NEW YORK — A year after a professional tour was developed, Beach
Tennis USA is getting ready to hold its season-ending tournaments on
Long Island's Long Beach.
The East Coast location attracts local
tennis pros like Eduardo Gil, who was a pro in Mount Kisco for two
years and now lives in Brooklyn. Gil attended an event at Jones Beach
last month and really enjoyed the nouveau sport — a mix between tennis
and beach volleyball.
"It's a great excuse to go to the beach and get out of the city," Gil said.
The
goal for the last two years was to get regular folks to play beach
tennis — hence the open call before every tournament for anyone to play
a set. This year that venture bore fruit. There is a recreational
summer league in Long Beach so that people can give it a try during
vacations or as a weekly night on the sand.
"To us, that says we've kind of arrived," said Beach Tennis USA founder Marc Altheim, originally from Lake Success.
The
Northeast Regional Qualifier will be held on Long Beach Aug. 12-13, and
there will be free play from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., both days for all
comers. The Championship tournament is slated for the same spot on
Labor Day weekend. For all you tennis fans, that's a potential beach
break during the first weekend of the U.S. Open.
The Beach Tennis
USA headquarters are in Manhattan and it uses a Rockland-based
communications company, but the league has discovered this year that
the real market for the sport is on the beaches of California and
Florida. There, the courts can be used for much of the year and a
larger segment of people in the region are curious about the sport.
"They tend to be very fitness-conscious and open to new sports," Altheim said.
The
sport itself is played on a beach volleyball court, with tennis rackets
and a lightweight tennis ball. The net is higher, and scoring is
similar to tennis, but no-ad and with no second serve or lets.
The
prize money, befitting a start-up league, is low. Most of the sponsors
have been locally based, but Altheim has already set a schedule for
next year and is planning for the long term.
"We just need a few big sponsors to say, 'Let's go,'" Altheim said.
Heinz
Haas, a tennis pro who lives in Manhattan and won the Tribeca
tournament last year, is considering going on tour next year. There may
not be a lot of money in it now — the year-ending event last year paid
$15,000 — but Haas sees a sunny future here.
"If they get the sponsors, it could be like beach volleyball," Haas said. "Look at volleyball, and tennis has that potential."
Alex
Querna, the league's executive director, said that they usually get
about 1,000 people to try the sport at an average tour stop, and there
have been several high-profile supporters of the game.
Former ATP
Tour doubles player Murphy Jensen hosted one tournament, and former pro
volleyball player Sinjin Smith hosted another. The involvement of those
two highlights the appeal of beach tennis to both the traditional
tennis and beach volleyball demographics.
After a morning playing
beach tennis on a sand court at Chelsea Piers, all the players were
visibly taxed. Of the five players, four were tennis pros from the New
York area, and a few plan to play the Long Beach tournament.
"It is a workout," Gil said. "Are you kidding? The sand makes it hard."
