Important Dates:
Aug 30 - Sep 12 US Open
Sep 15 Board Meeting 7pm Sr Center
Sep 18 Mixed Doubles Tournament
Sep 19 -26 Swetka's MVTC Sale
Oct 9 Social Tennis @ Cuesta
Oct 20 Board Meeting 7pm Sr Center
Nov 3 Board Meeting 7pm Sr Center
Nov 9 General Meeting 6pm Sr Center
In This Issue:
Co-Presidents' Message
Fall General Meeting
Member Profile - Liz Chambers
June Doubles Review
August Team Tennis Review
September Mixed Tournament
USTA News
Tennis and the World
2010 Tournament Schedule:
Sep 18 Mixed Doubles
Oct 23 Mens/Womens Singles
Nov 13 Grand Prix
Special Thanks
Thanks to Dana Wyse for the beautiful new sportsmanship plaque at Cuesta Tennis Center.
Swetka's Member's Sale!
Special 20% off sale for MVTC members from Sunday, September 19 through Sunday, September 26. That’s 20% off of everything, including rackets and stringing (except sale items and tennis balls). Woo hoo! Let’s go shopping.
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| Co-Presidents' Message This month, the present MVTC Board of Directors took on the task of nominating members for next year's board. I wish we could have the same Board that we did in '10, but, already a couple of the board members have stated that they must move on. So, we'll have to get a few new people to step up. I'm certainly willing to give it another go next year, perhaps in an open position other than President. I do believe in a bit of rotation so that board members see a different aspect of the entire board. MVTC is well positioned for next year, as I believe we are on a more solid footing with various issues. Finances, residency requirements for USTA play, and non-profit status are all issues that we've made progress on.
Strong showings continue to be made by:
Tournaments: Overall Director Kathy Wheeler & all the other volunteers who have stepped up
Newsletter: Diane Silverman/Bob Dickerson do a fantastic job
Communication: Roger Okamoto & Nuwan Jayasena help every day with membership & web issues
Treasurer: Teresa Low & the rest of the Board really look to get the most from our money
Secretary: Debbie Ryan has been leading the charge on our Tennis Socials
Vice President: Jimmy Areias is planning another fantastic General Meeting
USTA Link: Rajeev Kelkar is keeping us running smoothly with court time management
Fund Development: Carol Tolen is looking into this and always lends her guidance for problem solving.
Paul Chen and I have attempted to help in any capacity needed - it's been fun!
I was looking to make a statement about "volunteerism". . . and there it was on the opening page of the MVTC web site. Our club is ALL VOLUNTEER - WE NEED YOU! Please consider helping in any capacity that you can in 2011. Contact anyone on the Board to express an interest.
Tony
Fall General Meeting The next General Meeting will be held at the Mountain View Senior Center on Tuesday, November 9, starting at 6:00pm. Our guest speaker will be George Napier, CEO of Prince Sports. Catering will once again be provided by New Leaf. Thanks to Jimmy Areias for doing the organizing on this. Details about reservations will be announced at a later date.
Member Profile - Liz Chambers CR: How and when did you first start playing tennis? What attracted you to the game?Liz: My interest in tennis started when I was about 8 or 9. I grew up in a small town/village and a school teacher introduced the kids to tennis on the one and only public asphalt tennis court in the town. I really enjoyed trying to hit the ball, which was not easy with the heavy wooden racquets of the time. Once I got a little better, it was a challenge to try to play a real game, keep score and not hit the ball over the fence into the bushes. I would persuade my brother, sister, or anyone that was available to go out and hit some balls with me. For 2 weeks every summer I was glued to the TV to watch the daily coverage of Wimbledon and of course trying to emulate the pros such as McEnroe and Chris Evert.
CR: What is your Irish connection?
Liz: I grew up in small town on the west coast of Ireland, where everyone knew your name and made sure that any mischief was reported promptly to your parents. The long summer evenings were spent swimming, playing tennis, and whatever mischief that my brother had talked me into.
After college, I came to California in the ‘80s for a temporary work assignment as a Software Engineer. With the exception of a stint in the south of France, I have been here ever since.
CR: Please tell us more about your stint in France.
Liz: I spent 2 years on a work assignment on the French Riviera. I lived in Antibes, an old town on the coast between Nice and Cannes. France was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to become somewhat fluent in French. The time in France also gave me the opportunity to travel around Europe. I visited some wonderful places in Italy, France, Spain and had a memorable trip through Hungary, Czechoslovakia and East Berlin the summer after the “Wall” came down. Prague is one of my all time favorite cities to visit.
Living in France also gave me the chance to experience clay court tennis on the terre battue. Learning to slide on clay was quite an interesting experience and took some time to adjust. It was definitely different from the hard courts on which I had learned to play.
CR: What was it like playing squash? Does that help or harm you with tennis?
Liz: Since it rains a lot in Ireland (there is a reason it is called the Emerald Isle), you need to have an indoor sport. I played recreational squash in college. Playing squash and tennis at the same time is not always a good combination. Squash involves a lot of fast wrist whipping action using a small dead ball, which is not necessarily good for tennis shot. That probably explains some of my unconventional tennis shots. Although I think squash did help with my backhand overhead.
CR: You have been very active in the club. Could you talk about your experiences? Perhaps discuss why it might be important for club members to be involved?
Liz: I joined the club in the early 90’s and within a few years I volunteered to serve on the board, first as court reporter, then vice president and subsequently as president. It was a privilege to be president and I had a great team of board members which really helped. The MVTC board does a great job and many of the members may not realize how well the club is run. It is not always easy but it is ejoyable and very rewarding. I also served as tournament director for one year which was a great way to get to know more members of the club. One of the great things about MVTC that separates it from other local clubs is the monthly tournaments which are always fun.
CR: Do you have a favorite match you have played either in a MVTC tournament or USTA? Could you describe it a bit.
Liz: Probably there are 2 matches that come to mind. I once played in a 3+ hour doubles match at a local NTRP tournament. We started the match at 6pm and finally closed down the place at about 9:20pm – unfortunately we lost by a hair 6-7,7-5,6-7 but it was one of those unforgettable matches that could have gone either way.
Another favorite match was a come from behind win in a USTA match. My partner and I were down 2-8 in the 10-point super tiebreak and came back to win it 10-8. Not a lot of fun for our opponents, but a thrill for us to hang in there for the win.
CR: Who is your favorite pro? Could be more than one. Any reasons?
Liz: I really liked watching John McEnroe in his heyday, did not care much for his temper but you got to admit his skills were amazing and some of his battles with Borg were legendary. Of today’s pros I enjoy watching Justin Henin and Rafael Nadal.
CR: What is your own favorite tennis shot that you enjoy hitting?
Liz: The backhand slice drop shot … when it works, it is a great feeling.
CR: What do you do for work?
Liz: I work in Product Marketing at Synopsys, a local software company.
CR: Any hobbies? What draws you to them?
Liz: Apart from tennis, I enjoy skiing, hiking and travel. I also like to scuba dive although it has been a few years since our last dive trip. I guess you could say I don’t like to sit still too long.
June Doubles Tournament Review Thanks to everyone who participated in the June Doubles Tournament. I think I can say that it was an unqualified success with- Great BBQ - Bing won in a very close contest to Mike and Dana - I couldn't call it...all the ribs were really excellent. Many thanks to the BBQ guys for providing such great food. Thanks to everyone who brought food for the pot-luck.
- Great tennis - We had almost 60 players and with the aid of no-ad scoring, super tie breaks and a great TD, we got it all done in a day! Thanks to everyone for cooperating.
- Great TD - Many, many thanks to Bob Dickerson for being a terrific Tournament Director and a fabulous BBQ organizer. Do it again next year, please?
- Great Day - A little cooler and breezier then usual for June, but it helped with everyone's stamina.
Kathy Wheeler Winners7.5 Men's: Pallaver/Puzon beat Banks/Catalli 1-6, 7-6, 10-7.Consolation: Chen/Yang beat Dateo/Swarnker 4-6, 7-5, 10-7.8.5 Men's: Kelkar/Lui beat Buzzell/Kureha 6-3, 5-7, 11-9.Consolation: Khoo/Lim beat Hathuc/Rodgers 7-6, 4-6, 10-8.6.5 Women's: Brand/Homan beat Rosenzweig/Von Michalofski 6-2, 6-1.Consolation: Bethke/Ryan beat Fujimoto/Mitiguy 6-2, 6-0.8.0 Women's: Ong/Puzon beat Lange/Sloss 6-0, 6-3.Consolation: Borton/Low beat Altemus/Morrissette 6-4, 6-4.Mike Rodgers played in the tourney, cooked up some great BBQ and still had time to snap some photos. He has graciously made them available to us in a private smugmug gallery MVTC BBQ Throwdown password : mvtc. Any of these photos can be downloaded in original 4MB jpg, when viewing the image, slide the cursor over the image and a list of options appears including a picture of a folder, which when clicked will enable a download dialog.
August Team Tennis Tournament Review This year's August team tournament closed its curtain on August 7th at Rengstorff park. Around seventy players registered and showed up in this fun event. They were grouped into 8 teams, four playing in the cool morning session and four in the hot sunny afternoon session.
Unlike previous years, it was a one day event in response to requests from many players. Although compacted, it proved to be very efficient and players had even more fun by playing as many as 6 rounds, each with 5 games and no ad scoring.
OK, no one denies this: no tournament is good if its food is lacking. We had a delicious lunch which provided players with enough energy but not too heavy for a 3-hour tennis session either before or after. Thanks Patsy Duke and Debbie Ryan and the 14 others who provided food!! But guess what? We might have ended up with eating a "cold" BBQ lunch if Carol Tolen hadn't diplomatically and bravely warded off the park police. Thank you to Doug Anderson and Karl Mellon for helping with delivery and set of propane tanks for the BBQ and many others who came early to set up.
Results? Match Pointers knew how to grab the most points and were the winning team in the morning. Even more impressively, the Karate Kids came up with new Kung Fu moves and hit a record high 77 points to beat all other teams in the afternoon. You guys deserve a can of Dunlops. Congratulations!
Look forward to seeing you in the next tournament!
Maojin (Michael) Jiang, Tournament Director
September Mixed Doubles Tournament
Date: September 18,, 2010 (one day tournament)
Time: 8:30am - 4:30pm (note: if draws are full, we may start at 8am)
Location: Rengstorff Tennis Courts
Entry Fee: MVTC members: $17; Non-members: $22
Entry Deadline: Wednesday, September 15th at 5pm (online)
Participants: Open to all adults
Levels: Mixed 8.0+, 7.0, 6.0
Tournament Director: George Koo
Food: Breakfast and lunch provided
Food Chair: TBD (need volunteer)
Team Tennis in August was a tremendous success and we're following it up with the club favorite tournament, Mixed Doubles. NorCal still thinks that Mixed should be played in January, but we know that September is the best month for outstanding Mixed competition.
Here's how MVTC runs it's tournaments: - Sign up as a team or individually (we'll try to get a partner for you) and non-members are welcome
- Main and Consolation rounds, so you'll play at least two matches (max of three)
- Continental breakfast and a delicious lunch at Noon!
Please specify if you wish to play "up" in the comments section of the sign-up form. If you have a doubles partner, please fill out the information for Partner 2 in the sign up form. If you need a partner, just indicate the rating desired for Partner 2.Signup here. The new fee for Rengstorff tennis court reservation by Club teams is $4.00 per hour per court. You will see this change in billing for all court requests beginning on September 1, 2010.
Current standings for the 2 Senior and 4 Combo league teams are below. It looks like at least 2 of the 6 teams will make playoffs.
Senior Women's 3.0 (Patsy Duke): 1-14 Senior Men's 4.0 (Killer Squirrels): 4-8 Combo Women's 6.5 (Carrie Fischer): 2-5 Combo Women's 7.5 (Dropshot Divas): 6-2 (3rd) Combo Men's 7.5 (Qiao Chen): 3-6 Combo Men's 8.5 (Chicken Taggers): 5-1 (1st)
Tennis and the World
Ellen Gilchrist’s story “In the Land of Dreamy Dreams” in the collection of the same name. A glorious comic tale of a tennis match between an aristocratic Southern belle and a country club newcomer. Full of insight into class wars, USTA match-type calls and gamesmanship. And the rest of the collection is top-flight as well. As are most of Ms. Gilchrist’s story collections like, for instance, Victory over Japan and Drunk with Love. (Recommended by Serena Williams’s haberdasher)
David Foster Wallace’s essay “tennis player’s Michael Joyce’s professional artistry as a paradigm of certain stuff about choice, freedom, limitation, joy, grotesquerie, and human completeness” in the collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. Long, lowercase (shades of ee cummings) title but a fun and wise read about an aspiring 22 year-old from Los Angeles trying to make it in the difficult world of championship tennis. Wallace himself was a very good young tennis player, who once played Jimmy Connors, and writes about that experience in another book. This piece about Michael Joyce is well worth your time because Wallace delivers on what it feels like to want to be the best and then discover how hard it is to get there. (Recommended by Andy Roddick’s chauffeur)
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