June 26, 2007
While tennis fans are beginning to focus on Wimbledon, some La Jolla Shores sunbathers just got a special treat. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, vacationing here with their children, came across Gretchen Magers playing beach tennis the other day and stopped to join in.
Beach tennis? It's a game of volleys (no bouncing) on sand courts with a volleyball-type net, tennis racquets and a depressurized tennis ball. Magers, a La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club pro, is tied for top-rated Beach Tennis USA contender in this fairly new sand sport that is rapidly growing in popularity. A tournament was held this month in Pacific Beach.
Agassi and another companion, tennis pal Sargis Sargsian, teamed up in an impromptu doubles match against Magers and La Jollan Tiffany Worst.
Worst later told her father, Bill Kellogg, it was one of the best days of her life because, after playing against Agassi on the sand, she traded volleys on a tennis court with Graf.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Beach Tennis
Beach tennisChampions will show off new sand-court sport at Family Circle CupBY DAVID QUICK The Post and Courier
Anna Kournikova really should come out of retirement for this one.
At next week's Family Circle Cup professional tennis tournament, fans may stumble on a certain curiosity: beach tennis. Local promoters of the sport hope many will go from spectators to participants and try it out themselves.
"Our goal is to get as many feet on the court as possible," says Chris Henderson, who co-founded Carolina Beach Tennis, the first licensee of Beach Tennis USA.
The beach tennis exhibitions and open play time will be held 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. from Tuesday through Friday, April 13, at a permanent beach tennis court near the Family Circle Cup Stadium on Daniel Island.
Beach tennis basically is the hybridization of tennis, beach volleyball, outdoor badminton and recreational paddleball. In the United States, it involves tennis rackets, slightly dead practice tennis balls, and the same 30-by-60-foot court as beach volleyball but with a lower, 6-foot-2-inch net.
Launched about five years ago, the sport is taking different forms in different countries. While tennis rackets are used in the United States, Germany, Holland and Aruba, wooden paddles are used in Spain and Italy.
An international governing body, which ultimately wants beach tennis to become an Olympic contest, hasn't made a final decision on rackets or paddles.
In the meantime, promoters in the United States and in Charleston would like to see the game vie for a space on the beach alongside the mainstays, such as bocce, horseshoes and, of course, beach volleyball.
Marc Altheim, commissioner of Beach Tennis USA, first saw the sport played in Aruba and brought it to the United States about three years ago.
Henderson and Phil Whitesell, coach of the College of Charleston men's tennis team, joined up and won the first two national championship games, held in 2005 and 2006. Subsequently, Whitesell and Henderson created Carolina Beach Tennis, which will host a bona fide tournament June 23-24 at Family Circle Cup Stadium.
The tournament, which will be the weekend after what should be an extremely popular Association of Volleyball Professionals Pro Beach Volleyball Tour contest, will have male and female team divisions for pros, advanced and beginners. Those divisions depend on the participant's tennis rating.
The winners of the pro tournament are qualified to compete in the national championship in Long Beach, N.Y.
"This could be as big as the AVP in a few years," says Whitesell.
When it comes to tournaments, Henderson says, its leans more toward beach volleyball than a more quiet, polite pro tennis tournament. Some have dubbed it the "X Games of tennis."
Beach tennis includes buff, semi-bare athletes and loud, rock 'n' roll music. Crowds are not hushed. Scantily clad "beach tennis babes" take center court between play and pump up the crowds. Matches usually last no more than 30 minutes.
While to compete in the professional division requires a 4.5 tennis rating or higher, Whitesell says beach tennis is easy to pick up and actually favors a decent athlete over a great tennis player.
"Good tennis players work on ground stroke after ground stroke after ground stroke, but beach tennis takes the bounce out of the game. ... It favors an athlete who is able to jump and move around on the sand over most tennis players."
For the aging athlete, the sand also is kinder on the body than the harder surfaces of tennis.
And what about getting sand in and on your racket?
For the open play during next week's tournament, Carolina Beach Tennis will provide rackets. Henderson says most tennis players have two or three rackets, and he uses an older one to play.
As expected, there is some dissent in the tennis world about this upstart sport. Some call it a bastardization of tennis. Whitesell and Henderson don't think so. An estimated 60 percent of beach tennis participants come from a tennis background, while about 40 percent come from beach volleyball.
"We think beach tennis will grow the game of tennis," says Henderson.
Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or at dquick@postandcourier.com.
Anna Kournikova really should come out of retirement for this one.
At next week's Family Circle Cup professional tennis tournament, fans may stumble on a certain curiosity: beach tennis. Local promoters of the sport hope many will go from spectators to participants and try it out themselves.
"Our goal is to get as many feet on the court as possible," says Chris Henderson, who co-founded Carolina Beach Tennis, the first licensee of Beach Tennis USA.
The beach tennis exhibitions and open play time will be held 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. from Tuesday through Friday, April 13, at a permanent beach tennis court near the Family Circle Cup Stadium on Daniel Island.
Beach tennis basically is the hybridization of tennis, beach volleyball, outdoor badminton and recreational paddleball. In the United States, it involves tennis rackets, slightly dead practice tennis balls, and the same 30-by-60-foot court as beach volleyball but with a lower, 6-foot-2-inch net.
Launched about five years ago, the sport is taking different forms in different countries. While tennis rackets are used in the United States, Germany, Holland and Aruba, wooden paddles are used in Spain and Italy.
An international governing body, which ultimately wants beach tennis to become an Olympic contest, hasn't made a final decision on rackets or paddles.
In the meantime, promoters in the United States and in Charleston would like to see the game vie for a space on the beach alongside the mainstays, such as bocce, horseshoes and, of course, beach volleyball.
Marc Altheim, commissioner of Beach Tennis USA, first saw the sport played in Aruba and brought it to the United States about three years ago.
Henderson and Phil Whitesell, coach of the College of Charleston men's tennis team, joined up and won the first two national championship games, held in 2005 and 2006. Subsequently, Whitesell and Henderson created Carolina Beach Tennis, which will host a bona fide tournament June 23-24 at Family Circle Cup Stadium.
The tournament, which will be the weekend after what should be an extremely popular Association of Volleyball Professionals Pro Beach Volleyball Tour contest, will have male and female team divisions for pros, advanced and beginners. Those divisions depend on the participant's tennis rating.
The winners of the pro tournament are qualified to compete in the national championship in Long Beach, N.Y.
"This could be as big as the AVP in a few years," says Whitesell.
When it comes to tournaments, Henderson says, its leans more toward beach volleyball than a more quiet, polite pro tennis tournament. Some have dubbed it the "X Games of tennis."
Beach tennis includes buff, semi-bare athletes and loud, rock 'n' roll music. Crowds are not hushed. Scantily clad "beach tennis babes" take center court between play and pump up the crowds. Matches usually last no more than 30 minutes.
While to compete in the professional division requires a 4.5 tennis rating or higher, Whitesell says beach tennis is easy to pick up and actually favors a decent athlete over a great tennis player.
"Good tennis players work on ground stroke after ground stroke after ground stroke, but beach tennis takes the bounce out of the game. ... It favors an athlete who is able to jump and move around on the sand over most tennis players."
For the aging athlete, the sand also is kinder on the body than the harder surfaces of tennis.
And what about getting sand in and on your racket?
For the open play during next week's tournament, Carolina Beach Tennis will provide rackets. Henderson says most tennis players have two or three rackets, and he uses an older one to play.
As expected, there is some dissent in the tennis world about this upstart sport. Some call it a bastardization of tennis. Whitesell and Henderson don't think so. An estimated 60 percent of beach tennis participants come from a tennis background, while about 40 percent come from beach volleyball.
"We think beach tennis will grow the game of tennis," says Henderson.
Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or at dquick@postandcourier.com.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Delray Beach: The Season Begins
The Start of the Beach Tennis Season, looking forward to it. Read the latest information.
http://www.beachtennisusa.net/pressroom/BTUSA_DelrayWrap_031907.pdf
http://www.beachtennisusa.net/pressroom/BTUSA_DelrayWrap_031907.pdf
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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