Volume 6, Issue 2 USTA Eastern Long Island

June 2017 On The Ball: News From LI Celebrating Long Island Tennis

More than 300 local Dinner Sponsors. Coming Soon tennis players along Thank you to everyone with their friends and who joined the fun and 7/17 USTA LI Nas- families celebrated their celebration. Looking sau County Kids’ own at the 27th Annual forward to next year’s Day (rain date 7/24) USTA Eastern Long Is- event! land Region Awards 7/16 High School Dinner held on May 3rd. Recognition Night at NY Empire WTT Awards were given in categories includ- 7/22 Long Island ing Prestigious and Tennis Magazine Excellence, USTA Leagues going to Challenge Nationals, high school champions, 8/3 USTA LI Suf- and junior and adult folk County Kids’ rankings. Day (rain date 8/8) 8/26 Arthur Ashe All photos from the Kids’ Day Awards Dinner are now online at www.longisland.usta. com (click on Photo Gallery). Photos are ar- ranged by Cocktail Hour, Dinner and Awardees. Please en- joy them and feel free to download and print your favorites.

The Awards Dinner visit us at would not have been www. possible without the longisland. support of all the or- usta.com ganizations that pro- for details on all vided sponsorships. Please see page 2 for events a complete list of our 27th Annual Awards On The Ball: News from LI Page 2 Please Support Our Sponsors

Stahl Eye Associates, Awards Ceremony Sponsor

Katzman Orthopedics, Cocktail Hour Sponsor

Sanders, Sanders, Block, Woycik, Viener & Grossman, P.C., Gold Sponsor

Christopher Morley Tennis, Bronze Sponsor

Action Sports Medicine, Bronze Sponsor

Park Avenue Tennis, 55-inch TV Sponsor

Bethpage Park Tennis Center, iPad Sponsor

Bijou Goddess Collection, Special Raffle Prize Sponsor

Angel Tips Salon & Spa (Glen Nutrition Solutions Head) Old Bethpage Equestrian Center A Little Bit of This Periwinkle Boutique Beautycounter Cosmetics Rande’s Vision Shopping Therapy Calling AllBob Coburn Volunteers Robbie Wagner’s Tournament Training Center Carefree Racquet Club Skurnick Wines Casual 2 Dressy Boutique Stella and Dot Central Park Tennis Center Stony Brook University Ten- Cunningham Tennis nis Team Dr. Daniel Hutt Sportime Elite TrainingPro Stroller Strides GF Sports The Grassmere Inn/ Grand Slam Tennis Westhampton Beach Tennis Heartful of Beads Tennis-N-Training, LLC. Klee, Woolf, Goldman & Filpi, Three Village Tennis Club LLP Total Tennis Kimera Salon USTA Eastern Let’s Bag It Vito’s of Glen Cove Long Beach Tennis Center Ristorante & Pizzeria Madison Salon World Gym Racquet & Nassau Indoor Tennis Sports Arena

On The Ball: News from LI

Page 3 Boys’ High School Season Recap USTA Long Island Executive Cup Launches

Long Island Executive ers were: Cup Tourney Solomon (1), Peter Siozios, The First-Ever Long Island New USTA Boy’s High School Hyde Executive Cup event pitted Park (2) Syosset and Half Hollow and Ra- Hills East in a Nassau vs. jon Suffolk tournament held at Vohra, North Shore (3). The the Hamlet Golf & Country top three doubles finishers Club in Commack. Syosset were: Grossman & Rajpal won a very competitive Syosset HS, winner of the Inaugural (1), Khazam & Song (2) match, defeating Hills East Long Island USTA Executive Cup and Patrick Bodovitz & Tim 6-1. Nacca, Garden City (3). The Executive Cup was first Jack Flores of Huntington proposed by former USTA three doubles courts. ents to Wake Forest Univer- won the Suffolk Singles LI Region President Daniel sity in the fall. LI-ers also championship, defeating Burgess for the 2016 Boys’ USTA LI President Jona- won third and fourth place Jackson Weisbrot of Half season. It ultimately than Klee presented awards in doubles at States, with Hollow Hills West; Abhinav launched during the 2016 to all the players on behalf Syosset’s Preet Rajpal & Eli Srivastava (Hills East) won Girls’ season, with Friends of the LI Region. “The Grossman defeating Rosly- 3rd place. In doubles play, Academy defeating Com- USTA was proud to sponsor n’s Sangjin Song & Zachary Tyler Nierman & Cameron mack. It will transition into and be a bridge for renew- Khazzam. Klepper (Hills West) defeat- a Long Island High School ing a Long Island High ed Nick Gajda & Alex Ama- Championship starting in School Championship in The USTA LI Regional dio (Smithtown West) to the 2017-18 school year, 2018. Our Board would like Board presented sweat- win the championship. Dan using the following rules/ to thank all the school offi- shirts to each LI competitor Tocco & Riley Smith (West- guidelines: when played in cials, coaches and players at the State championships, hampton) won 3rd place. Nassau County, the struc- for participating in such a which took place at the BJK ture will be three singles great event,” he said. National Tennis Center in The top three finishers at courts and four doubles. Flushing. Singles and Doubles for When played in Suffolk, it NYS Championships each County all competed at will be four singles and Counties: Individuals States Plainview JFK’s Yuval Yuval Solomon won his Counties: Teams Solomon ac- third straight Nassau Coun- complished Syosset defeated Roslyn to ty singles championship, win its third straight Nas- something accomplishing a feat un- very few be- sau County Championship, matched since the 1960s. while Half Hollow Hills fore him have Syosset’s Eli Grossman & Nassau County competitors at NY done — he East defeated its crosstown Preet Rajpal won the dou- rival Half Hollow Hills West State Championships won back-to- bles crown. back NY to become the Suffolk State Singles According to Mike Pavlides, champions. Champion- USTA LI High School Rep., ships. Solo- the last time any boy won mon, who the Nassau singles title was also Nas- three straight years goes sau County back to 1963-65 when Peter Singles Fishbach won it playing for Suffolk County competitors at NY champ, will Great Neck North. State Championships take his tal- The top three singles play- On The Ball: News from LI

Page 4

NYS Grants Available USTA Leagues

Empire State Development (ESD) Mixed Teams, Solid Results offers grants that may be perfect for your Three Long Island USTA League 18-and-over Mixed tennis program! teams won their Eastern Sectional Championships and will move on to Nationals. They are: ESD covers up to 20% of the cost of projects that create or retain 7.0 team from Syosset, Captain Dawn Schosberg jobs, generate 8.0 team from Carefree, Captain Dan Burgess, Jr. increased economic 9.0 team from Deer Park, Captain Roz Chua activity and improve the economic and social viability and In addition, Christopher Morley’s 6.0 team captained by Darlene So- vitality of local tomayor won third place in its division. communities. Tennis 7.0 Congratulations to all and good luck to all at clubs accomplish all of Nationals! these goals and add to the economic fabric of their communities.

Funding can be used for purchase or lease of land, buildings, 8.0 machinery and/or equipment; acquisition of existing business and/or 9.0 assets; demolition and environmental remediation; new construction or 65+ League Team Goes to Na- New Senior Men’s and Wom- renovation and more. tionals en’s Leagues Forming

This funding can also USTA Leagues has added be used to promote The Wecksler and Molloy 65-and-Over Men's and Women’s 65 and tourism and USTA League team may not have won at over 8.0 divisions on Long marketing of a tennis Nationals, but the women all had a great Island. event. For more experience competing. The members of information on ESD the Sportime Lynbrook team, co- These divisions will play grants, please visit: captained by Leslie Wecksler and Pat their matches on weekends https://esd.ny.gov/ Molloy, are Rose Staselis, Mary Jo Cecil, during the day to avoid the evening match businessprograms/ Julia Berkowitz, Nancy Rosenthal, Eve- times used by most adult leagues. In order econdevpurposesgrant lyn Morales, Cathy Caldwell, Sue Dales- for a team to be included in the schedule for s.html sandro and Jane Muller. the upcoming season, a minimum number of eight players is required. Players/teams can register by clicking here. On the top toolbar, click on "Tennislink," then on "Leagues," then click on "Register for a team." The registration number is 1003231941. For further information on participating, please contact Allan Silver- steen at (516) 551-4319 or Ken Luba at (516) 672-0852. On The Ball: News from LI

Page 5

Tennis Great Shares Doubles Tips

Tennis great Gigi Fernandez spent the day on Long Island on May 3rd, sharing her doubles tips with participants at a special clinic at Robbie Wagner’s Tournament Training Center in Glen Cove and joining participants at the 27th Annual USTA LI Region Awards Dinner.

A tennis Hall of Fame member who is recognized as one of the best doubles players of all time, Gigi won two Olympic Gold Medals and an astounding 71 titles on the WTA tour including two singles, 52 doubles and 17 Grand Slam doubles titles. She re- cently was named coach of the New York Empire of World Team Tennis. To purchase tickets for NY Empire matches, please visit www.nyempiretennis.com.

Junior Team Tennis Heats Up Win- Memphis Open Makes the Move to LI ter Season

World Gym Setauket’s juniors dominated the 2017 Winter The Memphis Open Junior Team Tennis LI Regional Championships in May, will move to the Nas- with three teams of their teams moving on to play at their sau Coliseum in 2018, respective Eastern Sectional Championships. World Gym’s bringing professional teams won both 14U and 18U play; its 12U team also will tennis to Long Island represent LI at Sectionals. for the first time in 14 years. The event, The 14U regional championship was held Eastern Athletic which will now be Blue Point while the 18U was played at Robbie Wagner’s known as the New Tournament Training Center in Glen Cove. The USTA Long York Open, is part of the ATP Tour and will be played from Island Regional Board provided t-shirts for all players. February 10-18. Organizers are GF Sports and Brooklyn Match play was round robin format with the winning teams Sports & Entertainment, operator of the Nassau Coliseum. determined by the most games won during the event. Win- ning teams in the 10’s,12’s,14’s and 18's divisions will play at The event’s organizers will be looking for local volunteers to Eastern Sectionals in June at Schenectady’s Central Park. help during the weeklong event. Check the USTA LI web site (www.longisland.usta.com) and Facebook page (USTA Long The Long Island Junior Team Tennis program offers sum- Island) for information on how to apply to be a volunteer. mer and winter league play. For information about 10U Green Dot and Orange Ball leagues, please contact Suffolk The Memphis Open, established in 1976, is one of the long- County League Coordinator Tito Perez or Nassau County est-standing tournaments on the ATP Tour and is the only League Coordinator Daniel Burgess. To learn more about ATP indoor tournament played in the United States. It will Junior Team Tennis, or to start or join a team, contact Coor- be the first sanctioned tennis tournament ever at Nassau dinator Steve Abbondondelo. Coliseum. GF Sports Holdings, LLC owns and operates live events and sports media entertainment platform. It owns and operates tennis tournaments, the BNP Paribas Show- down tennis exhibition at Madison Square Garden, and the Halloween on Ice skating tour.

Around the Region… junior tennis les- nis player Justin sons at the 12th Suzzan The Mac- Annual Rob- launched Serve Arthur HS bie’s Run, a 5K to Serve, a ten- girls’ ten- race and commu- nis outreach nis team nity event raising program for hosted its money for two children, with first Aces key programs: support from for Autism placing automated external defib- Port Washington HS Phys Ed clinic. The Lady Generals held a rillators (AED) locations where teacher and tennis coach Shane tennis clinic for a dozen students children play sports and providing Helfner. At its first event of five, in MacArthur's Applied Behavior AED and CPR training for adults about 50 participants from the Analysis program. The team also and kids… Dick Zausner, longtime Port Washington elementary raised $450 for MacArthur's Au- owner and opera- schools came to learn tennis from tism Awareness program… Rob- tor of the Port volunteers. The USTA Eastern bie Wagner's After-School Washington Ten- Long Island loaned the group Tennis Enrichment Program nis Academy, was equipment to use for the program ended its Spring inducted into the along with lots of giveaways… season with all USTA Eastern participants re- Hall of Fame. ceiving certifi- Joining him at cates, water bot- the celebration were USTA LI tles and beach Board Members Scott Axler, Dan- balls. Robbie’s iel Burgess and Sunny Fishkind… also completed a program with the USTA LI Board Members Jona- Boys & Girls Club of Glen Cove… than Klee and Tito Perez met with USTA volunteers including tennis USTA President Katrina Adams at pros and members of the JFK the USTA National Board (Bellmore) HS tennis team gave Meeting in Orlando… Junior ten-

USTA Eastern Long Island

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On The Ball: News From LI is published quarterly by the USTA Eastern Long Visit us on the web at: Island Region. Written and produced by Jacki Binder. Edited by Michael Pavlides. www.longisland.usta.com Founded by Daniel Burgess.