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n the late 1980’s, a group of tennis enthusiasts started playing tennis together at Cabin John Outdoor Tennis Courts in Potomac, Maryland, every morning except weekends. It was so named Cabin John Morning Tennis Club.
A majority of its members are retirees with the ages ranging from 50’s to 80’s. All of the members are males, except an occasional female participant.
They all play doubles. In order to eliminate a long wait, a match is based on two out of three games, not sets. They switch partners every match and employ a sun rule to serve only on one side of the court to avoid sun getting into the eyes. They play all year around outdoors, except during snow or rain or temperature below 17 degrees.
Three years ago, the number of members was in the twenties. However, about half of the members who were younger, came later in the morning and thought they were better players dropped out of the Club--nicknamed A-team. Currently, the number of regular members is in the teens.
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Tom:
Captain of the club. He comes every day
and is the most consistent player. He
holds a black belt in karate and teaches Tai chi during the weekends. He is soft-spoken and has never shown any
tempers at all, but runs very fast—second in this group. He has lived in the same house since in the
1950’s and still cut his own grass. No
wonder he is the captain of this social and health club.
·
Herb:
Umpire of the club. He officiates in
many tournaments. He never missed going
to the four grand-slams—Australia, Paris, Wimbledon, and New York. He brought
back goodies and pictures to show off.
He knows all the rules about tennis matches. Whenever there is a dispute, he is the person to resolve the
problem. He likes to play bare-chested
and specialized in sharp angled drop shots.
He also loves to pounce on short second serves with an under-spin chip.
During the summer and fall, he borrowed bodies to play in the senior’s circles. This caused a lot of headaches for the
Morning Club—empty courts on Thursdays.
A loan program will go into effect next year to require Herb to pay to
the Club for his role as a snakehead--$200 a head per day.
·
Herman:
Top seed of the group. His cannonball
serve is lethal with a style similar to John McEndoe. He developed a shot to aim the shots to the poles so that no one
can return his serve—pole shot. He is
one of the few to execute a beautiful heavy topspin to wear down
opponents. Recently he started to
develop moon-ball to further his “career.”
He usually carries a gas blower to clean up the courts before the
play. The court is so clean that the
players are required to take off their shoes to play, following a Japanese
custom. During the play, Herman loves
to couch his partner on live.
·
Don: The most improved player in 2002. His style is unorthodox--hits all of his
strokes with either a Eastern grip or whatever. It’s a wonder to see him execute some extra-ordinary shots. He comes late and leaves late. He also plays during the weekends in Olney
Manor Park. He can play tennis all day
long. Usually he continues to play with
A-team after the end of session with the Morning Club members—a so-called
defector. Rumor is that he does a
living as a talk show host to elders’ group (or WTOP radio station?) or as a
weatherman. He and his wife are the
advocates on disabilities.
·
John: He comes early and leaves early—an opposite
of Don. He has a lethal forehand,
smashes like a pro with a killer’s instinct—don’t let him hit you unless you
want to go the hospital. He treats his
doubles partner as if he is a football couch—yells at his partner on every
movement like “Go and kill it” (most of the time he was right). He has a little temper to add spices to this
group. He used to be slow in movement,
but recently he started to chase balls pretty good, runs perfectly, and won
most of the time—a fine model. Once in
a while, he brought his dog with him to improve his skills of playing tennis. Or so he said.
·
Murray:
He is a part-time medical administrator and is the fittest person in this
bunch. Look at his body—strong and lean
and no fats at all. He slices and spins
and chips every single ball to confuse his opponents—a spin-doctor. He used to call every ball out and now he calls
every ball in. He also plays soccer and
in the past sponsored some children’s soccer tournaments, with children coming
all the way from Japan. He also plays
ping-pong.
·
Lou: Speaker of the
House. He has a lethal weapon—a killer
forehand. He likes to talk and give
commands like a general. He is one of
the few who play with a good form —“image is everything.” He smashes beautifully, but resents
moon-balls—he thinks police should arrest those moonballers for being annoying
on the tennis court. Parts of the
winter he stays in Florida to play tennis to improve his skills and comes back
to beat up the rest of the guys. He is the fastest runner in this group, but he
is reluctant to run most of the time.
·
Chan:
King of the moon-ball or hill? He can
play moon-ball all day long without hitting out. He can also run and retrieve balls most of the time. He enjoys the most to play cat-and-mouse
with Captain Tom—refers to as Tom and Jerry team. For some reasons, people call him Chang, Chan, Chen, or some
un-believable names. Finally they
settled down to call him Chan, which is not his real name.
·
Ernie:
He doesn’t come very often. He has a
bizarre forehand and an wicked backhand
that confuses the opponents all the time. He lives somewhere in College Park or
Annapolis or Ocean City, Maryland—nobody knows. Last month he celebrated his 50th
wedding anniversary by coming to play tennis with the Club members. He looks to be in his 50’s and everybody
just wonders whether he married at the age of five.
·
Scott:
He is the only one in this group coming from Virginia. He has a very good form, probably better
than Lou, especially with his powerful smashes. He is tall and handsome, but a little shy—nobody could get hold
of his photograph.
·
Big
Ernie: He moves like a rabbit and
acts like a teenager. He is big and
tall and handsome, broad of shoulder and wide of chest, slender of waist and
fleet of foot. He jumps high in the
air, daring opponents to lob the ball over him. He loves serve-and-volley and bend the knees low to hit touch
volleys off his shoe tops—it’s beautiful to watch him to execute such textbook
fashion. He smiles all the time and everybody loves him. He enjoys repairing cars—he has owned a car
repair shop (or garage or whatever) since in the 1940’s, or whenever. He has been living in Washington area all
his life.
Others
who join this group include David, Harold, Haidee, Diana, Jerry, Johannes,
James, and Jack. The USTA ratings for
this group are between 3.5 and 4.0. They welcome anyone whose rating is 3.5 or above to join them. –December 30, 2002 q
