In This Issue:

Anniversary Tournament - July 12 Friday Night Social - July 17 Toluca Lake Interclub - July 18 Doubles Strategy Clinic - August 8 UCLA TENNIS TOURNAMENT - July 27 to August 2 Welcome New Members! Santa Monica Open

Friday Night Recaps Members Page Morgan Run Trip Recap USTA League Tennis Block Party Report LA Women's Tennis Championships: August 3-9

ANNIVERSARY TOURNAMENT, JULY 12 - REED PARK

The annual Anniversary Tournament will be held at Reed Park (Not Ocean View as previously indicated). The tournament will be a round-robin mixed doubles affair, with snacks and trophies. It would be preferable to have two divisions if there are enough entries. The cost of this tournament will be $25 per person and guests may also enter if you have someone you would like to play with.

If we do not receive enough entries, this event will be cancelled. Send your entry blank to Bill Nissley, 1122 Chelsea, Santa Monica, CA 90403 (whnissley@hotmail.com)

Click here for the entry form.

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FRIDAY NIGHT, JULY 17

Well, it is the third Friday of the month, so we are having "Fall of Bastille" social affair. As per usual, we only need twenty-four (twelve ladies and twelve gentlemen) to make this round-robin be competitive and enjoyable. We will continue to draw names/numbers for positions as this seems to work out the best. Please send your entries to: Marguerite Jorgensen 560 E Channel Rd, Santa Monica, CA 90402, along with your check for $12.

Click here for the entry form.

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TOLUCA LAKE INTERCLUB - JULY 18

We will have two rounds at their club, one @ 2:00 and one @ 3:30 - they have five courts available and at this time they plan on men's/ladies doubles first 4.0's and one 3.5 men's doubles first, then mixed at 3:30, finish by 5 o'clock. It still is tentative as we also have some 4.5's who want to play. A word of caution…they are very strong and we have not been winning any of the interclub events! So Ron Elmer, Interclub Director has asked that if you sign up, you have your partner already selected. Ron will choose the best teams to represent us at this event. The price for this interclub will be the usual $15. I will collect the entry fees, but as I stated earlier, Ron will select the teams. Send your entries and checks to Marguerite Jorgensen, 560 E Channel Rd., Santa Monica, CA 90402.

Click here for the entry form.

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DOUBLES STRATEGY CLINIC: August 8

Kris Jordan, from Mountain Gate, has agreed to coach a much need doubles clinic again. This will be held for two sessions of one and one-half hours each, beginning @ 9 o'clock for the first session and 11 o'clock for the second session. Sessions will be limited to sixteen people each session and will be held on two courts. The cost is minimal due to the fact that we received funds from the SCTA/USTA grant for this purpose, so it is $10 per person, per session. Please send your entry blank in as soon as possible...even if you do not think you need improvement on your game...you might learn a few tips about playing with a partner. Preference will be given to SMTC members, but if the classes are not full, other people will be invited to enter, with preference to USTA members.
Thanks - Marguerite

Click here for the entry form.

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FARMERS INSURANCE UCLA TENNIS TOURNAMENT: July 27th to August 2nd

We have been invited to join another group by buying tickets for Wednesday night, July 29th, so we can see the matches that night. Please let us know your interest as soon as possible - together with the other club if we could get 40 people it would only cost $30 per seat. You could ask anyone to buy tickets...they do not have to be SMTC members! Please send your check for $30 make out to Santa Monica Tennis Club to either the P. O. Box 2012 or my address: 560 E Channel Rd, Santa Monica, CA 90402.

Tournament website: www.latennisopen.com

Thanks - Marguerite

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Welcome New Members

• DuBovy, Jane  310-573-1430 - F - 3.5
• Goetze, Sandee  no phone at this time - F-3.0
• Hasan, Anvar "Andy"  310-948-3850 C -M - 4.0
• Hoffman, Carrel  310-434-1460 - F - 3.5
• Hoffman, Joel  818-422-7627 C -M - 3.5
• Holton, Thomas  310-403-3691 - M - 4.0
• Moberg, Markus  310-279-8487 -M - 3.5
• Robtblatt, Steven  310-279-8487 C - M - 3.5
• Shapiro, Barbara (Bebe)  310-396-3324 - F - 3.5
• Suchecki*, Paul  310-306-3324 - M - 3.5
• Vasquez, Ginger  310-488-8561 - F - 3.5

* returning member

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The 80th anniversary Santa Monica Open

This event will be sponsored by the city of Santa Monica and under the directorship of Bill Nissley, SMTC and The Tennis Patrons of Santa Monica. . The tournament, which features past winners such as Tracy Austin, Jack Kraemer, Billy Jean King (Moffit) with Pete Sampras unable to make the main draw for the men's open singles. Venus Williams played her first tournament ever here as a 10 and under, with her father promising love and love victories, which then occurred.

This year, events will be offered in open level play, NTRP play (5.5-3.5) and prize money will be awarded. The junior tournament will offer open. satellite and novice events. There will also be the senior events from 35 and over to 85 and over. Potential: over 200 different events! The tournament website is available here. Participants must be members of the USTA. To enter, you can go to http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/Schedule/Search.aspx and our tourney id# is 651765809 The adult events will take place over two weekends 8/30, 31 and Labor Day weekend. The juniors will run the week of 8/24-8/29. If you would like to help out at the very animated tournament desk, or any other capacity, please inform Bill Nissley, the tournament director at whnissley@hotmail.com.

Leave your name and address if you want an entry form or the entry blanks will be available at Reed by mid July. Bill Nissley, Tournament Director, 80th Anniversary Santa Monica Open Tennis Championships.

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Friday Night Recaps

May 15th - this "Despues Cinco de Mayo" Friday night social was a success (meaning we had twelve females and twelve males) thanks to guests, Diane and Dorian Dunbar and Barbara Klein. We also had three relatively new members, Karin Anderson, John Nave and Jane DuBovy who participated in this event. The lady winners were Katherine Spetner, with 28; second place was Carol Reston, with 26 games; followed closely by Karin Anderson, with 24 games; Shirley McClaine and Gwendolyn Coleman each had 23 games. The gentlemen winners were Jim Castagnola with 28 games, followed closely by Bob Shubert with 27 games, Keith Donahue and Cyrus Namini each had 26 games.

Some of the more hardy participants went on to El Cholo to celebrate/commiserate with each other!

June 12th - this "June Gloom" certainly turned out to be too true! Weather cooperated, however, there was a misunderstanding about someone playing or not, so one extra woman showed up! (MJ error) and then one male entrant did not show up and did not bother to call in the morning when he knew he would not be playing...so Marguerite took the male's place...big mistake! Oh well, it was still even numbers. Most of the ladies returned their sheets, with Carol Reston in first place with 28 games, followed by Kathy Reilly with 26 games, with three ladies showing 25 games won - Gwendolyn Coleman, Carrie Gold and Shirley McClaine. Very few gentlemen turned in their score sheets, however Rob Baumann did have 27 games, followed by Joe Thigpen with 23 games and Eric Rabinowitz had 18 games.

We did have some newer members join this evening social, Akiko Iida-Klein, Tony Floriano, Carrel and Joel Hoffman, and a returning member, Paul Suchecki. Nice of them to join in the club events.

Again, some of us went on up the street to El Cholo to continue socializing!

Please, please if you know that you have signed up and know that you cannot play, call me after you have received the email telling you that you have signed up!!! It is not fair to anyone for a no-show...if you do have a substitute available, please be sure they are of the same sex as you as these socials are set up for an equal number of men and women! Quite a few times, I do have "stand-ins" available. You are also liable for the entry fee since you did sign up!

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MEMBERS PAGE:

One of our few honorary members is Dodo Cheney, who has 382 national titles, with the last two coming from the 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90's National Hard Court championships at La Jolla Beach and Tennis club, when she won the singles and doubles in the 90's division! (From the July 2009 issue of Inside Tennis). She competed with ladies from all parts of the country. Great job.

Former member Jamil Tuoma is recovering from hip surgery and will be back with us again in a couple of months or so. He does come to the courts to see that we are still alive and well. David Morton is investigating what can be done about his knee and then he will be back also.

We have our own Facebook page - Santa Monica Tennis Club! Randy Chow is the editor - please no advertisements unless it is for tennis matches - send pictures, news, etc. Thank you, Randy! You are such an asset to the club...always trying to do things to help.

A new member, Sandee Goetz, is here from Oklahoma State University, for six months and she sent her membership in two months prior to arriving here July 1st. Let's make her feel welcome.

- Marguerite Jorgensen

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MORGAN RUN TRIP RECAP

Everyone was anxious for SMTC to have a trip away...most every one that is...until it was time to pay. However, sixteen brave SMTC members signed up, Marguerite recruited eight of her tennis friends outside of the club and the Trip Director, Joan Ello, formerly with The Tennis Players provided the rest of the recruits so that we had a total of 41 people - certainly the largest trip SMTC has had for quite some time. Joan Ello did an excellent job negotiating with the hotel so that we had executive rooms in the better of the two buildings. Twelve people took advantage of the Friday night arrangements. We even wound up with a new member, Tony Floriano! I must add the new pool and spa area was outstanding...even a nice new snack bar by the pool where you could buy food if you did not want to eat at the restaurant.

To my surprise on the way to Morgan Run Friday afternoon, I was told firmly that the interclub would be held on Saturday afternoon, when it had always been discussed as Sunday afternoon, when all of our guests for the trip would be there! Well, Murphy's Law prevailed...Peter Herman, Morgan Run, assisted in making the matches when we held the interclub on Saturday afternoon! Quite a few of the attendees that I thought would be a bit better competition did not arrive in time for the event. It was not a complete wipeout...we did manage to win some games...but not enough to even talk about. We did make a few friends that asked to come back and one is even going to come visit us in Santa Monica.

Cocktail parties with a variety of liquids were served, along with a variety of snacks were served both nights in Joan's room…it was very cozy…and plentiful.

Saturday night we went to a local restaurant, Fish Warehouse, which had room for almost thirty some of us (quite a feat) while some people went to dinner with other friends. Some people journeyed on after dinner to a local night spot where they displayed their vocal talents.

Sunday morning we had mix and match games with some of the Morgan Run folks and the prez set up the games...not to everyone's satisfaction, but to the majority of the nice people along on the trip. One of the highlights Sunday a.m. was a match with our Australian from Melbourne, Katherine Spetner; against Tom Zemer's wife (the local director of Morgan Run Tennis) from Sydney...it was quite noisy and very competitive! Five sets were played in the morning and three sets in the afternoon…at least most of the people did, so most everyone had enough tennis.

The dinner was in a private dining room so we could be as noisy as we wanted and it was outstanding as Joan had upgraded the food choices. The awards were handed out for the winners of Sunday's morning games (forget the interclub!). The afternoon games were not counted as the contingent had shrunk again. The two top ladies were Carol Reston in first place with 22 games and in second place was Mary Sunshine with 18 games. It was amazing that four men tied at 20 games each! Eric Rabinowitz, guests Charley Best, Larry Weiss and Art Naddour were the winners. Guest Ralph Downing ran a close fifth with 19 games. Fortunately, I had extra trophies as I had planned on trophies for the interclub.

Monday morning for more tennis, we went back to Santa Monica Club rules...you signed up and went out with the next three players…more or less. We were fortunate that again Joan Ello had worked her magic and check out time was three o'clock. Again, the majority of the guests expressed what a good time they had...and when was the next trip...well, who wants to volunteer? Joan Ello was in charge of the hotel and food and Marguerite was in charge of the tennis, with the help of Morgan Run staff on Saturday. Kudos to Joan for her donation of her time; the arrangements with Morgan Run facilities and for bringing the people to help make the trip a success.

- Marguerite

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SMTC OFFERS USTA ADULT LEAGUE TENNIS

SMTC Players Wanted ~ USTA Fall League Doubles

Get involved! Join a team and represent the SMTC at any level for the USTA Fall League Doubles season, running September 1st thru November 30th. Format: Three doubles matches with men and women playing on separate teams. District playoffs from December 4-6th at Whittier Narrows TC (El Monte). Sectional playoffs from Jan/Feb, tbd.

Interested in playing? Good! Drop an email with your desired level of team play to Diane Brooks at brooks@scta.usta.com. USTA informational meeting scheduled in August.

If you think tennis is not a team sport, then you haven't seen our Santa Monica Tennis Clubbers compete in USTA's Adult League Tennis this past spring season running from April-June. One men's and one women's team contended for the 3.5 level championships. USTA's spring format consists of 2 singles and 3 doubles. SoCal sectional championship advance to national championships.

While our teams somewhat struggled, we'll be back again next spring, more experienced as partners and more adept as veterans!

Contributing to the SMTC Men's team were Captain Karim Anani, Charles Crump, Randy Hill, Jim Castagnola, John Nave and Eric Rabinowitz.

Scrimmaging for the SMTC Women's team were Captain Diane Brooks, Nancy Greep, Barbara Osborn, Dina Crump, Mara Zaslove, Marguerite Jorgensen, Karin Anderson, Denise Ellyson, Carmen Grant, Carmella Greacen and Sue Moore.

Thanks to all players for a spirited, competitive fun season!

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BLOCK PARTY REPORT

Santa Monica Tennis Club was the host again this year for the Third Annual Block Party, with the city of Santa Monica, The Tennis Patrons, the USTA/SCTA, along with Santa Monica College Tennis Team, Head/Penn, and Prince Racquets. Due to last year being Leap Year, this year Sunday, the 17th was the same date as last year! Last year we competed with the unseasonably hot weather...who ever heard of Santa Monica being 93 degrees? Well, this year we had to compete with the Laker's final game for the western division championships! However, we did have 104 signatures, without the children's names and had active participants in the doubles' clinic, the cardio court and the "fast serve" contest. We were fortunate to have a long-time member, Richard McNally, to be the emcee again. Head/Penn representative, Will Collins, had Court #1 to display his products and demonstrate the equipment. We had a short demonstration of the brothers who had won the Dudley Cup this year, David and Daniel Nazreth...hope they continue to keep their enthusiasm for the sport. We also had an exhibition by Santa Monica College tennis team. The player's from Santa Monica College who played in the exhibition were: Natalie Kelley, #1 singles player for SMC in 2008 and currently attending Vanguard University; Kristyn Houchen, #1 singles player for SMC in 2003 and 2004 and currently attending Southwestern Law School where she will graduate in 2010 for those who are looking for a lawyer who can serve fast and I'm not just talking serving subpoenas. (Per Richard Goldenson)

We were also fortunate to have Neil Carrey, Vice Chair of Santa Monica Parks and Recreation Commission attend. Gene Desroshers is to be given great thanks for the cardio tennis demonstration; as well as Mike Nissley for the doubles strategy clinic. Greg Wikstrom again supported the Block Party by bringing his Prince products for demonstration and give away items for the younger generation. I want to mention that the committee this year composed of Danny Price, Community Service Supervisor, city of Santa Monica; Bill Nissley, SMTC and The Tennis Patrons; Diane Brooks, USTA Tennis Service representative, Gene Desroshers, Cardio Tennis and Richard Goldenson, Santa Monica College; as well as myself, had four meetings to arrange all of the events and coordinate the effort of every one. We also received a grant from the SCTA for $250 for publicity use for this event. SCTA also supported us by placing ads in the Santa Monica Daily Press.

We did have a "fast-serve" contest and SMTC furnished the speed gun…that only worked when Ron Dicostanzo, our USTA referee was holding it and acted as a target! We had a contribution of $50 given to be divided amongst the top winners, so the top male winner was Daniel Rangel, from Santa Monica College Tennis Team and the top female was Kristyn Houchen also from Santa Monica College Tennis Team.

SMTC furnished the water for everyone and our members supported the SMTC membership booth and the "set up" with the canopies, the balloons, the banners and the speaker system. A special thanks to: Ron Elmer and Randy Chow, for their early arrival to blow up the balloons and setting up the canopies and banners. Board Member Eric Rabinowitz was an assistant to everyone. Joe Thigpen, Terry Bernardi and Guy Masse' also assisted the setup. Klavdia Goldshteyn, Joanie Rippner, David King, Lucienne Aarsen, Mary Sunshine, Elsa Atayan and Keith Donahue helped with the membership booth and the signups. If I missed naming anyone, please accept my apologies. We also had two photographers, Randy Chow and David King who have supplied disks with pictures of the event.

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The hottest names in tennis come to L.A. this August!
Come Join the Santa Monica Tennis Club at the LA Women's Tennis Championships!

Where: Carson's Home Depot Center

When: Friday, August 7th @ 7:30 pm

What: We have been offered the opportunity to reserve a block of tickets for Friday nights singles and doubles sessions. This includes lower box seats for just $48 per person or reserved seats for only $32 per person. If we are able to purchase 25 or more group tickets we will be rewarded with access to take a group photo on the court before the match. Also, the SMTC member that sells the most tickets for this outing will receive an autographed Dinara Safina signed photo and two tickets for Sunday’s Final Match. If we sell more than 25 tickets, there is a possibility of more “perks”.

How to Get Tickets: Reserve your seats today by emailing Marg10s@earthlink.net who will collect the names and the money and send it in to get the tickets.

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