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When
title sponsor Bill Barnes puts his mind to something, he does it
with True Texas Passion. Just ask the highly ranked players who are
in town for his Clay Court Championships this week.
"This
[tournament] is up there with the best tournaments I've played," said
David McNamara, an Assistant Coach for Middle Tennessee State
University. McNamara, seeded second in this year's draw, lost to Carl
Clark last year in the quarters.
McNamara
is currently a candidate to succeed Dale Short, who has been the Head
Coach at MTSU for 20 years. Short's efforts made the Division I school
into a major national tennis powerhouse. The doubles tandem of David
McNamara and Julius Robberts gave the school its first tennis national
title, claiming the 1997 ITA Reebok All-American Hardcourt Championships
in Austin, Texas.
McNamara
is one of 5 candidates interviewing for the position. "It would
be a huge opportunity for me," he said. Should he get the job,
McNamara said that "This will certainly still be a a tournament on my
calendar next year."
Hopefully
so, at least according to juniors who were fortunate enough to have him
share some drills in an afternoon clinic.
"We
did this drill where he said if we could win points against him, he'd turn
around and let us aim our serves at his [backside]", said junior
player Brett James, who plays for the Midlothian team.
"Then he fired his serve- it nearly knocked the racquet out of my
hands."
"It
was great. All the coaches that helped this week seemed really
interested in helping us."
At
the end of the drill, McNamara didn't have to turn around.
McNamara
said that working with the area juniors is good exposure for the
pros. "They put on such a good show here. The prize
money, the hospitality, the sponsors - all of it. The least we can
all do is help them out."
The
college coach gave juniors this advice: "If they want to play
college, they have to love the sport - that's number one.
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David
McNamara is also a pretty good golfer. Word has it that
he sports a +2 handicap. Which means that if he scored a
74, it would be a bad day. He often plays a full round
of golf before coming out to play his evening tennis matches. |
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And
they really should try to play as many sports as possible as long as
they can," he said. He uses his own experience as an
example. "I didn't have my first private lesson until I
was 15 years old. Up until that time, I played Australian
Rules Football, golf -- and tennis.
"But
it wasn't until I broke my two little fingers going for a [foot]ball,
right before I was supposed to play in a major junior tennis
tournament, that I made the decision to just play tennis."
McNamara
advocates playing team sports if possible. "It's good to learn
how to work with a team. Tennis is such an individual sport.
Being part of a team as a junior is healthy for your
development." |
McNamara
said that he actually wasn't even that good as a junior. "I
only ranked in the Top 20s or so in Australia in the 18s," he
said. "I didn't really rank high until I got to college, and
Dave Short helped me get to Top 15 in the U.S. in singles - #2 in
doubles."
Next
week, McNamara plans to play doubles at the Cleveland Racquet Club's
tournament, where last year he and his partner took home $10,000 for
winning it all.
"That
tournament has a bigger purse, maybe, but this tournament ranks right up
there with the best."
Unfortunately,
although McNamara had hoped to meet up with Carl Clark again, he was
disappointed to learn Clark recently underwent surgery to repair an injury
to his left wrist. Clark was playing on Har-Tru in the Lynchburg
CVITT when he slipped on a wet line and fell, damaging a tendon.
Clark simply wrapped his wrist and played in the finals next day (he
won). He just had the pin taken out of his wrist today.
"I won't be hitting any two handed backhands til September,"
Clark said.
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Virginia
Cancer Institute physician Dr. Brian Mitchell and Paul
Sorenson enjoy the atmosphere in the Sponsor's tent. |
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Paul
and Robin Sorenson are members of Salisbury. They
are also the popular owners of Bottega Bistro located off Huguenot
Road in Midlothian.
On
Thursday, lucky raffle winners were treated to a superb four course
meal served right outside Court 1. Sean Steinour and
Ra I provided the on-court entertainment.
This
is the restaurant's fourth year as a tourney sponsor and the third
year serving food. A Botega chef was cooking up the delicacies
on a private grill on premises. "It was fantastic,"
said raffle winner Rob Hargett.
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On the court next to Steinour and Ra I, the doubles team of Phil
Thacker and Kevin Reichert played a fierce match against
opponents Charles Einwick and Keith Mumford. The
final result: Fourth seeds Einwick/Mumford won 7-6, 5-7,
7-6. The pair earned the right to play top seed Motevassel/McNamara
on Friday night. Be there!
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Kristin
and Kathy Nimitz lost to Lindsey Howard and Kate
Harrington in the women's doubles quarterfinals. Kristin,
who played #1 for Deep Run this year and led the team to the Central
Region finals, sported an ankle brace to support an injury that
occurred at the worst possible time this season -- the playoffs in
her senior year. She is off to play at JMU (on full
scholarship) in the Fall.
Older
sister Kathy, who plays for UVA, donned a matching outfit.
Without a doubt, the pair could easily grace any tennis magazine
cover issue.
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<Kristin
(left) and Kathy's mom, Keri, is a former City Tennis
Champion |
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In
the local paper today, it was reported that David Hopkins, a
17 year old from Winston-Salem, NC retired in his match against Brent
Wilkins because his aunt had suffered a stroke yesterday
morning. The entire family has gone to be with her.
However, when pulling out, Hopkins told Wilkins he had a hip
injury. That was also the "confirmed" reason I could
get from Hopkins' cousin and other family members.
Hopkins
was down 1-4 in the first set versus Wilkins, and down 1-4 in the
tiebreak too before coming back to win the set. Wilkins had a
double-fault at 6-all in the tiebreak. "Good time to pull that
one out of my bag," he said. "My game just wasn't
working for me out there tonight."
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Oren
Motevvasel, the #1 seed
When David
McNamara was playing his singles match against Chris Peek, he
was heard muttering "Use the Motevassel touch!"
That touch- deft
and soft hands - is what sets this year's #1 seed apart from
the rest of the pack.
It's been
reported so far that Motevassel was ranked as high as 161st
the world. He's 38 now, so his ranking will never return
to that peak. But he has already won over 10
tournaments this year, including 8 opens and 2 national
events.
The Israeli
native came to the Mid-Atlantic Clay Court Championships after
seeing it online.
"It has good prizes," he said. |
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