USTA Senior event set for LJ Beach and Tennis Club

Players from 50-94 to play in tourney

Every spring for the last 37 years, the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club has hosted one of the most unique events in tennis, as players in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s take to the club’s courts for the Senior Hard Court Tennis Championships.

This year’s event, which features a USTA national senior championship event for women and a men’s event, which is not a national championship event but still a long-standing club tradition, will be held May 15-21 at the club, located at 200 Spindrift Drive in La Jolla.

The finals are scheduled for May 20 and 21, and admission is free.

“This tournament is really a celebration of life and sports,” said Bill Kellogg, president of La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.

“The old adage that ‘tennis is the sport for a lifetime’ is never more evident than what you see in this competition. People from all walks of life, from age 50 to age 95, men and women, rich and poor--they all come together on the tennis court, the greatest equalizer of all.”

The oldest competitor is 94-year-old Bea Greene of San Jose, who will compete in the women’s 90-plus doubles event.

The event is broken down into 20 different groups. There are singles and doubles groups for men and women in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

Naturally, the group of 90-year-olds is the smallest, though six of the 243 players registered as of May 11 were nonagenarians.

Perhaps the most well-known player competing is Tennis Hall of Famer Dodo Cheney, who in 1938 became the first American woman to win the singles title at the Australian Championship and finished second in three other Grand Slams as a doubles player over the course of her career.

“Cheney is one of the greatest competitors we have ever seen, having won more than 380 national championships spanning more than half a century,” Kellogg said.

More information on the events can be found at

www.ljbtc.com

.