Tennis: If it’s springtime, it must be tennis season

Richard Dunn

There’s something about the spring air that makes tennis more

seductive to the athletic bloodstream.

As baseball season and the NFL draft converge to declare April as the

epitome of new beginnings in sports, tennis finds its soul with the

longer, warmer days and gentle Newport Beach breezes that will cool off

the sweat during the opening of the United States Tennis Association

Spring League, hosted by several clubs throughout Orange County.

As one of the busiest tennis clubs in the county in terms of producing

competitive players, the Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach will have

members in every direction this weekend, from the USTA leagues to the

finals of the Private Tennis Club Association’s Orange County

Championships at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley.

“We’re pretty proud of the fact that we’re the only tennis club to send

representatives in all of the divisions,” Palisades owner/operator Ken

Stuart said of the PTCA Orange County Championships.

The event features men’s and women’s divisions from the 3.5 to 6.0 levels

in the National Tennis Rating Program. There will be only 10 divisions

contested this weekend, however, because the top two women’s categories,

the open (6.0) and 5.5, have no players beyond what Palisades is

bringing, Stuart said.

Welcome to the first serve of spring.

Palisades, designed as a club that attracts professionals, teaching pros

and top amateurs, swept through the PTCA Orange County Men’s Open League

last weekend, grabbing the top three spots in the six-team league.

Captain Eric Davidson and the club’s open division doubles team of Art

Hernandez and Carsten Hoffman led the way for Palisades. Hernandez and

Hoffman won the CHOC Tournament last fall, the annual Vic Braden event

benefiting Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

Paul Cross and Lido Isle teaching pro John Flagg are also among the

team’s top players, while Robin Walker, Matt Moore and Bill McQuaid

helped the squad finish 10-0 (in the January through March PTCA season).

Parker Collins (Corona del Mar High and USC) and Robert Van’t Hof,

Lindsay Davenport’s coach, are also on the roster.

The Palisades Club recently hired Irv Goldberg, the ambidextrous senior

player and former general manager at Newport Beach Tennis Club, as

Director of Sales and Player Liaison.

Cheers can often be heard coming from the Palisades bar and players’

lounge when club member Davenport is playing on television, especially if

it’s a tournament final or Grand Slam.

After Davenport won the title at Indian Wells, beating Martina Hingis in

the championship match on a Saturday afternoon in March, she said to the

desert crowd, “ ... and this one’s for you guys at the Palisades Club.”

The Newport Beach Tennis Club is hosting an Easter Week Tennis Camp from

9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday.

The Newport Beach staff, under the direction of veteran pro Dave Sherbeck

(Balboa Peninsula) and Danielle Brandlin, will be the instructors for the

five-day holiday camp, which is open to juniors between the ages of 6 and

16.

Lessons will include basic fundamentals, drills and court etiquette. A

mid-morning snack and lunch are provided daily, and prizes and T-shirts

will be awarded at week’s end. Details: (949) 644-0050.

Former CdM standout Mike Fedderly, who now lives in Palm Desert, won his

second USTA national men’s 40s grass-court title, capturing the singles

championship with a 7-5, 7-5 win against John Chatlak of Wheeling, W. Va.

Fedderly, who has also won titles at the Adoption Guild Tennis

Tournament, won a USTA doubles title last year with Paul Smith of Kansas

City, Mo.

The venerable Adoption Guild, a great tennis tradition in Newport Beach,

will keep player entries open until May 12.

This year’s 39th rendition of the Adoption Guild will be sanctioned for

the first time by the USTA and feature Roy Emerson, who lent his name in

support of one of the oldest continuous sporting events in Orange County.

The Adoption Guild started on one court at the Balboa Bay Club in 1962,

and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout the years for

Holy Family Services, a nonprofit organization providing counseling,

adoption and foster care services.

Newport Beach Tennis Club is the event’s host site, but matches will be

played at several clubs in the area.

The Adoption Guild is May 27-29 and June 3-4. The Palisades Club, BBC

Racquet Club and Racquet Club of Irvine are also hosting rounds.

Paramount Sports in Costa Mesa is giving away $200 gift certificates to

each winning team from 5.0 to 3.5. Details: (949) 760-8394.