News

The Mens Pro League 2010-11

The Men's Pro League has started another promising year. Forty of our strongest area players love to battle it out on Friday nights from September thru March. You can find them at a different club each week and the prize money goes to the top three teams. This year the matches are held at Western Tennis & Fitness Club, The Club at Harper's Point, Queen City Racquet & Fitness Club, Five Seasons KY and South Regency Fitness Center.

The League also donates a portion of its prize money each year to benefit the tennis community. It has adopted GCTA as its charity partner to help with its mission to expand tennis for all. You will find the league listed here on our Donors Page.

If you love to watch good tennis, the league will begin October 8th at 7pm at Western Tennis & Fitness Club. Click on their website listed our links page for the details of this year.

Andy Caress, Princeton High School Tennis Stand Out Succumbs to Melanoma

Andy Caress, Glendale native who used his own struggle with melanoma to raise awareness about the disease died Wednesday morning August 4, 2010 just shy of his 25th birthday.

Founder of the Mela-Know-More Foundation, Andy learned he had melanoma in November 2008 after doctors told him a spot on the back of his neck was cancerous. Within months, the cancer had spread to other tissues in his neck, the muscles and bones in his legs and his brain. Andy called himself a "melanoma warrior" and vowed to fight the disease. He lost two good friends to the disease, the deadliest form of skin cancer, referring to those friends as "melanoma angels". "Now he's a melanoma angel, too," his mother said.

Andy had been a star athlete in high school and college, and was on Princeton High School's tennis team when they won the Ohio State championship in 2003. After college, while living and teaching tennis in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, he competed in marathons and triathlons.

Andy grew up in the area on the courts of Queen City Racquet Club. His father Bob Caress, former Tennis Director and mother Candi Taggart as well as his older brother Robbie continue to play and coach tennis in Glendale and at Queen City Racquet Club.

In May, Caress established the foundation, which aims to educate people about melanoma and raise money for research. His family and friends will continue to run the foundation.

A Labor Day Tennis Tournament Fund Raiser (for players of all levels) is planned in Andy's memory in just a few weeks at Queen City Racquet Club and plans are in the works for a bike ride as well. Come celebrate Andy's life and enjoy the game he loved.

For tournament information contact: Bill Lofgren at bill.lofgren@queencityfitness.com or look for registration forms in the Queen City Racquet Club lobby.

Visit the foundation online at www.mela-know-more.org .

Andy wrote about his cancer journey on his personal web site www.andycaress.com.

GCTA 2010 Scholarship Winner - Joey Fritz

Joey Fritz is a 3-time Sectional and District Champion, 3-time 1st Team All-State, State Champion and High School All-American. In Junior tennis, he is ranked 4th in the Midwest and finished 3rd at the Midwest Closed this year. He reached the Round of 16 at the 2009 National Clay Courts and is ranked 34 in the country according to Tennisrecruiting.net. He has won 12 various Sportsmanship Awards throughout his Junior tennis career, two of which were for the Thomas E. Price Sportsmanship Award for the OVTA's Junior Davis Cup team.

Joey also excels academically. He is an AP Scholar, part of the CCDS Chapter of the Cum Laude Society, Graduated with High Honors and placed in the top 10 in National French and National Spanish Exams. 

The Babe Zaharias Tennis Classic

The Babe Zharias Tennis Classic will be held in New Albany, OH, August 9, in support of the American Cancer Society. It will be held for the 5th year at New Albany Country Club, on Columbus' east side, one of the Midwest's premier tennis facilities. All levels of ladies players are welcome (from 2.5 to 4.5 USTA level) in this daylong ACS fundraiser. The registration fee is $125 and includes an entire day of Babe activities as well as a small donation to the American Cancer Society. Participants may register with a partner or we will find one for you. Our "Babe" day includes - morning round robin and fun courts, courtside box lunch during exhibition match, afternoon poolside or on the courts for leisure play, and the Babe's Benefit Dinner!

For more information please Click here

Four Enshrined to Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame

Those to be enshrined are Kara Molony-Hussey, Joe Leytze, Bill Pendl and Jim Meakin. All but Meakin were nominated in the “Recent Player Category” (those who played within the past 50 years), while Meakin was nominated in the “Contributor Category.”

“This is our ninth enshrinement class and the depth of tennis talent is just as strong as any of our other classes,” said Jim Farley, Chairman of the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame. “These four represent the college game, the city championship, and even the professional game. They are a real testament to the history, tradition and legacy of the game in our area.”

The four will be inducted on Center Court on Saturday, August 14, during the women’s semifinals and the men’s qualifying of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters & Women’s Open, the latest name for a Cincinnati tennis tradition that is today the oldest tournament in the nation played in its original city. A reception/luncheon, which is open to the public, will be held at the Lindner Family Tennis Center to honor the four prior to the on-court enshrinement.

Molony-Hussey was a nationally ranked junior player and a four-time regional high school tournament champion (three in singles and one in doubles) at Notre Dame Academy in Northern Kentucky. She played the NCAA Championships while at the University of Cincinnati and is the Bearcat’s all-time winningest female player, and then went on to the women’s pro tour. She won five singles titles at the Thomas E. Price Cincinnati Metropolitan Championships as well as four doubles titles with sister Lyndsey and two mixed doubles titles.

Leytze was a semifinalist in the Ohio High School Championship in 1979 and was the Cincinnati Enquirer’s player of the year that year. He went on to the University of Kentucky where he was ranked as high as No. 22 in the nation and was twice named to the All-SEC team. He played on the pro tour, is a teaching professional, and won two singles titles at the Thomas E. Price Cincinnati Metropolitan Championships.

Pendl won titles at the high school, college and international level. He won an Indiana state high school title in doubles, then went on to DePauw University where he won two conference singles titles and eventually would be enshrined in the school’s Hall of Fame. He won two ITF European Senior Mixed Doubles titles and three doubles titles, and was internationally ranked in seniors singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Locally, he played in more than 35 consecutive Thomas E. Price Cincinnati Metropolitan Championships, winning five doubles titles and reaching the singles final in 1967.

Meakin was a long-time tennis official in Cincinnati and a co-founder of the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Umpires Association. At one time he was the head referee for the W&SFG Masters, and an official at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He also was the head referee for the USTA National Father & Son Clay Court Championship, and in 1995 the City of Cincinnati renamed the local Metropolitan Father & Son Championship in his honor. He will be enshrined posthumously.

The enshrinement reception/luncheon begins at 10:30 a.m. and is open to the public. It will held during the women’s semifinals and the men’s qualifying of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters & Women’s Open and will include brief speeches followed by an on-court enshrinement ceremony on Center Court. Individuals wishing to purchase tickets or a table may call Carole Meldon at 513-379-7726. (A ticket to the matches is required for entry to the tournament grounds.)

Once enshrined, individuals will be permanently memorialized at the physical home of the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame, which is at the Carl & Edyth Lindner Family Tennis Pavilion, Lunken Airport Playfield.

Bone Density Study Dealing with Effects of Tennis Released

Local Mina Dimov studied other local players to determine the therapeutic effect of tennis on the bone density of women recreational players. She researched bone density loss during pregnancy and compared tennis playing women to non-tennis playing women. Click here to download a pdf of her recently published findings.

History of Cincinnati Tennis Books On Sale! 

Two books written by Cincinnati Natives have hit bookshelves!

The Origin & History of The Cincinnati Metropolitan Tennis Tournament by Brian Nester with a foreword by Tony Trabert was first released this past summer at the annual Met Tournament. Nester has devoted countless hours in researching old articles from the local papers to chronicle a detailed history of the Metropolitan Tournament as it was and is now. The book features a wide array of articles that have been 'clipped' out beginning with the first ever Met tournament. This is a book for Cincinnati Tennis fans! Books are $12 each and can be found at both Kenwood Tennis Pavilion and Samuels.

From Club Court to Center Court: The Evolution of Professional Tennis in Cincinnati by Philip Smith is currently in its ninth edition. This is the first complete compilation of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters & Women's Open ever produced. The book chronicles all the tournaments' years, including the earliest starting in 1899 to 1968, known as the Pre-Open Era. Never before published details are also included in this detailed history. Books are $17.95 including shipping and handling. To order, call 513-651-0303 or email info@cincytennis.com .