New Tennis Season Rocking at Gulf Harbour

Hello Gulf Harbourites. Welcome back to your "Here's What's Happening (and or happened) in Gulf Harbour Tennis" spot.

Up-Coming Events
The first Tennis Family Night Dinner of the 2009 – 2010 season is being served up Wednesday the 18th. Come break bread and sip wine with old tennis friends or make some new ones. See who you can recognize without tennis garb. And, the rumor is that Jim Rollero is preparing a pictorial show for your entertainment as well. Click here to be a part of the Tennis Family Night Dinner.

Gulf Harbour Tennis Teams

A Captains Council has been formed to help manage the formation and functioning of Gulf Harbour’s Lee County Women’s Tennis League teams. Linda VanWyk, Co-Captain of the 3.0 Double Trouble team was elected to chair the Council’s inaugural season. Guidelines will soon be available on the Club website on the Tennis Teams & Leagues page.

Eight of Gulf Harbour’s 12 LCWTL teams are among the top-five teams in their divisions. Leading the way is our 60-Plus team, led by Teressa Crocker and Wennie Johannes, which leads the division after sweeping its first two matches.

Five of our teams are sitting in the second spot during the early going. They include Sally Mellendorf and Linda VanWyk’s 3.0 Double Trouble, which is three points out of first place after five weeks; Jenny King and Darlene Mattcheck’s 3.0-Minus team which trails the division leader by two points after two weeks of play; and our Defending Champion 50-Plus Gold team which is five points out of first after three matches.

Also in the group of five sitting in second is our 4.0 team, captained by Marcia Devries and Mary Harrington, and our 4.0-Minus team, with Connie Hess and Pam Lemon at the helm. These two divisions are among the toughest to claim top-five spots, but a strong showing against one of the League’s premier teams, Park Meadow, has vaulted our 4.0 ladies into second after two weeks, and our 4.0-Minus ladies have swept two of their first four opponents en route to their second-place standing.

The two remaining teams in top-five positions include Judy Jones and Judy Manzella’s 3.5-Minus Sure Shots are holding on to fourth after two weeks, and Effie Parker and Marianne McElroy’s Bronze team which sits in fifth place after four matches.

Not to be outdone, our USTA Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles Teams have also sprinted out of the blocks in fine form. Our 7.0 Senior Mixed team led by Bob Ostrom is in first place and undefeated after three matches, Judy Schafft’s 7.0 Super Senior women hold the first spot with a 4-0 record, and our 7.0 Super Senior Men’s team is second with a 2-1 record after its third match.

Men’s Singles Ladder

New additions to the Gulf Harbour Men’s Singles B Ladder, Jim King and Frank Kaplan, are off to good starts, each picking up a straight-set victory in his initial match. Both will have a ways to go to catch current Ladder MVP John Hess who is waiting impatiently for his match-up with Ladder leader Manny Lima.

The action has been less than torrid in the A Ladder. Ladder leader Alan Canfield has played only one match, and no other player in this group has played more than two. Canfield has been busy otherwise, however; finishing regular season play in the Ultimate Tennis League (formerly K-Swiss) with only one loss in the 4.0 Division. Alan won his division and will be entering the playoffs as one of the favorites to claim the League Championship.

Your Tennis Pros

Gulf Harbour Tennis hosted the Fort Myers USPTA Tennis Pro League’s second stop on Friday, November 6th. Approximately 300 cheering fans swarmed the tennis facility, enthusiastically cheering great play and jeering the blunders of their favorite tennis professionals. Gulf Harbour is without doubt the the most electric of all the Pro League stops, and it is because we have the absolute best tennis members bar none!

Starring in the main attraction, Mike Curran paired with Eddie Neese in the marquee match-up of the day at the No. 1 position against former world-ranked Roberto Saad and current FGCU player Sergio Robelledo. Mike and Eddie came back from a 2-6 drubbing in the first set, to claim the win in a super-tiebreak, 10 – 5.

Starting things of right in the early matches wsa your dynamic young pro, Joel Hampton. Joel teamed with Alex Hermeto of Gateway against Patrick Kangwa of The Landings and Lighthouse Bay’s Jorge Magalhaes in a crowd-pleaser of a match at the No.3 position. Joel’s youthful reflexes and blistering groundstrokes drew cheers from the crowd and proved to be the deciding factor in the super-tiebreak win for Hampton and Hermeto.

Unfortunately, yours truly didn’t do so well. I played with Mark Drons of Vasari at the no.2 position against Jim Katterfield of Shadow Wood, and Luke Andreae, a former No.1 position player from Punta Gorda. We got off to a great start and appeared to have the match well in hand after the first set. But then, I double faulted three, count ‘em, THREE consecutive times en route to a break to open the second set. That appeared to panick my partner and it certainly killed our momentum. We went on to lose the match 6-2, 2-6, 3-6.

But I’m blaming Bev Adams for that loss. She was court side cheering us on, serving as our inspiration to comeback when we were down a break in the third set. But when the lights went out, literally, at 3 – 3, and we changed courts, Bev was nowhere to be seen! The lights then went out, figuratively, on our games as well. We didn’t win another game.

Joel the Hero

In addition to his on-court heroics, Joel recently showed that he can be a hero off the court as well. Last week Joel witnessed an accident on his way to a hockey game, and turned around to assist and stay with the senior citizen involved in the accident until help arrived. Never one to miss an opportunity to add to his fan club, Joel invited the victim and her husband to the Pro League match at Gulf Harbour. And, they came!

In more heroic action, Joel has helped his USTA 4.5 Men’s Adult League team advance to the playoffs by going undefeated thus far in fall season play. Joel has the opportunity to finish the season undefeated if he wins his match today, and will represent West Bay in Regional Playoffs in January.

T. A. at USPTA Masters
Proving that age and wisdom aren't necessarily correlated, I'll be off to participate in the USPTA Masters Tournament at Tiger Wood’s place (Isleworth in Orlando) this weekend (November 14th & 15th). USPTA certified Pros qualify for the season ending event by finishing in the top four of their age division in the USPTA Grand Prix series. I finished No.2 in the Men’s 50 Division and will play singles and doubles in Orlando. I have the modest goal of coming back to Gulf Harbour uninjured.

Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll see you next week. Game, set, match...