Bill Simons
Thick dark smoke defies the sun. The horror is devastating. We are all stunned. LA’s shock firestorm is destroying homes and killing innocents. “Apocalypse now,” many are thinking. After countless tragedies, the fate of tennis courts and clubs would seem to be just an afterthought.
Still, people care.
If any tennis site was full of life, it was the bustling Palisades Tennis Center. But Pacific Palisades tennis lovers are mourning. Their vibrant mecca that brought so much joy is now gone – along with Pacific Palisades High School, which has long dominated high school tennis. Now the town, whose tennis tradition includes the likes of Hall of Famers Dodo Cheney, Helen Wills-Moody Roark and Julie Heldman, will have to rise from the ashes.
As we write, the Malibu Racquet Club is still inaccessible. The venerable, tennis-happy Riviera Country Club, that’s soon slated to host its PGA tourney, is out of immediate danger, but is temporarily closed.
Flames are still two hills away from the Mountaingate Country Club, and they’re still open. The Mulholland Club, at 1500 feet, endured 90 mph winds, suffered minor damage and was briefly closed. At many other facilities, like the Braemar Country Club in Encino, members can smell and see the menacing smoke, but they are still open. However, as we write, there’s a new brushfire in Calabasas.
Sadly, the fierce Eaton Fire, northeast of Pasadena, which has thus far taken five lives, also destroyed the elegant and storied Altadena Town and Country Club, built in 1910 by the Kellogg family, who for decades have been at the core of the SoCal tennis community.
Fortunately, amidst the misery, there have been some miracles. The Altadena home of USTA SoCal Vice-President Chris Boyer was spared, but whole blocks of homes near his were flattened.
In a similar stroke of good fortune, the Camarillo home of Wayne and Kathy Bryan, the parents of Bob and Mike, remained intact in a fire a few months ago, while the homes of most all of their neighbor were destroyed.
Tennis has a long history with fire. In 1918 the Ojai Tournament had to move to LA’s downtown YMCA due to fires, the only time in its 125-year history it was not played in Ojai.
One of tennis’ first great getaways, the Racquet Club of Palm Springs, which once attracted the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Fred Astaire, was destroyed by fire in 2014.
In 1991, tennis zealots at the Berkeley Tennis Club kept on playing as the flames from Oakland’s devastating fire burned right next to their courts. Also in Northern California, fire destroyed the popular Lafayette Tennis Club as well as the gorgeous Meadowood Resort in St. Helena. Both have bounced back.
No Grand Slam has endured fire more than the 2020 Australian Open. People sought refuge in the sea. Kangaroos sprinted from encroaching flames. Half a billion animals were killed. Oz was burning. It seemed like armageddon.
Jon Wertheim offered some comic relief, saying that “in the fire-ravaged village of Cobargo, New South Wales, a new sign in a bookstore informed customers that “the ‘Post-Apocalyptic Fiction’ section has been moved to ‘Current Affairs.’”
Meanwhile in Melbourne, smoky skies and windstorms created havoc. The city had the worst air quality in the world. In the qualifying tourney, a Slovenian player collapsed and quit. Serena contributed $43,000 and Nick Kyrgios kickstarted a relief campaign in which players raised $4 million.
At the time, Dominic Thiem noted that the fires, along with the shocking death of Kobe Bryant in the LA hills, “should be a reminder to all of us to stick together more than ever. Being with our families, staying close to the people that love you [is what matters]…There are more important things in life than tennis.”
In no way do we wish to diminish the trauma of the firestorm. Still, there are other ways fire has impacted tennis. One of Todd Martin’s Wimbledon matches was interrupted by a nearby fire. There was a fire at James Blake’s Tampa home. Billie Jean King’s often speaks lovingly of her dad, who was a Long Beach fireman.
And perhaps Andy Roddick was our sport’s most inspiring firefighter. Just before the 2004 Italian Open, at a luxury hotel in Rome he clambered down the side of his Rome hotel to save a couple from an early morning fire that took three lives.
