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by Scoop Malinowski

Spending countless hours on the court since the early 90’s I have had the fortune of encountering some famous people and players on the tennis court.

The first brush with greatness happened a few days before the US Open in the early 2000s when a stunning female player was lighting up the FDU Teaneck court next to my friend and I. I wondered out loud if she was getting ready for qualies at the US Open. Well, her coach told me she was in the main draw. It was Catalina Castano of Colombia who was ranked just inside the top 100 in the WTA. Catalina was staying in nearby Hackensack, which has a considerable amount of Colombians living there. One of my regrets in tennis was not challenging Catalina to a tiebreaker for $20, just to experience what it was like to play a pro and feel a professional’s shots. Years later Catalina won a WTA title in Bogota and achieved a WTA ranking in the top 50. She had a pretty long, successful pro career.

In the West Milford Museum tournament I was supposed to play Bob Tanis in the 35s draw but he withdrew. Tanis was a legend of New Jersey tennis who was no. 1 in singles and doubles at the University of Georgia and also played the pro circuit.

At Payne Park in Sarasota, I played doubles with Lorne Main who was a top pro from Canada and who actually won Monte Carlo a long, long time ago (Lorne was in his 70s when we played about ten years ago). What I remember about Lorne was his perfect technique and smooth contact with the ball. Every stroke was perfect and every ball was hit in the center of the strings. And he could place the ball anywhere he wanted. He’s also a nice guy with no ego, he just enjoys to play with anyone.

Of course, Tennis-prose readers will remember my matches with Michelle Larcher De Brito on Longboat Key for $50 ( I lost in both mini and a regular set) and my doubles matches with former Canadian top 250 player Pierre Duclos.

Also I played a USTA 35s in Key Biscayne about six years ago in late January and on the court next to us were Donald Young and Teymuraz Gabashvili playing practice sets. Also, this year in Miami, a friend and I played a couple of sets at the Key Biscayne public courts next to Chileans Nicolas Jarry and Gonzalo Lama on one side and John Patrick Smith and Michael Venus on the other.

Well, this week I had a another encounter with greatness on a tennis court. I recently joined a new tennis club in Packanack Lake in Wayne which has six perfect red clay courts. Last week I saw a woman hitting with two hands on both sides with a ball machine. One of the members told me she was an Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics for Russia in 1980 and was eagerly trying to learn tennis.

Natalia Shaposhnikova, who won two gold medals at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games and competed against Nadia Comaneci, was there again today working with the ball machine while I was playing a singles match three courts down so I introduced myself and she said she really likes tennis and is trying her best to work on her game but the challenge of it is both frustrating and inspiring because tennis is completely different than gymnastics. She noted that gymnastics is short powerful bursts with no ball, and it completely contradicts the fluid, loose movements of tennis. She joked that tennis is the absolute opposite kind of sport compared to gymnastics yet she is determined to learn how to play to a level of personal satisfaction.

Shaposhnikova is in great shape though a bit undersized. She mentions that she really admires Agnieszka Radwanska though her style of play is totally different. Shaposhnikova plays actually like Kimiko Date Krumm, two hands on both sides and taking every ball on the rise. I offer to hit with her after my singles match (which I won 60 63).

I find it interesting that a player who has only been playing tennis for less than two years has such an advanced style of playing, double two-handers and taking the ball early. Shaposhnikova, who uses a Babolat Roland Garros racquet, said it just feels natural to play that way. The first thing I suggest is to hit the ball differently – to bounce the ball down on each of our sides of the court and over the net to the other, in a form of mini tennis, which Djokovic and other pros do sometimes. I want her to develop her hands to get used to other swings and ways to touch a ball. It’s obviously her first time playing this way and she enjoys and quickly adapts to it. Next we try normal mini tennis. Her forehand in mini tennis is very good and clean, the backhand is a little less steady. I’m quite surprised how well she hits the forehand. I’ve seen players who have been playing for decades who don’t hit their forehand as nicely as her. Very nice smooth contact and natural flowing technique.

We move back to the baseline and she has trouble covering the court for wide balls with the double handers. But when she tries my Volkl Tour 9 she is definitely more consistent. She likes the feel of it and that it’s balanced and not head heavy like her Babolat. She has trouble with wide balls to the forehand and tries to one hand forehand those shots but it’s off balance. I suggest she try just hitting one handed forehands for everything and she does very well on those, I think she should stick with the one hand forehand. The backhand is good but a little inconsistent. The surprise is how well she can rally for being such a new player. We actually had several very good rallies.

For a budding player who just started tennis after age 45 or however old she is, it will be very interesting to follow her evolution. Which I will share with Tennis-prose readers in the future.

Russian gold medalist gymnast love tennis

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