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Sunday, July 13, 2003

Call Bob Ruzanic a one-man public relations firm for local tennis. His job is to promote the sport he loves, to get the word out that it is for a lifetime and for all ages.

As the new USTA Middle States Mountain District manager, Ruzanic has been taking a hands-on approach by visiting as many tennis sites as possible during his first six weeks on the job.

"There has been no visibility of the USTA for a long time," said Ruzanic, chairman of the United States Davis Cup committee the past four years and the honorary chairman the next two years. "My job is to alert people where they can view tennis, where they can play tennis and where they can get instruction. I'm going into every facility marketing the sport any way I can. I'm doing things that never have been done before in this area. I'm passing out literature and posters, doing whatever it takes to promote tennis. I've found little hamlets and plays that go unnoticed where you see spectacular results."

But Ruzanic hasn't been pleased with everything he has seen. The courts at Mellon Park still are unplayable, he said, because the Premier Surface buckled and created waves when the bubble was taken down three weeks ago. The courts were fine while the bubble was up starting in February. The first attempt to smooth the surface failed because the glue injected into the trouble areas didn't hold.

"They have no idea what they're going to do right now," Ruzanic said of Citiparks. "It's nobody's fault. This was an unforeseen problem."

The Premier Surface is a layer of acrylic over a membrane cushion on top of a concrete base.

Ruzanic's mood brightened considerably when he started talking about the new courts being built in Western Pennsylvania.

"Eight high schools have built courts in the past year, that's outstanding," he said. "One hundred and thirty-five high schools in Western Pennsylvania have tennis teams. Some have both boys and girls teams, and some of just one or the other. More kids are coming up, and the popularity is growing at the high school level. The trouble areas, when it comes to participation, are the seniors and adult males. Tennis has not done enough to sponsor seniors. I don't know why adult males aren't playing more."

Ruzanic' head is spinning with ideas on how to get tennis rackets into the hands of more people.

"We're tying to get tennis as more of a social thing, that's why we're pushing doubles," he said. "We're emphasizing the team concept of doubles, the camaraderie and the fun of working together."

Citiparks, with assistance from the USTA, has a number of programs in operation this summer: Tennis 1-2-3 for beginners, Adult Team Tennis, Youth Team Tennis and Collegiate Team Tennis.

"My job is to try to establish guidelines and to help in any way I can to make running tennis programs easier," he said. "I'm going to get out into the community and be visible. I'm going to field all the questions."

The tournament trail

The Glen Creek Tennis Club won the Western Pennsylvania Interclub Championship at the Butler Country Club. It was Glen Creek's third title in the eight-year history of the event that attracted 12 teams composed of boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 18. Each club is represented by two mixed doubles teams, a junior varsity 13 and under and a varsity 18 and under.

Glen Creek's varsity was Neil Friedrich and Jackie Hughes and junior varsity was Sarah Baich and Chris Nixon. Butler Country Club was runner-up, followed by Chapel Gate and a tie between Edgeworth Club and Forest Hills Swim Club.

The Sportsmanship Awards went to Gabe Englander of the Edgewood Club and Emily Winkler of the Wildwood Golf Club, and the Extra Effort Award winners were Chris Nixon of Glen Creek and Megan Lowery of Allegheny Country Club.