LA Tennis Challenge Celebrates Power of SoCal Tennis Community

Written by: Staff on 12th April 2013

LA Tennis Challenge Celebrates Power of SoCal Tennis Community

March 5, 2013.LA Tennis Challenge, Pauley Pavillion, Los Angeles CA |

by Joel Drucker

March 4, a Monday night in Los Angeles. In the stands of UCLA’s newly refurbished Pauley Pavilion more than 8,500 spectators were primed for the debut of the LA Tennis Challenge. On court, an all-star cast of seven, comprised of one Hall of Famer, three future inductees and three lively shotmakers – world number one Novak Djokovic, America’s best-ever in Southern Californian Pete Sampras, more homegrown flavor from all-time great doubles duo Bob and Mike Bryan, event co-host Mardy Fish, resurgent Tommy Haas and charismatic James Blake.

Numerous celebrities dotted the seats, including Bruce Willis, Jodie Foster and Keenen Ivory Wayans. Many more notables from Hollywood and beyond had walked the red carpet just outside the arena to talk with event co-host Justin Gimelstob. The media presence included Tennis Channel – which the next night aired a one-hour special on the event — the Los Angeles Times, Tennis Magazine, USA Today, Inside Tennis and 10sBalls.com.

But beyond style loomed substance. Over the course of the evening, the thousands in attendance and the seven players proved once again what has long made Southern California a tennis community like no other.

Gimelstob and Fish Tap Into SoCal Rich Tennis Saga

Gimelstob had starred at UCLA and settled in Santa Monica. Fish was one of his closest friends and had relocated to Los Angeles following his marriage to UCLA grad Stacey Gardner. A year ago, Gimelstob and Fish were practicing with Djokovic at UCLA a week before the Indian Wells tournament. At the time, the future of the longstanding ATP World Tour event in LA was in doubt – a sober reality confirmed last fall when the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA) sold the 85-year-old tournament to Bogota. But surely, the region’s appetite remained strong.

“Mardy and I were absolutely certain there was an opportunity to create a high-quality event in Southern California,” says Gimelstob. “People here love tennis. Inch for inch, this area has to be the most accomplished tennis community in our sport’s history.”

The case is powerful. For more than a century, back to 1905 Pasadena’s May Sutton became the first American to win Wimbledon, more great tennis players have emerged from Southern California than anywhere in the world. Jack Kramer and Billie Jean King were champions who shaped the game off the court too. More recently, such greats as Sampras and the Williams sisters cut their teeth in Southern California. Scratch deeper through the decades and gallery grows to epic proportions: Pancho Gonzalez, Maureen Connolly, Ellsworth Vines, Bobby Riggs, Stan Smith, Tracy Austin and Lindsay Davenport are just a few of the area’s Grand Slam champions, to say nothing of dozens of world class players and coaches. Add to that such spawning grounds as the Los Angeles Tennis Club, USC and UCLA – the latter where both Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors had come for refinement before hitting the big-time – and the significance of Southern California jumps off the page.

From Far & Near, Bring on the Headliners

But Gimelstob and Fish knew that while Southern California was a tennis hotbed, it was also a place demanding headliners – prominent names who would command attention and compel engagement. It was a natural for Haas and Blake to join in. Haas spends a great deal of time in the area. Blake, Fish’s former Davis Cup doubles partner and neighbor back when the two lived in Tampa, has also been in LA quite frequently lately.

Djokovic had never competed in Los Angeles. But in this case, the timing days prior to Indian Wells proved workable. Perhaps most of all, the world number one knew Los Angeles was the perfect place to engage his entertainer impulses.

But the most natural fits were the Bryan brothers and Sampras. Bob and Mike were Southern California natives. They’d honed their games an hour from UCLA, in Camarillo at a club run by their father Wayne with significant input from their mother, former touring pro Kathy Blake. All through their childhood, the twins trekked to campuses and high schools, clubs and parks to play the dozens of events that have long made Southern California such a tennis-rich section. Ditto for Sampras, always well aware that his battles of Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows were honed on the playing fields of the Jack Kramer Club and junior tournaments in such cities as Whittier and Long Beach. “Without the SCTA,” Sampras said the night of the LA Tennis Challenge, “I wouldn’t be here.”

Let the Games Begin

The outcome of the three one-set matches was incidental. Yes, Haas over Blake in a tie-breaker, Djokovic getting by Fish, the Bryans squeaking past Djokovic-Sampras. More compelling was the showcase of skills. Blake and Haas rocketed drives all across the court, the most notable salvos coming from Blake’s cannon-like forehand and Haas’s sleek one-handed backhand. Fish, playing his first tennis in seven months, showed off his all-court prowess against a Djokovic who was likely a bit weary following a flight from Dubai.

Then came the doubles – and the loudest cheers of the night for Sampras. For Djokovic, this was a chance to look up to the man he’d idolized during his formative years. Djokovic had been five years old and just beginning to play when Sampras assumed the world number one ranking in 1993. As Sampras finished atop the rankings for six straight years, ideas formed in young Novak’s head about what it meant to be a champion. More recently, the two have met in Los Angeles to discuss all that entails.

And so here they were, paired against the most successful duo in tennis history. It was a set marked by sharp exchanges at the net, the swift hands of the brothers and more than a few chances for Sampras for show off everything from his unsurpassed serve to the powerful forehands and volleys that earned him 14 Grand Slam singles titles.

Supreme Celebration – More To Come

In large part, the inaugural LA Tennis Challenge had been a celebration, a chance for a tennis-rich community to show the spark of future tennis opportunity and honor those who have built it. There was the debut of the Gussy Moran Humanitarian Award, named for yet another accomplished local player who had died in January. The Santa Monica-raised Moran had been ranked as high as fourth in the US and also given significant time to charities. Fitting indeed that the first recipient was Henry Talbert, the longstanding executive director of the Southern California Tennis Association.

Gimelstob and Fish were excited by what they’d started and looked forward to more. Next year’s LA Tennis Challenge will take place over two days.

Could it spark the rebirth of an ATP World Tour event in Los Angeles? In an interview with Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times published two days prior to this year’s LA Tennis Challenge, Gimelstob – an ATP World Tour board member — floated the possibility. “An LA event the week prior to Indian Wells is right in the flow of the schedule,” he said. “It all starts with talent, and talent will always be coming this way to Indian Wells.”

Of course there are many factors that shape the ATP World Tour calendar. Most notable prior to Indian Wells are the tournaments in Acapulco and Dubai. And while it’s one thing so stage a compelling exhibition, tournaments are a whole other matter. Gimelstob himself concedes bringing a tournament to Los Angeles might take five years.

But matters of tennis politics were background. In the foreground, a longstanding had taken part in the kind of event has long made Southern California a tennis nation unto itself.

Joel Drucker grew up playing tennis in Southern California. He is one of the world’s preeminent tennis writers, his work appearing in such print and broadcast media as Tennis Channel, ESPN and Tennis Magazine. His book, Jimmy Connors Saved My Life, is considered one of five “must-read” tennis books by Sports Illustrated.

Topics: Bryan Bros, djokovic, Gussy Moran, Henry Talbert, James Blake, Mardy Fish, Pete Sampras, SoCal, Tommy Haas, Ucla