ANOTHER TOURNAMENT DESTROYED

By Charles E. Vasoll

It only took three sentences in the "SENIORpaddletalk" to destroy a couple of years of work on what was a new concept for a tournament that enabled the most senior of men still playing to have a couple of enjoyable days. I’m referring to the Senior 145’s.

When it was initially conceived, the idea was to provide an event that would enable the few men over 75 years of age to continue to compete in some form of tournament play with their peers. It was understood from the "get-go" that the number of entries would be small. After all there are not that many men of that age still playing our sport. Yet there are some and some of them are pretty damn good to boot.

To have an age group where both players had to be age 75+ seemed to be a real stretch so the 145 total was arrived at with the provision that the partner of the 75+ had to be 70+. Now all of that is history.

Under the new amendment, which will take effect for the 2004 event at the Fox Meadow Tennis Club in Scarsdale, "any combination of ages totaling 145 will be eligible". Thus, a 65-year-old is able to enter with an 80-year-old and, in a duplication of the 70+ championship; a man aged 73 can play with a man age 72. To all of this, all I can say is "Nuts!"

The excuse for this new arrangement is "to encourage participation". I ask, "encourage who?" The APTA already has a 70+ championship. Now those teams will have a second opportunity to compete because one tournament will be in Baltimore, MD and one in Scarsdale, NY. If that "encourages participation", all the tournaments should be played twice.

I don’t understand how the oldest men, those over 75, will be encouraged to participate. Suddenly they will be faced with playing opponents who are their juniors by maybe as much as ten years. That’s a lot, particularly at these ages.

So what have the APTA tournament gurus done? Despite their good intentions of "encouraging participation", they have stripped the most senior man of a golden opportunity to spend a day or two with their old friends and lowered the bar so that players who already have a competition must decide which event is most convenient to them.

There are times when a high number of entries should not be the goal. The 145+ championship is one of them. It’s "OK" to minimize the cost of prizes and favors. Let’s make the primary goal to have a good time.

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