Our Jenni: USF’s Heinser a Player to Watch
USF’s Jenni Heinser, the No. 1 Lady Don who set school records last year, is a wiser player this year and worth watching as she attempts to emulate or surpass her ‘08 accomplishments.
Heinser became the school’s first player to qualify for the NCAA singles tournament by dint of her top ranking in the WCC. She lost in the first round, but with dignity to the top seed in three sets. Heinser became the WCC’s Player of the Year and also Freshman of the Year.
“That first year I was a little nervous,” Heinser says. “I didn’t know what to expect. And now I don’t worry about things as much, although I’m still a perfectionist.”
Coach Hilary Somers thinks her mind is a beautiful thing.
“She’s very smart out there and is really able to pick up on and play to her opponents weaknesses,” Somers says. “It’s what sets her apart.”
Heinser finished last year 17-1 in dual matches and 21-3 overall, while the USF team went 9-10 for the season. But Heinser’s influence could make a difference. Somers says she’s a model player, hard working, highly competitive even in on-court drills and in honors classes, and is encouraging to others.
“She’s a professional at preparing for matches, very focused,” Somers said. “She’s developed into a great team leader and a role model.” Heisner, at 5-foot-4 not a type for “big babe” tennis, grew in Miami but on hard courts, not clay. She played competitively in high school, even on international USTA girls’ teams, then played ITF junior tournaments and all the Grand Slams. After graduation, she took 18 months to play pro tournaments.
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YTA Goes to More S.F. Neighborhoods
If ever there was a kids’ program that won’t be stopped it’s Youth Tennis Advantage: it keeps rolling into the city’s low income neighborhoods with free after school tennis programs, doing for the population what the cash-strapped city can’t.
For two years the Oakland-based YTA’s instructors had manned the Ella Hill Hutch playground in the often-dangerous Western Addition conducting consistent programs. Then a new park director showed up who didn’t like the YTA’s court deal. So YTA packed up and left. It took three months to solve the differences. Now the Tuesday and Thursday program is restored, according to Carl Mendoza.
“And it was really important to the community,” Mendoza said.
Twenty of the more than 50 kids on the roster are from the immediate neighborhood, which has been rocked by violence over the last two years. Last year, the program was so popular it attracted most of the Balboa H.S. team to practices. Mendoza says the Monday-Wednesday-Friday program at Mission Playground is still in tact and that new programs have been started at McLaren Park courts and Louis B. Sutter Park.
“We’ll bring some short tennis into two or three parks in Bayview-Hunter’s Point in April when we can mobile casino tie it in with the kids’ Easter egg hunts,” Mendoza said. “We’re working with the park directors.”
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Club, Public Courts Still in Limbo
The forces opposing the land-grabbers who would destroy tennis courts from the Presidio to downtown are in a suspenseful holding pattern with no courts lost, though as many as 30 remain vulnerable to the wrecking ball.
But the Save Our SFTC crowd did in fact save the Fifth and Brannan club. SOSFTC successfully drove giant developer Pulte Homes out of town with its protests and City Hall lobbying. The SOSFTC got a moratorium resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors that prevented tearing down recreational spaces, unless they could be replaced in kind. Pulte walked away.
SOSFTC employs ubiquitous land use attorney Sue Hestor. So does Friends of Golden Gateway, an ardent swim and tennis club group in the financial district that’s trying to stop another developer, and save its courts.
FOGG is trying to stop developer Simon Snellgrove at every opportunity. He has the rights to buy and redevelop the club. He wants an adjacent piece of the Port Authority’s land to go with it, too. He’d build 170 luxury condominiums and a 500-space underground garage, and snip off three of the club’s nine courts.
More courts are up in the air, too, at the Presidio. GAP founder Don Fisher’s planned museum there would have knocked out the court near the bowling alley. The toned down revision requested by the Presidio Trust wasn’t any better.
“No matter how the dice rolls, both the bowling alley and the tennis courts are in imminent danger of being razed,” says tennis activist a Ray Ju. “There’s the possibility that the Infantry Terrace may be one of the secondary museum sites, so we could lose those as well.” Infantry Terrace has two courts, giving the Presidio a total of six.
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YTA: In Like Flynn
San Francisco’s Russell Flynn has been named president of YTA.
Flynn, an advocate for school integration in the late ‘60s, has been a tennis player/enthusiast for more than 30 years. His vision for change and inclusion ultimately led to diverse communities of children becoming an integral part of the educational landscape. He plans to continue the momentum set forth by former YTA President Dr. Ron Grant, which concluded at the end of the year.
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Saviano Brings New Sparkle to SFTC
There’s a new look at the San Francisco TC. The Saviano Co. Inc. — the same company that overhauled the courts at Santa Clara University, Palo Alto Hills Golf and CC and the Silver Creek Valley CC (not to mention the Olympic Games in Beijing) — has spruced up the famed courts at Fifth and Brannan, resurfacing four courts and installing eight DecoTurf courts. Word from the likes of Brad Gilbert and the recently retired Paul Goldstein has it that the courts have never played better.
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In Brief
Wallenberg’s Jennifer Salomon, three-time city CIF singles champ, has her eye on ten colleges. But her very fave is Harvard. While the 17-year-old waits for the notice, she practices six days a week, under the coaching of Cal Club TD Steve Jackson. By winning the singles in ‘06-’07-’08, Jennifer, a Golden Gate Park courts product, matched her sister Janice’s feat in ‘98-’00. Janice played at UC-Davis. In winning in ‘06, Jennifer broke Lowell players’ 11-year hammerlock on the title — her sister played for Lowell. The sister act is unparalleled by any other sisters in city history, but they are equaled on the boys’ side by the Jee brothers: Mark won the singles in ‘71-’73 and Mitchell won in ‘82-’84.
Admittedly, Steven Tennis has an unusual handle. A nonplayer, he lives in a low-income hotel in the Tenderloin and came by his name when his mother remarried. His stepfather adopted Steven and changed his last name from Crotty (pronounced like karate) to Tennis. “Imagine,” he says, “I went from Crotty to Tennis. “I’m just glad it wasn’t Baseball or Football.”
