6-Tennis Comes to Napa Valley
In partnership with the USTA NorCal Section, Napa Valley Community College recently debuted an ambitious new community program aimed at offering a team tennis option to local youth in the area.
6-Tennis — named after the per-team member requirement — the junior team tennis league founded by USTA NorCal Community Tennis Coordinator Cherryl Silva gives 8- to 10-year-old youth the chance to play recreational tennis twice a week — one practice one match — during the summer months. The program, which began June 16, already has 39 kids registered, six teams and almost two dozen community college volunteers in just its first year.
“I tried to get my daughter to play tennis, but there aren’t any organized sports in my community — we’re used to the soccer league concept, little league. I just couldn’t get her to do tennis,” Silva said. “There’s 1,000 kids playing soccer, and 30 kids in the tennis program.”
But with a new brand of tennis for first-timers, Silva only expects that number to grow some more. The format of the program uses a rotational rally format that features three 10-minute sets with three rotating doubles teams on each side of the court.
Volunteer coaches from the college received mandatory training, and still range from 18 to 76 in age. The 6-Tennis concept was born four years ago in the USTA NorCal offices and has seen pilot programs across the Bay Area.
According to Silva, the Walnut Creek 6-Tennis program had over 300 kids last spring. In total, the program boasted almost 600 new tennis players at 28 different sites during the spring.
Top Seeds Hold Up (For the Most Part) at Marin Seniors
Of 28 tournament finals at the 33rd annual Marin Senior Championships, 23 were won by No. 1 or No. 2 seeds.
“The seeding was spot on,” said tournament director Susan McShannock.
Without doubt. Eighteen No. 1 seeds won, as did No. 2 seeds. And yet, wouldn’t you know it, the spotlight of the 270-player National Super Category II was stolen by an unseeded entrant. Jake Bragonier, unseeded in the men’s 35s draw, ousted the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the final two rounds of the tournament held at the Mill Valley TC to take the Men’s 35 title. The Fresno product topped Bangladesh Davis Cup team member Shibu Lal in the semis 6-3, 6-1, before earning out a remarkable come-from-behind, three-and-a-half- hour 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) effort in the final to win a slice of the $15,000 in prize money given out during the tourney.
Other unseeded winners included Greta Watson (W60S), Shibu Lal/Steve Summer (M35D) and Alissa Finerman/Erika Smith (W40D). Multi-draw winners included Mai Ichikawa/Abel (MXD35, W35S), Rick Kepler (M40S, M40D), T. Lehto (M50S, M50D), Geoff Cykman (M55S, M55D), Alissa Finerman/Erika Smith (W35D, W40D), Tracy Houk (W45S, W45D), Carolyn Nichols (W50S, W50D) and Tina Karwasky (W55S, W55D).
Wagner Memorial Returns to Rafael Racquet Club
The Hal Wagner Memorial Doubles Tournament will return to the Rafael Racquet and Swim Club on Labor Day Weekend.
Men’s and mixed Open finalists will compete for cash prizes. The tournament is open to 3.0-4.5 players in men’s, women’s and mixed.
For additional information, call (415) 456-5522 or visit www.rafaelracquetclub.com.
USTA Update Its important to understand how the FICO credit counseling agencies score is determined. at Rolling Hills
It wasn’t a playoff push. It was a playoff shove.
Winning two matches in the final weekend of the USTA regular season, Rolling Hills Club women’s 3.5B team jumped from fifth to third place in the final weeks of play to claim the final casino online local league postseason berth.
The RHC squad defeated Harbor Point 4-1 on June 27 behind a doubles sweep from Nancy Kelly/ Corliss Saland (6-2, 6-0), Donna Parker/Suzanne Ross (6-1, 6-0) and Trudy Larrieu/Toni Shroyer (6-3, 3-6, 10-8), then edged Marin Yacht 3-2 on June 28 to finish 9-3 overall. The team opens the playoffs against Mt. Tam the weekend of July 10-12. They will likely be joined by RHC’s women’s 3.5A team (10-1), Women’s 3.0a team (11-0), women’s 4.0A team and women’s 4.5A team (6-3) — all of which are on course to join the postseason party on the women’s side.
Mt. Tam vs. San Francisco Tennis Club
Close to a month after playing to a 2-2 (29-29) deadlock at the San Francisco TC, Mt. Tam RC won the second half of the home-and-away series with a 6-3 final over visiting SFTC at Mt. Tam.
Both teams expanded the eight-man exo. Mt. Tam added Marc Lamonica, Mike Downs and Thomas Martin to the original foursome of Mt. Tam’s former NorCal No. 1 Jeff Greenwald, Cal men’s assistant Greg Kennett, Bangladeshi Davis Cup captain Shibu Lal and Mt. Tam tennis director Steve Summer. SFTC brought on Matt Berry, Ben Miles, Scott Kent, Freedom Om and Steve Reilly along with its original contingent of pro Lance Johnson, USF standout Fernando Rodriguez and former Cal standout Nate Jackmon.
The format included six singles and three doubles eight-game pro sets, no ad scoring. Mt. Tam pros (Lal, Summer, LaMonica, and Kennett) all won singles matches to clinch the match and take the series lead at 1-0-1. According to Mt. Tam GM Rob Heckleman, the series will continue during the summer, with San Francisco TC hosting the third installment.
In Brief
The Annual Marin Tennis Club Grand Prix Championships was held over Memorial Day Weekend, and this year drew a record 118 teams playing across men’s, women’s and mixed from 3.0 thru 4.5. The event opened with an exhibition match on Friday evening that included top bay area players Dave Allen, Jeff Greenwald, Geoff Martinez and Steve Tourdo. The M4.5 title was won by Steve Colletto/Oliver Lobl of Rolling Hills, and star of the show included another Rolling Hills player, Andy Shotz, who partnered with Randy Poblitz to win the M3.0, and with his wife, Katherine, to win the MXD3.0. Chuck Spaulding of Harbor Point took the M4.0 with Rob Blechman, and MXD4.0 with Kim Moran. All the results and photographs of exhibition can be found online at www.marintennisclub.com/ grandprix.html.
