By Scoop Malinowski
We resume the “First And Last Pro Matches” Feature with Former Rutgers University player Harry Cicma, who attained an ATP Tour World ranking on the professional circuit before becoming a Emmy Award winning TV news anchor and reporter for NBC and CBS.
First Pro Match: It was truly a dream come true to be in the main draw of the Newport ATP 250 event in my home state of Rhode Island (in 2002). I’ll never forget waking up at four in the morning with excitement and it was a beautiful July summer day in Rhode Island by the ocean. Before the match with my doubles partner Greg Schweitzer, we were just silent meditating in back of the stadium at Newport with nerves and excitement. The first set felt like a huge mountain to climb and it was clear that the ATP pro level was extremely competitive, and I felt like it would be impossible to tame my nerves. But I remember in the second set I dove for a ball on the grass and we ended up winning the point and the local hometown fans were getting loud and somehow our opponents, Gabriel Trifu and Glenn Weiner gave us a slight opening and it was one of the best sets of tennis in my life… We ended up losing 6-0, 6-4, we had a break point in the second set to serve for the set and I remember hitting one of the best volleys of my life right at Glenn and he poked it back for a winner, which was a reminder of how great ATP tennis is. It was definitely one of the most special days of my life and tennis career, and I’m grateful that I could experience it at home.
Last Pro Match: My final pro match was at Puerto Rico ITF Futures quarterfinals (2016). I was fortunate enough to have an amazing partner Evan King who is one of the greatest doubles players in the world, and also one of the best people. We won our first match convincingly, which was very emotional for me since I came out of retirement, and many people were expecting that we would get blown off the court so it was nice to be in the quarterfinals of the main draw. We played Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Quinton Vega. The first set was very competitive, and we had numerous opportunities to win the set and then the second was also world-class quality we ended up losing 7-5 6-4 and at that moment I realized that I really belonged because I had been in retirement for many years and made a comeback to make a point. We won our first round match and had a wonderful match against two solid ATP players and Thai-Son ended up being the NCAA Division 1 champion at Virginia. So it was a great experience, and one that I will cherish forever.
Here is the Harry Cicma Biofile interview
ATP · CBS · Harry Cicma · NBC · Newport · Rutgers University
