brooklyn, N.Y.

17 ......Diana Sosonkin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

18 ......Hanna Yip ......................New York, N.Y.

19 ......Karolina Lankamer ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

20 ......Isabella Hartman ............New York, N.Y.

21 ......Audrey Pacthod ............New York, N.Y.

22 ......Lena Kovacevic..............New York, N.Y.

23 ......Sophia Weiland ..............Ridgewood, N.Y.

24 ......Tiana Fernandez ............Bronx, N.Y.

25 ......Amanda Solecki ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

26 ......Stephanie Li....................New York, N.Y.

27 ......Najah Dawson................Rosedale, N.Y.

28 ......Diana McCready ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

29 ......Anna Tselikovskaya........New York, N.Y.

30 ......Naomi Park ....................New York, N.Y.

31 ......Rosa Aksanova ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

32 ......Steffi Antao ....................Briarwood, N.Y.

33 ......Bella Kaplan....................New York, N.Y.

34 ......Gabriella Eitkis................Brooklyn, N.Y.

35 ......Samantha Fischer..........New York, N.Y.

36 ......Kyra Bergmann ..............Forest Hills, N.Y.

37 ......Carolyn Brodsky ............New York, N.Y.

38 ......Tomi Alalade ..................Rosedale, N.Y.

39 ......Rebecca Krupatkin ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

40 ......Isabella Tushaj ................Bronx, N.Y.

Metro Girls 14 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........Jennifer Yu......................Forest Hills, N.Y.

2 ........Sarah Hirschfield............New York, N.Y.

3 ........Zorriana B. Johnson ......New York, N.Y.

4 ........Victoria Zezula................Ridgewood, N.Y.

5 ........Keren Khromchenko......Staten Island, N.Y.

6 ........Christina Huynh..............Astoria, N.Y.

7 ........Nicole Khorosh ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

8 ........Anna Maite Kaplan ........New York, N.Y.

9 ........Marierose Apice ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

10 ......Donna Marie Episcopio Bayside, N.Y.

11 ......Veronika Semenova ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

12 ......Isabelle Rovinski ............New York, N.Y.

13 ......Olivia Morris....................Floral Park, N.Y.

14 ......Sydney Lynn Katz ..........New York, N.Y.

15 ......Victoria Hanuman ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

16 ......Sabrina Lee Abrams ......New York, N.Y.

17 ......Val Leifer ........................New York, N.Y.

18 ......Kayla Schumacher ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

19 ......Marion Goldberg............New York, N.Y.

20 ......Electra Frelinghuysen ....New York, N.Y.

21 ......Brooke Jin ......................New York, N.Y.


23 ......Cecilia Sweson ..............New York, N.Y.

24 ......Rosa Aksanova ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

25 ......Jean Soo ........................Flushing, N.Y.

26 ......Olga Drahanchuk ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

27 ......Kiara Rose ......................New York, N.Y.

28 ......Alessandra Ricciardi ......Howard Beach, N.Y.

29 ......Alexandra Miasnikova....Rego Park, N.Y.

30 ......Maria Kogarova..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

31 ......Anu Alalade ....................Rosedale, N.Y.

32 ......Grace Parker ..................New York, N.Y.


34 ......Miriam Aziz ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

35 ......Emma Gray ....................New York, N.Y.

36 ......Elizabeth Khusid ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

37 ......Chloe Trang ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

38 ......Mia Simone Parrish........Queens Village, N.Y.

39 ......Hanna Yip ......................New York, N.Y.

40 ......Cheyenne Jenkins..........Bronx, N.Y.

Metro Girls 16 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........Hediye Karabay..............Flushing, N.Y.

2 ........Nicole Serras..................Whitestone, N.Y.

3 ........Vania Savic ....................Woodside, N.Y.

4 ........Anika Pornpitaksuk........Flushing, N.Y.

5 ........Keren Khromchenko......Staten Island, N.Y.

6 ........Emi Lewis ......................New York, N.Y.

7 ........Zorriana Johnson ..........New York, N.Y.

8 ........ Alexus Gill ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

9 ........Keri Anne Picciochi........Flushing, N.Y.

10 ......Erika Tinalli......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

11 ......Dina Levy-Lambert ........New York, N.Y.

12 ......Annie Reiner ..................New York, N.Y.


N E W Y O R K R A N K I N G S13 ......Jennifer Yu......................Forest Hills, N.Y.

14 ......Nia Rose ........................New York, N.Y.

15 ......Nicole Schnabel ............Woodhaven, N.Y.

16 ......Julia Zbarsky ..................New York, N.Y.

17 ......Isadora Braune ..............New York, N.Y.

18 ......Marion Goldberg............New York, N.Y.

19 ......Paula Faltynowicz ..........Flushing, N.Y.


21 ......Sofia Aisiks ....................New York, N.Y.

22 ......Kiarah Williams ..............Bronx, N.Y.

23 ......Camille Price ..................New York, N.Y.

24 ......Shayna Spooner ............New York, N.Y.

25 ......Anna Kaplan ..................New York, N.Y.

26 ......Paolina Zanki..................Astoria, N.Y.

27 ......Sara Levy-Lambert ........New York, N.Y.

28 ......Kara Rosenblum ............New York, N.Y.

29 ......Alesssandra Ricciardi ....Howard Beach, N.Y.

30 ......Savannah George ..........Bronx, N.Y.

31 ......Champagne Mills ..........New York, N.Y.

32 ......Yifei Wang ......................Little Neck, N.Y.

33 ......Lydia Weintraub..............New York, N.Y.

34 ......Nicole Holloran ..............Bayside, N.Y.

35 ......Brittany Biggs ................Bronx, N.Y.

36 ......Jade Barnett-Irons ........New York, N.Y.

37 ......Alicia Ng..........................Howard Beach, N.Y.

38 ......Sophia Kryloff ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

39 ......Bria Heyward..................Brinx, N.Y.

40 ......Reena Sarkar..................New York, N.Y.

Metro Girls 18 SinglesRank..Name ..........................City1 ........Nicole Serras..................Whitestone, N.Y.

2 ........Hediye Karabay..............Flushing, N.Y.

3 ........Priscilla Signore..............Staten Island, N.Y.

4 ........Bianca Signore ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

5 ........Nicole Schnabel ............Woodhaven, N.Y.

6 ........Kimberly Salkin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

7 ........Kyra Bergmann ..............Forest Hills, N.Y.

8 ........Alexus Gill ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

9 ........Charlotte Camacho........New York, N.Y.

10 ......Michelle Khaimov ..........Jamaica, N.Y.

11 ......Nicole Snegur ................Staten Island, N.Y.

Boys & Girls Sectional Rankings(as of 11/15/12)

BOYSSectional Boys 12 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City1 ........Gary Fishkin....................Staten Island, N.Y.

15 ......Ethan Leon ....................Woodhaven, N.Y.

18 ......Oliver Jevtovic................Astoria, N.Y.

21 ......Jeffrey Gorilovsky ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

22 ......Shand Stephens ............New York, N.Y.

27 ......Sam Vagner....................Staten Island, N.Y.

28 ......David Mizrahi..................Brooklyn, N.Y.

35 ......Derek Raskopf................New York, N.Y.

36 ......Jeffrey Fradkin................New York, N.Y.

40 ......Christopher Tham..........Flushing, N.Y.

44 ......Steven Daniel Nazaroff ..Brooklyn, N.Y.

55 ......Robbie Werdiger ............New York, N.Y.

57 ......Igor Maslov ....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

62 ......Jonah Jurick ..................New York, N.Y.

59 ......Kemal Irfan Aziz..............Staten Island, N.Y.

61 ......Will Coad ........................New York, N.Y.

65 ......Lantis Wang....................New York, N.Y.

67 ......Nicholas Pustilnik ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

75 ......Henry Hochfelder ..........New York, N.Y.

78 ......Kai Yuminaga ................Little Neck, N.Y.

79 ......Alex Portnoy ..................New York, N.Y.

92 ......Noah Edelman................New York, N.Y.

95 ......Alexander Petrov............Middle Village, N.Y.

97 ......Ethan Finley....................New York, N.Y.

98 ......Jeffrey McCready ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

99 ......Derrick Mu......................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

103 ....Maxwell Kachkarov........Flushing, N.Y.

105 ....Dylan Friedman..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

107 ....Tristan Taylor ..................New York, N.Y.

110 ....Ameer Hossain ..............New York, N.Y.

114 ....Stevan Stojkovic ............Flushing, N.Y.

117 ....Tyler Kats ........................Astoria, N.Y.

118 ....Joseph Wilkanowski ......Long Island City, N.Y.

126 ....Wesley Zhang ................Staten Island, N.Y.

127 ....Garrett Chao ..................New York, N.Y.

130 ....Eitan Khromchenko ......Staten Island, N.Y.

131 ....Harry Portnoy ................New York, N.Y.

133 ....Aleksa Pljakic..................Forest Hills, N.Y.

134 ....Shawn Jackson..............Staten Island, N.Y.

137 ....David Krasner ................Staten Island, N.Y.

139 ....David Pines ....................New York, N.Y.

143 ....Alexander Nielsen ..........New York, N.Y.

145 ....Oliver Obeid....................New York, N.Y.

146 ....Adam Sonntag ..............New York, N.Y.

150 ....Elias Rabayev ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sectional Boys 14 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City9 ........Aleksandar Kovacevic ..New York, N.Y.

11 ......Jordan Jordan................Astoria, N.Y.

13 ......Mitchell Ostrovsky..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

14 ......Cole Gittens....................New York, N.Y.

15 ......Ananth Raghavan ..........New York, N.Y.

25 ......Philip Raytburg ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

31 ......Calvin Chung..................Bronx, N.Y.

32 ......Peter Lohrbach ..............Little Neck, N.Y.

37 ......Sumit Sarkar .................. New York, N.Y.

40 ......Alex Chao ......................New York, N.Y.

60 ......Max Prohorov ................Rego Park, N.Y.

64 ......Cameron Gruss..............New York, N.Y.

72 ......Christian Gloria ..............Queens Village, N.Y.

79 ......David Mizrahi..................Brooklyn, N.Y.

93 ......Adam Bernstein ............New York, N.Y.

97 ......Xavier Pacthod ..............New York, N.Y.

104 ....Jacob Kern ....................New York, N.Y.

110 ....James Dill ......................New York, N.Y.

112 ....Allan Magid ....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

116 ....Zachary Lieb ..................New York, N.Y.

120 ....Ethan Moszkowski ........New York, N.Y.

122 ....Jordan Rey-Anatole ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

127 ....Leonardo Escudero ......Ozone Park, N.Y.

129 ....Jeffrey Gorilovsky ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

131 ....Kemal Irfan Aziz..............Staten Island, N.Y.

141 ....Adam Borak ..................Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sectional Boys 16 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City13 ......Artemie Amari ................New York, N.Y.

15 ......Win Smith ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

16 ......James Wasserman ........New York, N.Y.

19 ......Oliver Sec ......................New York, N.Y.

21 ......Cameron Daniels............Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

22 ......Victor Miglo ....................Kew Gardens, N.Y.

24 ......Christopher Auteri ..........Staten Island, N.Y.

26 ......Richard Sec....................New York, N.Y.

36 ......Marcus Smith ................Little Neck, N.Y.

37 ......Daniel Kerznerman ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

42 ......Edan Sossen ..................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

50 ......Gal Sossen ....................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

53 ......Steven Koulouris............Long Island City, N.Y.

56 ......Alexander Thrane ..........New York, N.Y.

64 ......Douglas Mo....................Douglaston, N.Y.

66 ......Felipe Osses-Konig........Rego Park, N.Y.

68 ......Jun Yuminaga ................Little Neck, N.Y.

72 ......Maurice Russo ..............New York, N.Y.

77 ......Michael Anzalone ..........Howard Beach, N.Y.

78 ......Jack Haroche ................New York, N.Y.

79 ......Alexander Pintilie............New York, N.Y.

85 ......Ethan Nittolo ..................Flushing, N.Y.

98 ......Jacob Frisch ..................New York, N.Y.

133 ....Zachary Kaplan..............New York, N.Y.

139 ....Alex Knaff........................New York, N.Y.

141 ....Michael Pisarek..............Forest Hills, N.Y.

Sectional Boys 18 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City2 ........Richard J. Del Nunzio ....Forest Hills, N.Y.

3 ........Joshua Yablon................New York, N.Y.

9 ........Justin Fields....................New York, N.Y.

15 ......Courtney Murphy ..........Bronx, N.Y.

29 ......Artemie Amari ................New York, N.Y.

36 ......Ryoma Haraguchi ..........New York, N.Y.

42 ......Richard Sec....................New York, N.Y.

46 ......Jake Sosonkin................Brooklyn, N.Y.

53 ......Sachin Raghavan ..........New York, N.Y.

64 ......Zachary Yablon ..............New York, N.Y.

65 ......Eric R. Brinzenskiy ........Staten Island, N.Y.

67 ......Daniel Kerznerman ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

73 ......Christian Waldron ..........Bronx, N.Y.

85 ......Jonathan Selegean........East Elmhurst, N.Y.

91 ......Oliver Sec ......................New York, N.Y.

103 ....Alexis Cai ........................Woodhaven, N.Y.

126 ....Dennis Druzhinsky ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

129 ....Win Smith ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

132 ....Mark Semerik ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

140 ....Andrew Arnaboldi ..........New York, N.Y.

143 ....Alexander Pintilie............New York, N.Y.

148 ....Zachary Kaplan..............New York, N.Y.

149 ....Jordan Selig....................New York, N.Y.

GIRLSSectional Girls 12 Singles—Metro Region3 ........Dasha Kourkina..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

5 ........Aleksandra Bekirova......Brooklyn, N.Y.

8 ........Nicole Semenov ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

11 ......Chelsea Williams............Brooklyn, N.Y.

12 ......Michelle Sorokko ..........Douglaston, N.Y.

13 ......Jennifer Yu......................Forest Hills, N.Y.

20 ......Shelly Yaloz ....................Little Neck, N.Y.

22 ......Anastasia Nicole KoniaevForest Hills, N.Y.

24 ......Katherine Kachkarov ....Flushing, N.Y.

31 ......Christina Huynh..............Astoria, N.Y.


40 ......Kyra Bergmann ..............Forest Hills, N.Y.

42 ......Rosie Gross....................New York, N.Y.

44 ......Marie Ivantechenko ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

45 ......Rachel Arbitman ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

47 ......Dakota Fordham ............New York, N.Y.

53 ......Miriam Aziz ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

56 ......Diana McCready ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

58 ......Amanda Solecki ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

60 ......Carolyn Brodsky ............New York, N.Y.

62 ......Isabella Tushaj ................Bronx, N.Y.

63 ......Diana Sosonkin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

69 ......Elvina Kalieva..................Staten Island, N.Y.

70 ......Sarah Finley....................New York, N.Y.

76 ......Sabrina Boada ..............Woodhaven, N.Y.

80 ......Sonia Tartakovsky..........New York, N.Y.

82 ......Zoe Kava ........................New York, N.Y.

83 ......Najah Dawson................Rosedale, N.Y.

88 ......Perene Wang..................New York, N.Y.

92 ......Nadejda Maslova ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

94 ......Olivia Morris....................Florak Park, N.Y.


102 ....Sofie Levine....................New York, N.Y.

107 ....Sophia Weiland ..............Ridgewood, N.Y.

108 ....Rebecca Izyayeva..........Staten Island, N.Y.

110 ....Caroline Kantor ..............New York, N.Y.

116 ....Audrey Pacthod ............New York, N.Y.

123 ....Rebecca Fisch ..............New York, N.Y.

126 ....Anastasya Menshikova..Brooklyn, N.Y.

131 ....Elisabeth Schlossel........New York, N.Y.

132 ....Lena Kovacevic..............New York, N.Y.

146 ....Isabella Sifuentes ..........Flushing, N.Y.

150 ....Rosa Aksanova ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sectional Girls 14 Singles—Metro Region2 ........Jessica Livianu ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

7 ........Brianna Williams ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

14 ......Yuka Lin ..........................Kew Gardens, N.Y.

15 ......Alexus Gill ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

16 ......Isis Gill ............................Brooklyn, N.Y.

17 ......Regina Furer ..................Brooklyn, N.Y.

20 ......Alexandra Koniaev ........Forest Hills, N.Y.

22 ......Aleksandra Bekirova......Brooklyn, N.Y.

25 ......Victoria Sec ....................New York, N.Y.

31 ......Lauren Munari ................Middle Village, N.Y.

38 ......Anastasiya Malinouskaya ..Staten Island, N.Y.

44 ......Jillian Auteri ....................Staten Island, N.Y.


51 ......Nicole Semenov ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

54 ......Julia Fisch ......................New York, N.Y.



62 ......Lisa Marchelska ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

68 ......Marierose Apice ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

71 ......Patricia Obeid ................New York, N.Y.


81 ......Sydney Katz ..................New York, N.Y.

83 ......Sabrina Abrams ............New York, N.Y.

97 ......Anna Kaplan ..................New York, N.Y.

101 ....Sarah Hirschfield............New York, N.Y.

108 ....Anastasia Koniaev..........Forest Hills, N.Y.


N E W Y O R K R A N K I N G S111 ....Isabelle Rovinski ............New York, N.Y.

113 ....Shelly Yaloz ....................Little Neck, N.Y.

118 ....Victoria Zezula................Ridgewood, N.Y.

122 ....Kyra Bergmann ..............Forest Hills, N.Y.

126 ....Christina Huynh..............Astoria, N.Y.

129 ....Isabel Balilo ....................Flushing, N.Y.

133 ....Amalia Parrish ................Queens Village, N.Y.

136 ....Yelizaveta Aginskaya......Brooklyn, N.Y.

148 ....Nicole Semenov ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sectional Girls 16 Singles—Metro Region1 ........Jessica Golovin..............New York, N.Y.

6 ........Arnelle Sullivan ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

10 ......Jessica Livianu ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

11 ......Ariana Rodriguez............Bronx, N.Y.

13 ......Sabrina Xiong ................Fresh Meadows, N.Y.

19 ......Elizabeth Tsvetkov ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

21 ......Hannah Shteyn ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

30 ......Shayna Spooner ............New York, N.Y.

31 ......Anna Ulyashchenko ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

32 ......Nia Rose ........................New York, N.Y.

40 ......Sophia Kryloff ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

42 ......Christina Puccinelli ........New York, N.Y.

45 ......Anastasiya MalinouskayaStaten Island, N.Y.

50 ......Stefani Lineva ................Middle Village, N.Y.

54 ......Kimberly Salkin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

63 ......Jillian Auteri ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

65 ......Illana Levich....................Staten Island, N.Y.

66 ......Victoria Zoha ..................New York, N.Y.

75 ......Briel Biggs ......................Bronx, N.Y.


86 ......Augusta Conway............New York, N.Y.

88 ......Isis Gill ............................Brooklyn, N.Y.


94 ......Champagne Mills ..........New York, N.Y.

95 ......Brianna Williams ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

102 ....Sophia Schlossel ..........New York, N.Y.

104 ....Erika Tinalli......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

105 ....Alexus Gill ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

107 ....Julia Fisch ......................New York, N.Y.

119 ....Zorriana Johnson ..........New York, N.Y.

121 ....Tristan Lorich ..................New York, N.Y.

124 ....Nicole Schnabel ............Woodhaven, N.Y.

126 ....Annie Reiner ..................New York, N.Y.

128 ....Jenna Borenstein ..........New York, N.Y.

134 ....Keren Khromchenko......Staten Island, N.Y.

135 ....Vania Savic ....................Woodside, N.Y.

Sectional Girls 18 Singles—Metro Region5 ........Emily Safron ..................New York, N.Y.

8 ........Ariana D. Rodriguez ......Bronx, N.Y.

15 ......Samantha P. Tutelman ..New York, N.Y.

16 ......Nadia Smergut ..............New York, N.Y.

19 ......Hannah Shteyn ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

23 ......Lily Bondy ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

26 ......Jessica Golovin..............New York, N.Y.

35 ......Alexa Meltzer..................New York, N.Y.

38 ......Laura Chitu ....................New York, N.Y.

39 ......Destiny Grunin................Brooklyn, N.Y.

42 ......Denise Starr....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

47 ......Paulina Velasquez ..........Kew Gardens, N.Y.

49 ......Anastasiya MalinouskayaStaten Island, N.Y.

53 ......Kimberly Salkin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

65 ......Ilana Levich ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

73 ......Kyra Silitch......................New York, N.Y.

83 ......Anna Ulyashchenko ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

97 ......Augusta Conway............New York, N.Y.

98 ......Elizabeth Tsvetkov ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

103 ....Victoria Zoha ..................New York, N.Y.

106 ....Katie Derienzo................Douglaston, N.Y.

107 ....Isis Gill ............................Brooklyn, N.Y.

109 ....Angela Assal ..................Bronx, N.Y.

110 ....Sophia Schlossel ..........New York, N.Y.

111 ....Dayana Agasieva ..........Forest Hills, N.Y.1

116 ....Charlotte Camacho........New York, N.Y.

119 ....Nakia Miller ....................Rosedale, N.Y.

122 ....Arnelle Sullivan ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

127 ....Loulou Revson ..............New York, N.Y.

134 ....Lisa Ventimiglia ..............Bayside, N.Y.

138 ....Sabrina Xiong ................Fresh Meadows, N.Y.

142 ....Nia Rose ........................New York, N.Y.

149 ....Nicole Snegur ................Staten Island, N.Y.

Boys & Girls National Rankings(as of 12/19/12)

BOYSNational Boys 12 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City34 ......Gary C. Fishkin ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

127 ....Sam V. Vagner ................Staten Island, N.Y.

154 ....Alexander Chiu ..............New York, N.Y.


273 ....Ethan Leon ....................Woodhaven, N.Y.

283 ....Derek Raskopf................New York, N.Y.

355 ....Henry Hochfelder ..........New York, N.Y.

374 ....Oliver Jevtovic................Astoria, N.Y.

491 ....David Mizrahi..................Brooklyn, N.Y.

538 ....Shand Stephens ............New York, N.Y.

578 ....Jeffrey Fradkin................New York, N.Y.

630 ....Igor Maslov ....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

687 ....Jonah Jurick ..................New York, N.Y.

706 ....Steven Nazaroff..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

767 ....Kemal Aziz......................Staten Island, N.Y.

808 ....Robbie Werdiger ............New York, N.Y.

875 ....Christopher Tham..........Flushing, N.Y.

879 ....Garrett Chao ..................New York, N.Y.

910 ....Tristan Taylor ..................New York, N.Y.

933 ....Derrick Mu......................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

934 ....Alexander Petrov............Middle Village, N.Y.

981 ....Alexander Nielsen ..........New York, N.Y.

982 ....Nicholas Pustilnik ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

986 ....Will Coad ........................New York, N.Y.

987 ....Noah Edelman................New York, N.Y.

988 ....Dylan Friedman..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

989 ....Richard Zusman ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

National Boys 14 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City105 ....Aleksandar Kovacevic ..New York, N.Y.

106 ....Cole Gittens....................New York, N.Y.

135 ....Ananth Raghavan ..........New York, N.Y.

146 ....Mitchell Ostrovsky..........Brooklyn, N.Y.

155 ....Jordan D. Jordan ..........Astoria, N.Y.

166 ....Philip Raytburg ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

387 ....Christian Gloria ..............Queens Village, N.Y.

518 ....Sumit Sarkar ..................New York, N.Y.

570 ....Cameron Gruss..............New York, N.Y.

766 ....Calvin Chung..................Bronx, N.Y.


925 ....Gary Fishkin....................Staten Island, N.Y.

National Boys 16 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City16 ......Daniel Kerznerman ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

97 ......James Wasserman ........New York, N.Y.

121 ....Win Smith ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

159 ....Oliver Sec ......................New York, N.Y.

181 ....Artemie Amari ................New York, N.Y.

243 ....Richard Sec....................New York, N.Y.

266 ....Victor Miglo ....................Kew Gardens, N.Y.

291 ....Cameron Daniels............Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

356 ....Christopher Auteri ..........Staten Island, N.Y.

477 ....Edan Sossen ..................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

495 ....Gal Sossen ....................Oakland Gardens, N.Y.

718 ....Steven Koulouris............Long Island City, N.Y.

754 ....Maurice Russo ..............New York, N.Y.

763 ....Marcus Smith ................Little Neck, N.Y.

National Boys 18 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City45 ......Daniel Kerznerman ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

125 ....Joshua Yablon................New York, N.Y.

274 ....Justin Fields....................New York, N.Y.

467 ....Artemie Amari ................New York, N.Y.

490 ....Courtney Murphy ..........Bronx, N.Y.

502 ....Ryoma Haraguchi ..........New York, N.Y.

530 ....Zachary Yablon ..............New York, N.Y.

700 ....Eric R. Brinzenskiy ........Staten Island, N.Y.

809 ....Jonathan Selegean........East Elmhurst, N.Y.

862 ....Jake Sosonkin................Brooklyn, N.Y.

870 ....Sachin Raghavan ..........New York, N.Y.

GIRLSNational Girls 12 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City27 ......Dasha Kourkina..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

35 ......Aleksandra Bekirova......Brooklyn, N.Y.

49 ......Michelle Sorokko ..........Douglaston, N.Y.


65 ......Nicole VSemenov ..........Brooklyn, N.Y.


141 ....Katherine Kachkarov ....Flushing, N.Y.

143 ....Shelly Yaloz ....................Little Neck, N.Y.

168 ....Anastasia Koniaev..........Forest Hills, N.Y.

338 ....Christina Huynh..............Astoria, N.Y.

394 ....Marie Ivantechenko ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

480 ....Isabella Tushaj ................Bronx, N.Y.

520 ....Kyra Bergmann ..............Forest Hills, N.Y.

672 ....Miriam Aziz ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

696 ....Dakota Fordham ............New York, N.Y.

704 ....Rosie Garcia Gross........New York, N.Y.

774 ....Stephanie Li....................New York, N.Y.

781 ....Steffi Antao ....................Briarwood, N.Y.

803 ....Elvina Kalieva..................Staten Island, N.Y.

804 ....Sonia Tartakovsky..........New York, N.Y.

860 ....Diana Sosonkin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

969 ....Diana McCready ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

National Girls 14 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City20 ......Jessica Melane Livianu..Brooklyn, N.Y.

51 ......Brianna Williams ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

189 ....Yuka Lin ........................Kew Gardens, N.Y.

243 ....Regina Furer ..................Brooklyn, N.Y.

287 ....Alexandra Koniaev ........Forest Hills, N.Y.

295 ....Victoria Sec ....................New York, N.Y.

328 ....Alexus Gill ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

497 ....Aleksandra Bekirova......Brooklyn, N.Y.

567 ....Jillian Auteri ....................Staten Island, N.Y.

737 ......Anastasiya Malinouskaya ..Staten Island, N.Y.

786 ....Elizabeth Munari ............Middle Village, N.Y.

787 ....Patricia Obeid ................New York, N.Y.

National Girls 16 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City9 ........Jessica Golovin..............New York, N.Y.

142 ....Arnelle Sullivan ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

174 ....Hannah Shteyn ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

224 ....Jessica Livianu ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

225 ....Elizabeth Tsvetkov ........Brooklyn, N.Y.

249 ....Sabrina Xiong ................Fresh Meadows, N.Y.

329 ....Shayna Spooner ............New York, N.Y.

403 ....Nia Rose ........................New York, N.Y.

535 ....Sophia Kryloff ................Brooklyn, N.Y.

623 ....Brianna Williams ............Brooklyn, N.Y.

661 ....Kimberly Salkin ..............Brooklyn, N.Y.

674 ....Stefani Lineva ................Middle Village, N.Y.

745 ....Christina Puccinelli ........New York, N.Y.

860 ....Anastasiya Malinouskaya ..Staten Island, N.Y.

870 ....Anna Ulyashchenko ......Brooklyn, N.Y.

National Girls 18 Singles—Metro RegionRank ..Name ..........................City30 ......Denise Starr....................Brooklyn, N.Y.

43 ......Emily Safron ..................New York, N.Y.

144 ....Samantha Tutelman ......New York, N.Y.

151 ....Hannah Shteyn ..............Staten Island, N.Y.

188 ....Ariana D. Rodriguez ......Bronx, N.Y.

296 ....Jessica Golovin..............New York, N.Y.

468 ....Nadia Smergut ..............New York, N.Y.

480 ....Lily Bondy ......................Brooklyn, N.Y.

633 ....Alexa Meltzer..................New York, N.Y.

904 ....Paulina Velasquez ..........Kew Gardens, N.Y.

945 ....Laura Maria Chitu ..........New York, N.Y.


JANUARY 2013Friday-Sunday, January 4-6L1B Gotham STC January Challenger SeriesStadium Tennis Center725 Exterior Street • Bronx, N.Y.Divisions: Challenger BG(18,14-12)s, SESurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries is Fri-day, Dec. 28 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 665-4684.

Friday-Sunday, January 4-13Sutton East Men’s Open January ChampionshipsSutton East Tennis Club488 East 60th StreetNew York, N.Y.Divisions: Ranked M(Op)sSurface Type: UnknownEntry Fee: $70.38 per player (deadline for entries is Mon-day, Dec. 31 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (212) 751-3452.

Friday-Sunday, January 4-6L2R NCT January Metro Regional ChmpsNorth Shore Tennis–Go! Tennis34-28 214th PlaceBayside, N.Y.Divisions: Intermediate BG(18-14)s, SESurface Type: Clay IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries isWednesday, Dec. 26 at 5:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 224-6303.

Friday-Sunday, January 11-20L1B Sportime Randall’s Island January 2013 ChallengerSportime Randalls Island1 Randalls IslandNew York, N.Y.Divisions: Challenger BG(16-14)s, SESurface Type: UnknownEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries is Fri-day, Dec. 28 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (646) 783-5301.

Friday-Sunday, January 11-13 & Friday-Monday,January 18-21+L1 Alley Pond Eastern Designated Closed Chmps L4 FICAlley Pond Tennis Center79-20 Winchester BoulevardQueens Village, N.Y.Divisions: Grand Prix G(16)s, FIC; G(16)d, SESurface Type: UnknownEntry Fee: $54.25 per player singles (deadline for entriesis Friday, Dec. 28 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 264-2600.

Monday-Sunday, January 14-20Cunningham Park Winter Men’s OpenCunningham Sports Center19600 Union TurnpikeFresh Meadows, N.Y.Divisions: Ranked MW(Op)s, FRLC; MW(Op)d, SESurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $81.13 per player (deadline for entries isThursday, Jan. 10 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 740-6800.

Friday-Sunday, January 18-20 & Friday-Sunday,January 25-27L2O Sportime RI January 2013 OpenSportime Randalls Island1 Randalls Island • New York, N.Y.Divisions: Intermediate B(12)s, SE; G(16-12)s, SESurface Type: UnknownEntry Fee: $54.25 per singles player (deadline for entriesis Friday, Jan. 4 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (646) 783-5301.

Friday-Sunday, January 18-20LiB 10U Gotham STC January Challenger SeriesStadium Tennis Center725 Exterior Street • Bronx, N.Y.Divisions: Challenger BG(10 [78’Court/Green Ball], 8[36’Court/Red Ball])sd, FICSurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player singles (deadline for entriesis Friday, Jan. 11 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 665-4684.

Friday-Sunday, January 18-20L1B Cunningham Park Tennis Center January ChallengerCunningham Sports Center19600 Union Turnpike • Fresh Meadows, N.Y.Divisions: Challenger BG(18,14-12)s, SE; B(18,14-12)d,SE; G(18)d, SESurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries is Tues-day, Jan. 15 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 740-6800.

Friday-Sunday, January 18-27+2013 NCT Winter Senior ClassicNorth Shore Tennis Go! Tennis34-28 214th PlaceBayside, N.Y.Divisions: Ranked M(35,50-55)sd, SE; W(35)sd, SESurface Type: Clay IndoorEntry Fee: $75.75 for first singles, $75.75 for additionalsingles and $38.13 for first doubles, $38.13 for additionaldoubles (deadline for entries is Friday, Jan. 11 at 5:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 224-6303.

Friday-Saturday, January 25-26L3 Sportime at Randalls Island Green Ball January UPSSportime Randalls Island1 Randalls IslandNew York, N.Y.Divisions: Novice BG(12)s, RRSurface Type: UnknownEntry Fee: $43.50 per player (deadline for entries is Friday, Jan. 11 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (646) 783-5301.

Friday-Sunday, January 25-27Sportime Randalls Island January 2013 ChampionshipsSportime Randalls Island1 Randalls IslandNew York, N.Y.Divisions: Ranked M(25,35,45,55,65)s, SESurface Type: Clay IndoorEntry Fee: $70.38 per player (deadline for entries is Fri-day, Dec. 18 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (646) 783-5301.

Friday-Sunday, January 25-27L3 Alley Pond Eastern January UPSAlley Pond Tennis Center7920 Winchester BoulevardQueens Village, N.Y.Divisions: Novice: BG(14-12)s, RR; BG(10 [60’Court/Or-ange Ball])s, RRSurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $43.50 per player (deadline for entries isWednesday, Jan. 23 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 264-2600.

FEBRUARY 2013Friday-Sunday, February 1-10+Sutton East Men’s Open February ChampionshipsSutton East Tennis Club488 East 60th StreetNew York, N.Y.Divisions: Ranked M(Op)s, SESurface Type: UnknownEntry Fee: $65.00 per player (deadline for entries isWednesday, Jan. 30 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (212) 751-3452.

Friday-Sunday, February 8-10L1B Gotham STC February Challenger SeriesStadium Tennis Center725 Exterior Street • Bronx, N.Y.Divisions: Challenger BG(14-12)s, SESurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries is Fri-day, Feb. 1 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 665-4684.

USTA/Metropolitan Region2013 TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

For detailed information on these and all USTA tournaments, visit tennislink.usta.com/tournaments.


Friday-Sunday, February 8-17+2013 NCT February Classic34-28 214th PlaceBayside, N.Y.Divisions: Ranked X(Op)d, SE; M(40,50-55)sd, SE;W(35)sd, SESurface Type: Clay IndoorEntry Fee: $75.75 for first singles, $75.75 for additionalsingles and $38.13 for first doubles, $38.13 for additionaldoubles (entries open Friday, Dec. 28)For more information, call (718) 224-6303.

Monday-Friday, February 11-15Alley Pond Men’s & Women’s February OpenAlley Pond Tennis Center7920 Winchester BoulevardQueens Village, N.Y.Divisions: Ranked MW(Op)sSurface Type: UnknownEntry Fee: $65 per player (deadline for entries is Satur-day, Feb. 9 at 11:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 264-2600.

Friday-Sunday, February 15-17L3 Staten Island Winter UPSStaten Island Community Tennis Center2800 Victory BoulevardStaten Island, N.Y.Divisions: Novice BG(16-12)s, RRSurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $48.88 per player (deadline for entries Monday, Feb. 11 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 982-3355.

Friday-Tuesday, February 15-19L2O Alley Pond President’s Week OpenAlley Pond Tennis Center7920 Winchester BoulevardQueens Village, N.Y.Divisions: Intermediate BG(18-12)s, SESurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries isThursday, Feb .14 at 9:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 264-2600.

Saturday-Monday, February 15-17L1B 10U NCT February ChallengerNorth Shore Tennis Go! Tennis34-28 214th PlaceBayside, N.Y.Divisions: Intermediate BG(10 [78’Court/Green Ball])s, SESurface Type: Clay IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries is Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 5:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 224-6303.

Saturday-Monday, February 22-24L1B Gotham STC February 10U Challenger & 8U PlaydayStadium Tennis Center725 Exterior StreetBronx, N.Y.Divisions: Open: Quick Start BG(10 [78’Court/Green Ball],8 [36’Court/Red Ball])sd, FICSurface Type: Hard IndoorEntry Fee: $54.25 per player (deadline for entries is Fri-day, Feb. 15 at 1:00 p.m.)For more information, call (718) 665-4684.

USTA/Metropolitan Region2013 TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

For detailed information on these and all USTA tournaments, visit tennislink.usta.com/tournaments.

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New York Tennis Magazine - January/February 2013