Passing Shots
The Cupertino Tennis
Club Newsletter
December 2009
Volume 3, Issue 3
My Spin on Things by Marilee Adams, Pres.
Well, it has been quite a year for the tennis club and the Sports Center. After a long year of construction, with many hassles for booking court time, we are now playing on newly surfaced courts under the brand new bright lighting. We would like to thank the City of Cupertino doing such a great job and all of you for your patience and support during the construction. I hope you are as excited as I am to be playing at one of the best tennis facilities in Silicon Valley. The next long-term project that we are working on with the City of Cupertino is the lights on the other side of the Sports Center, but no worries, this is several years out due to budget constraints.
Membership is at an all time high; we have over 440 members this year, with over 120 new members to the tennis club. Of those 440 members, over 90 percent of the members of the Cupertino Tennis Club (CTC) played on a USTA team, giving us a record of over 68 USTA teams in 2009 compared to 58 in 2008. As a result of the increase in membership, we have had to cap the number of USTA teams and institute new policies this year like the pre-registration process.
We are now into December and the Tennis Club will hold its annual general membership meeting on Sunday, December 13 at the Cupertino Hills Swim and Racquet Club, 22090 Rae Lane, in the clubhouse. We will have an informal tennis social at 3:00 pm. We cannot reserve courts, but there are usually courts available so I hope you can come to have a little fun before the meeting. The general meeting will begin at 5:30 PM Pizza and drinks will be served. It is at this meeting that the CTC Board will be elected. *
Wishing you a happy holiday and look forward to seeing on the courts in 2010.
Marilee Adams
President CTC
REMEMBER - EVERY VOTE COUNTS!
Elections for next year’s officers will take place at the CTC Annual Meeting, Sunday, December 13 at the Cupertino Hills Swim and Racquet Club at 5:30 PM The candidates up for election are:
President – Marilee Adams ******* Vice President – Cosie Sasaki
Secretary – Emi Kamamoto **** Treasurer – Snyeska Bendis
Membership – Mary Holland ****Webmaster – Mike Wilkens
USTA Coordinator – Grace Haig - Susan Hollis
Social Coordinator – Rachel Cheung
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!
As I watched Melanie Oudin break from obscurity into a star this summer, I was impressed with the simplicity with which she plays. While only 17 years old, she has learned that competing for every point and believing that she belongs is the key to tennis success. So often, even the well-meaning commentators are quick to dismiss a young player since he/she “doesn’t have enough experience” to come through on the big stage.
Don’t listen to them… every player has to believe in their own ability well before they win important matches. As you work to improve your game, listen a little less to the commentators and learn a little bit from America’s rising star. Compete for every shot, every point and every game and who knows…. Maybe you’ll start beating some players people thought you never could.
Tennis Students of the Month
Nicholas and Chrissy Hu
Nicholas and Chrissy Hu are no ordinary brother/sister talents. Under the tutelage of Tennis Director, Dana Bargas, each is raising the bar for tennis performance in their respective divisions.
Despite competing against boys 2+ years older than himself, Nicholas complied a 20-0 singles record at Palo Alto High School and has earned a #2 singles and #2 doubles ranking in the 16’s. He has won 7 out of 8 recent doubles events, including the Northern California Sectionals.
Chrissy Hu is an All-American sophomore at the University of Chicago. She became the first woman in her school’s history to win a singles and doubles NCAA championship!
Make sure to congratulate JENNIE SHEM on reaching her 10th Anniversary with Lifetime Tennis!
2009 has been a year of explosive membership growth for our club. We currently have a record 436 members with 124 new members joining in 2009. As we recently announced, the membership roster is now viewable on the Cupertino Tennis Club website, www.cupertinotennisclub.org.
As an improvement for 2010, we are working hard to provide members the option of filling in their annual membership application via the web instead of having to fill out a form by hand. This should greatly minimize errors in our membership roster. We are not sure when this capability will be available but we will keep you informed.
Two points of importance to remember:
1. ALL CTC memberships are due in January 2010.
2. You must be a 2010 CTC member to play on a USTA team.
Have a great holiday
season,
Danny
FREE GIFTS, Prizes, Games, Body Fat Testing and more!
Join the raffle at 11:00 am for a chance to win a FREE Membership!
!! NEW!!
Current Cupertino Sports Center members will be able to renew for $299 from 12/8 – 1/8.
The Cupertino Tennis Club Fifty Mixed 7.0B, captained by Susan Hollis, won their way into the Sectional Championships this year. The regular season ended with an impressive 7 wins and 1 loss.
Next was the play-off against Los Gatos Swim & Racquet A. CTC 7.0B moved ahead to the Sectional Championship by beating them 2-1.
Competing in Flight #3 at the Sectionals, they gave their opponents stiff competition, winning against Sharon Heights CC 7.0A 2-1, barely losing to Gilroy Tennis Club 1-2, and lastly, losing 0-3 to the eventual winners of the Sectionals Championship, Bay Trees PK 7.0A.
Everyone who played agreed that it was good fun and a great experience.
Thanks to Brant Armstrong, Nebojsa Avdalovic, Harold Barclay, Danny Castellano, Belinda Chung, Paula Cunningham, Bill Fox, Susan Hollis, John Kaveny, Liz Kung, Leo Levinson, Albert Mirko, Anne Neeter, Cindy Ng, Ronnie Ostrow, Mark Robinson, Kathy Wheeler and Kweiping Wong for such as successful season.
If you are looking for BOX SEAT tickets, including premier parking, for the SAP Open, email Diane Detig at dianedetig@yahoo.com for details.
The Professional Men's Tennis Tournament is coming to San Jose (February 8-14, 2010). Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Tommy Haas, Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey and the Bryan Brother's have all committed to play. Lifetime Tennis will have the very best Lower Sideline tickets for the entire week's feature matches. All tickets will be sold thru the Lifetime Tennis pro shops (Cupertino, Pleasanton and possibly Walnut Creek) at face value. There will be no surcharge or other fees.
Here is a schedule of the matches and the available tickets for sale:
Monday, February 8th at 7:00 PM - Pete Sampras exhibition, followed by another featured match (50 tickets)
Tuesday, February 9th at 7:00 PM - Lleyton Hewitt singles match, followed by Tommy Haas singles match, followed by the Bryan Brothers doubles match (50 tickets)
Wednesday, February 10th at 7:00 pm - Andy Roddick singles match, followed by another main draw (TBD) singles match (50 tickets)
Thursday, February 11th at 7:00 pm - Matches TBD (50 tickets)
Friday, February 12th at 7:00 pm - Matches TBD (50 tickets)
Saturday, February 13th at 1:00 pm - Matches TBD (200 tickets)
Saturday, February 13th at 7:00 pm - Matches TBD (50 tickets)
Sunday, February 14th at 1:00 pm - Matches TBD (50 tickets)
Who Said There Was No Free Ride?
Lifetime Tennis will provide FREE bus transportation to and from the HP Pavilion for the 1st 45 interested ticket purchasers for the Saturday, February 13th matches at 1pm. Buses will be provided for each Lifetime Tennis location and will pick up all passengers at the tennis center parking lot 60-90 minutes prior to match time. Seats for all matches will go on sale Tuesday, December 1st, with ticket distribution occurring in mid January.
Lifetime Tennis is planning to sell more than 500 tickets to this year's SAP Open. Since the event fell short of budget in 2008, we want increase our efforts to further support this world-class tournament. So, we're holding a contest between each of our tennis locations.
The location/facility that buys the most tickets to the SAP Open will earn a very special opportunity! All ticket buyers will be entered into a once in a lifetime raffle. And one lucky person will win...
Two 1st Row Floor Tickets to Saturday's 1pm Matches (these are autograph seats)
PLUS
A Chance to Conduct the On- Court Pre-Match Coin Flip (pending 500 total ticket sales)
Note: Seats for all matches will go on sale Tuesday, December 1st, with ticket distribution occurring in mid January.
QUESTION #1: When serving, am I allowed to move my feet?
RESPONSE: Yes and no. The rules want to prevent someone from “changing position by walking or running”. There are several definitions of what is okay and what is not. The easier one to understand and to enforce is the following: when starting the serving motion, the feet must be at rest. Then, the player can only move each foot once. A foot fault can only be called if the player changed position. Small steps “in place” would not be considered a foot fault.
Question #2: What to do when two partners disagree on a call?
RESPONSE: Let’s be specific. A player calls a ball out and his/her partner corrects the call to “in”. A common misconception is to assume that the team then loses the point. If the ball is returned into in play, then this is a let.
QUESTION #3: At what time is it okay to touch the net?
RESPONSE: Anyone who touches the net while the ball is “live” loses the point. The ball is “live” until it bounces a second time.
The above definition is sometimes extended to include the following situation: if a ball lands in an area far enough away from the opponent(s) so that he/she would have no chance to get it, one can claim that the point ended after the first bounce.
Since there is no easy way to prove that there was no way to get to the ball, it’s easier to use the second bounce as a time reference. Still, I saw that situation on TV during a Pro match and the chair umpire decided to use the first bounce as a time reference. Needless to say, the player exploded and claimed that he was going to get to the ball!
QUESTION #4: In doubles, when a player receives from the wrong side, what to do?
RESPONSE: If one team happens to reverse their left/right receiving lineup and this is discovered in the middle of the game, the players finish that game with the new lineup, However, they should resume their original lineup in all receiving games for the rest of that set.
Remember that it’s called the Game of Tennis so have fun playing it!
Jean Hassoun
USTA NorCal
2008 Referee of the Year
About this column: This is your opportunity to ask questions about rules and/or court situations and get reliable, up-to-date answers. Please send your questions to Rules@Cupertinotennisclub.org.
Helpful NorCal Websites
Norcal provides many helpful tools for USTA players. Here are a few of them.
* What teams are playing at the Sports Center? If you want to see all the current teams we have go to http://www.ustanorcal.com/organization.asp?id=113. From there, you can click on Click here for past seasons on the right side of the page to see all our teams since 1998.
* What matches are scheduled in the future? This site shows all the matches scheduled for our teams.
http://www.ustanorcal.com/schedules.asp?d=09/28/2009&f=113&l=742.
You can also get there by clicking on Click here for All Schedules on the left hand side of the page that lists all our teams. Captains can find this useful for planning for playoffs and/or reschedules.
* Who have I played and how did I do? Want to see all the people you've played against since 1998? Just go to your own player page and click on Filter matches by opponents just below your player information. All your opponents since they started tracking results on the web are listed and you can select any (or all) to see the results.
2009 Year End Summary
36 Captains ran our 68 teams. That's 17 more teams than we fielded in 2008 - a 33% increase. Twenty teams qualified for the local league playoffs. Eight teams advanced beyond the local league playoffs. Three teams participated in the NorCal Sectional championships.
397 individual CTC members participated on our USTA teams in 2009.
A SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OF OUR CTC 2009 CAPTAINS!
Debbie Argabright, Nebojsa Avdalovic, Linda Bailey, Mark Bailey, George Bassi, Jack Benkual, Simon Brafman, Julie Brittis, Joseph Chan, Tom Chan, Linda Chen, Lili DeDiemar, Diane Detig, Susan Hollis, Irwin Horowitz, Bill Kahng, EMI Kawamoto, Sharada Labadie, Ron Lee, Anne Leung-Stevens, Bob McCord, Anne Neeter, Irene Nishimoto, Sookok Oh, Roger Okamoto, Nancy Pizzo, John Sperinde, Lynn Stark, Joe Stevens, Shannon Thwaite, Fred Tierney, Kathy Wheeler, Susan Williams, John Wong, Eunice Yan and Ray Yan.
Our First CTC Senior Women’s 3.0 Team Competes…In the PALM DESERT SENIOR CUP! By Mary Whittaker
The Cupertino Sport Center’s Senior Women’s 3.0 tennis team, captained by Debbie Argabright, was one of four CSC teams who participated in the Palm Desert Senior Cup held March 23-26 in Palm Desert, CA.
For the past 16 years, teams from around the country and even as far away as Australia, have traveled to Palm Desert to compete in this senior tournament. This was the first year a W3.0 team from the CSC had participated. There were over sixty teams competing, seven representing the women’s 3.0 level.
Early in the tournament week, Debbie’s team hosted a dinner party for the other CSC teams competing in the Senior Cup. This was the perfect opportunity to meet and greet their fellow CSC members. “We rented a spacious house on the Bermuda Dunes golf course for our weeks’ stay so it was the perfect place to relax and have some fun with our Cupertino friends” said Debbie.
Two players on her team sustained injuries early on and actually came home on crutches. “This happened during the first 2 days of the tournament, and was really unfortunate” explained Debbie, “so after that we were just happy to have enough players to keep going.” Debbie’s CSC W3.0 team ended their regular USTA season in first place in the Lower Peninsula flight with 11 wins, 5 losses qualifying them for district playoffs in Sacramento the weekend of April 17th. “We didn’t have the wins at districts to advance to sectionals, but our team is still relatively “young” as most team members have only been playing on a USTA team for a few years” said Debbie. “We look forward to next year’s competition!”
The Cupertino Super senior 60 team, captained by George Bassi, won the local league playoffs, first by defeating The Villages 2 and 1. In the second
round, we defeated Gilroy 2 and 1, earning the right to compete at the Sectionals held on the last weekend in October at the Carmel Valley Ranch
and at the Pebble Beach Tennis Club. Friday, at Carmel Valley Ranch, we played Orange Park from the S.F. Bay Area, winning 2 and 1. Saturday, the
first match was at the Pebble Beach location where we played the Sunnyvale Tennis Club, winning 3 and 0. So back to Carmel Valley for the afternoon match. At Carmel Valley Ranch we played Sierra Point from the Fresno area. They were also undefeated, so the winner of this match would play the winner of the other flight on Sunday to determine who goes to the Nationals. Unfortunately we came up a little short, losing 1 and 2, so we wound up second in our flight.
I congratulate our players. We did well and we beat some tough teams along the way. I was proud to captain such a fine team.
George Bassi
Many long-time CTC members will remember Norm Loop, tennis player and husband of Jo An for 54 years. This kind and thoughtful man died a short time ago of Alzheimer’s disease in Auburn, California, where he and Jo An built a house in 1997. He was 76 years old.
In 1990 his CTC team took 3rd place at the USTA National Championships. He also played on tennis teams in Sunnyvale and Los Altos, and was a member of Kona Kai for many years. In Roseville he played tennis at Sierra View Country Club when his golf schedule permitted.
He leaves behind five daughters, 14 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, as well as hundreds of friends who were fortunate enough to enjoy his company.
Candace Danielson