You're Invited!

It's the morning of the men's final at the Sony Ericsson Open, but before we get to the main business at hand I'd to invite all TennisWorld readers who live in the greater Washington D.C. area, or who might like to take a weekend in Washington (a beautiful city, especially on the Mall in April!), to a special event.

Yuri Ushakov, the Russian Ambassador to the U.S., and his wife, Svetlana Ushakova will be hosting a cocktail reception for the Junior Tennis Champions Center at College Park, Md., at the beautiful and historic (boy, I'd say!)  Russian Embassy on Saturday, April 21st (click on the link for details).

It's part of the fundraising effort for the JTCC, a not-for-profit training center run by one of the great guys in tennis, Martin Blackman. You may remember that Martin (that's him in the picture, coaching one of his proteges) played for two years at Stanford and won three singles and six doubles titles on the pro tour, starting in the late 1980s.

When his tennis career was done, Martin completed his degree work at George Washington University and then coached the American University tennis team until he went to work for the JTCC, where he is Director of Tennis, in 2004.

The JTCC was the brainchild of New York based financier and self-described "tennis nut" Ken Brody, who made an unusual association on a trip to the Czech Republic during his tenure in government service (he was president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States): "I saw how many players the Czechs were producing, and I wondered what would happen if you could extend the kind of opportunity Czech kids got to kids in the U.S?"

Brody got to thinking that Prince Georges County in Maryland, where he grew up poor, combined with other parts of the Washington metro area, created an area comparable in size and population to the Czech Republic. He decided to build a tennis center where almost any kid could learn the game but wind up being more than a tennis bum. The concrete goal was to develop players who earned high rankings and college scholarships, who would go on to be men and women of character and impact.  "So far," Brody told me the other day, "Every kid who went through our program has earned a college scholarship, either athletic or academic, gotten into an Ivy League college (they don't offer scholarships), or is playing the game at the pro level."

The JTCC's alumni include ATP Pro Phillip Simmonds, who at one time held the ITF world junior ranking of No. 1 in singles and No. 2 in doubles; Jared Pinsky, a recent No. 1 in  U.S. Boys Singles (16s), Taka Bertrand, and Eleanor Peters, formerly No. 4 in the U.S. Girls Singles (18s). This may not be success on the order of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, but then the JTCC has a different mandate. Blackman knows; he was a product of the NBTA.

"Two elements distinguish us from a commercial, for-profit academy," Martin told me. "We have a very strong mentoring program in which every one of our kids - and his or her family - has a relationship with one of our senior coaches.  For us, it's all about values - developing kids into tennis champions who are also great individuals and citizens. And because we're not profit driven, we can focus equally on all the kids. Our financial aid is entirely need based. You can be No. 1 in the country, but if your family income is up there, you don't get a scholarship. It's just a different model."

The JTCC is doing great work, on an impressive campus of 11 acres featuring 27 courts (indoor and outdoor, clay and hard) that has been a USTA Tennis Center of the Year (2001). You can learn more about it here. Please consider attending the reception, or helping the JTCC effort in any other way you see fit. I understand there are still some slots open in the Pro-Am that weekend. If you're interested in taking part, you can reach Blackman at this email address.