Tennis

Seminole Lake bidding for national crown

The Seminole Lake Tennis Center's 4.0 adult men's team began its quest about a year ago for an opportunity to compete in the U.S. Tennis Association's USA League Tennis national championships.

With a roster of 17, the team played past local, regional and state challengers to qualify for this weekend's national title on the hard courts in Tucson, Ariz.

One disqualification, several injuries and family responsibilities have reduced the squad to eight and its non-playing captain, Red McGarry.

"We'll be looking at Chris (Rivera) and Brian (Cooper) playing our singles, and maybe Robert (Schultz)," McGarry said. "Chris grew up on the hard courts in Puerto Rico, so getting back on them will be an asset for him. Brian is a lefty with a hard, wide serve.

"Power players, like Brian, Chris, Isaac (Vicente), Robert and Scott (Chambers) will especially benefit from playing on the hard court. The balls have a truer bounce and points fall faster, so it's going to be a faster game."

The Seminole squad is 18-0 this season and has practiced regularly since winning the state championship in July

Friday, Seminole faces USTA section Southern California, followed by Northern California. Saturday, Seminole plays Missouri Valley in its final match of the flight's round-robin. The top team advances to Sunday's semifinal and final.

"We'll nose around the practice courts Thursday after we get in and try to size up the competition," McGarry said.

"We've developed a scouting form that really helped us in Daytona Beach at the state tournament. We'll look for their strengths and weaknesses and give our results to the team that will be playing them."

McGarry plans to set his lineup straight up, although with the injuries, the lineup is unlike its original.

"It's really too bad we've had the injuries we've had," Krishnan Anandan said. "At the beginning of the season, we had a legitimate shot. We'll have to set our lineup day-to-day and see how the points fall. I'll play with Isaac, Scott, Dave (Heeder) or maybe Jon (Bean), although I hadn't played much with them in the season.

Rivera is looking forward to the challenge of competing on the hard courts and knows that his level increases as the level of his opponent increases.

"The challenge will be greater at national than at any other level we've been in," Rivera said.

"I'm a baseliner with pretty good strokes and a hard serve. I've stayed in shape and am pretty durable. I'm ready."

Seminole's progress can be followed by visiting www.usta.com Click on USA League Tennis, then National Championships for results.

PRO-AM: Organizers of the 20th annual Raymond James Pro-Am tournament exceeded their goal for money raised to benefit All Children's Hospital. More than $61,000 will be directed to the hospital.

The weekend event was kicked off with a cocktail party that included professionals Monica Seles, John Lloyd and Drew Gitlin.

Competing in a pro-am round-robin competition, A division winners included Diana Gabay and Paula Castoro among the women and David Marger and Sheika Singh in the men.

Marlene Mokracek and Jackie Keller finished first in the women's B division, as did Drew LaGrande and Augusto Salerno in the men's.

In the singles exhibition, Lloyd beat Gitlin, a Grand Slam player in the early 1980s. The mixed doubles exhibition found Gitlin teaming with former professional Mariana Eberle from Argentina to defeat Lloyd and Tampa teaching pro Genevieve King.

NET SHOTS: Among the winners in the Countryside Fall Junior Rookie Tournament this month were No. 1 Zachary Bandes in the boys 12 and Keenan Gladd-Brown the 10. Consolation winners included Dalila Chiadmi in the girls 18, Erin Cooley the 16, Karan Sagar the boys 14 and No. 1 Austin Rapp the 10.

The inaugural season of the area's USPTA Tampa Bay Pro League included 24 regular players on four teams vying for playoff positions. The format included two men's doubles positions and one mixed doubles. Finishing first were the Molina Marauders with captain Andres Molina and players Emerson Kappler, Dan Faretta, Tim Plossi, Bill Macom and Liz Leigh. In second were the Vuille Victors with captain Sam Vuille, Rick Workman, Steve Samaha, Brad Welch, Lee Pettis and Liz Schroeder.

NEW IN USA LEAGUES: Florida is offering a Super 70s Doubles League in both the men's and women's divisions. Each team will include three doubles teams. Contact Carol Levin (797-8416) about the women's league and David Wisotsky (938-7902) the men. Also new this season is the Combo League for players 19-and-older.

Teams include mixed skill levels and may consist of one singles position and two doubles. Contact Levin.

MARK THE DATES: Plans are under way for the Nov. 7-9 11th Annual Tennis Classic, a benefit to the Good Samaritan Health Clinic of Pasco. Sponsorships are available for the men's, women's and mixed doubles event at the Paul Kronk Tennis Center in Crescent Oaks Country Club. Call (727) 848-6851 for sponsorship details and (727) 934-6920 for player information.

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