It All Happened At The Larry Turville Grand Prix National USTA Tournament

By Scoop Malinowski

Playing in the Raymond James Super Senior Larry Turville Grand Prix National USTA Level 2 Tournament at the St. Petersburg Tennis Center provided more thrills and excitement than I could have imagined.

In no particular order, there was a Grand Slam finalist working as a volunteer at the tournament assigning courts and times – Janet Newberry played the 1973 Wimbledon mixed doubles final with Raul Ramirez, losing to Billie Jean King and Owen Davidson. Newberry said King was the best player on the court in that final. Her route to her only slam final included a surprise walkover vs Ilie Nastase who left Wimbledon after losing singles and doubles. Newberry said she feared having to play Nastase in the QF because he would make fun of opponents with his antics. Relieved of that pressure, she won the semis and made the finals. She also beat Martina Navratilova at US Open 1976 when the legend was the 3 seed. How did she do it? Attacking her backhand, Martina couldn’t pass me under pressure that day. Newberry also won the Italian Open and was once no. 17 in the world.

Newberry just loves watching and talking about tennis and camaraderie of it all. Her husband Ralph, who played no. 1 at Yale, is a distinguished racquet sport figure too, he’s won national titles in three racquet sports – Court Tennis (7 national and 14 senior titles), Squash (21 national and 3 senior titles) and regular Tennis (5 senior national titles). Howe has authored a book “Brothers & Champions” – “the story of two brothers Sam and Ralph, who were racquet sport artists and warriors, a delightful look at a nearly forgotten time.” It’s available at Millenium Printing Company championsbookorders@mpc.com

A friend from NJ Glen Andersen came from the Florida East Coast to watch me and another Packanack Lake Tennis Club member Alan Hughes (70s doubles finalist) play and found a wonderful surprise – also competing at this Larry Turville tournament was someone he had not seen since 1979, an old Doane College teammate named Jim Concotelli. Doane, in Crete, Nebraska (also the home of Alpo Dog Food), had a total student enrollment of 700 but “we had an awesome small college tennis program due to the coach Robert Travenchek, was was a doctor with a practice in Wilbur, Nebraska. He used his personal funds to lure good tennis players to Doane. For a period of five years Doane defeated all of its conference opponents 9-0 in duel matches.” By the way, “Dr. Travenchek later took a job as a public health official in Mississippi and became a hero during hurricane Katrina. Dr. Trav was also regarded as the foremost bird expert in the Midwest.”

My playing experience was bittersweet – first round main draw loss to an Argentine machine who reached the semis and eventually lost 64 60 to the eventual champion Ken Thome. My first day at the tournament I asked the only guy there with me at the time to hit and it was Ken, who told me he was coached by Larry Turville at Rice University in the 1980s and he came to play the tournament from Miami to honor his coach Turville who passed away a few years ago. Thome is currently the Davis Cup captain for Costa Rica and has played in Davis Cup doubles with Juan Antonio Marin, who was ranked ATP 55 in 1999. Marin has singles wins over Gaudio, Puerta, Portas, Squillari, Agenor, Schuettler, El Aynaoui, Magnus Norman, Chang, Berasategui. Marin won his only title in Bstaad in 1999 and extended Pete Sampras to five sets at 1999 Roland Garros first round 76 46 57 76 (9) 46. So Thome was another level with his fine form and extra power, he won the final 61 61 vs Pascal Convers, who was once the top ranked French 16s junior and plays often with Richey Reneberg in Bethesda, MD. Thome looked unbeatable, perhaps inspired by the spirit of his old coach Turville. Convers was overwhelmed by the Thome’s arsenal, “I couldn’t do anything.”

I watched the 75s final on center court with ITF world no. 1 Michael Beautyman, a practicing lawyer, vs a Czech player. It went to a third set tiebreaker after three hours of grinding. After the second set ten minute break Beautyman sought the advice of Newberry, who I was sitting next to during the entire final. She said he was playing beautiful tennis but to bring the Czech to net more, he hated coming forward and looked awkward on short balls and drop shots. Also, to move his serve toss slightly forward. Beautyman was down 52 in the third but eventually prevailed 86 in the tiebreaker. The Czech was fist pumping, smiling and celebrating cockily with his 5-2 lead in the set but perhaps he was counting his chickens before they hatched.

The 70s champion Joachim Rasgado once beat Bjorn Borg at Orange Bowl. He said that win changed his career, instead of going to play tennis at a college in the north east, the Borg win got him into Miami University. Rasgado has a UM tattoo on his ankle. His game is fascinating, very smooth, ball control, extended follow through on slices, he’s like a surgeon out there. Glen Andersen said he’s inspired to try to imitate Rasgado’s form and how he gets very low with his legs for every ball.

Hearing Glen’s words also inspired me to try to play like Rasgado, stay low and emphasize follow throughs. And it worked, I won my first two backdraw matches 63 60 and 60 63 and then the backdraw final 75, opponent retired.

Another interesting match was in the 60s, a clash between two former Purdue University standouts who had not played each other in over 35 years. Randy Nistler and Adam Abele both starred at Purdue in the early 80s, Abele twice won the Big Ten singles title. But it was underdog Nistler who upset his old teammate, and as one onlooker noted, “Abele didn’t expect to lose this match.”

Another Herculean effort was Byron Smith making the semis in both singles and doubles of the 75s. His energies were so targeted on playing two events that he lost his phone on Sunday, but after some moments of uncertainty and exhibiting Borg like focus during the search, Byron eventually found the missing device lodged between his car seat and console.

The St. Petersburg Tennis Center is a historical monument, as so many greats have played there – Laver, Ashe, King, Chang, Courier, Agassi, Roddick, Newcombe, Chris Evert won her first pro title on court 16, the same court I played the backdraw final. The clubhouse also has a museum area showing its history.

Another cool story I heard was from 65s beast Jonathan Fears, who is a phenomenal athlete, always goes deep into the singles and doubles draws with his partner Kerry Clapper. With his old Head oversize Titanium with strings at 28 pounds, he made the finals in singles as usual. Rumors say his dad was a Hall of Fame football player named Tom Fears, who once coached the NFL Saints. Fears is about 6-4 and at 65 still has the fitness and agility that defies age. Despite always wearing surf trunks or a swimsuit and non tennis sneakers (“because they’re so light”) he looks almost like an NFL wide receiver or tight end playing unorthodox but still graceful, winning tennis.

Off the court he’s a great guy, friendly, engaging with a ton of good stories. He lives on an island in a town about an hour north of Orlando, Lady Lakes or something. He said he and his wife found a baby raccoon at their motel and decided to raise it. The raccoon became a great pet, but only because they raised it since it was a baby with it’s eyes closed. That’s the only time you can successfully raise a raccoon if you get it that early, otherwise their wild savage side takes over at a certain age. This baby raccoon was so friendly it would sleep with you and put his paws on you to make sure you didn’t move or get up. But this amazing little raccoon met a disastrous fate a few weeks ago, one night it disappeared, the unfortunate victim of an alligator attack in the lake. Fears said he cried for a week.

A friend years ago had a baby raccoon at her house and it was extremely friendly and needy of affection but she warned that at a certain age, the raccoon’s instincts take over and if you have food in your hand, it could bite your finger off. That’s why it’s so important to raise a raccoon from the earliest possible age, to become a good pet. Sorry if this sounds like raccoon-prose.com but I thought it’s a good story to share… You never know what you’re gonna learn at a tennis tournament, from being around so many accomplished, intelligent, experienced people of diverse backgrounds…

ITF · Janet Newberry · St. Petersburg Tennis Center · USTA

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