The USTA Middle States Hall of Fame will induct four individuals with Pittsburgh ties at a dinner event to be held at the LeMont Restaurant in Pittsburgh on Friday night Oct. 23.

Selected for induction are:

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  Brian Earley
  Brian Earley, a native Pittsburgher and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh who is currently head of the USTA Pro Circuit and chief referee at the U.S. Open.
• Don Johnson, a PIAA state champion for both Mt. Lebanon and Fairview (Erie) high schools who went on to win 23 pro doubles titles, including Wimbledon in 2001 with Jared Palmer. He achieved a No. 1 world ranking in doubles with Palmer and played for the U.S. Davis Cup team in 2001.
• Peggy Michel, who came to Pittsburgh in 1974 as a member of the Pittsburgh Triangles of the original World Team Tennis league and won Wimbledon and the Australian Open twice with Triangles teammate Evonne Goolagong. She lived and worked in the Pittsburgh area for 10 years after her retirement from tennis in 1976 and is currently vice president of marketing for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.
• Whitney Snyder, a Pittsburgh native who has played, taught and coached tennis at a very high level for nearly two decades. He was elected to both the Duquesne University Hall of Fame and Sewickley Academy Hall of Fame for his coaching achievements and other contributions to both institutions.

For ticket information or volunteer opportunities, please contact the event co-chairs Nina Hughes (ninahughes@hotmail.com) or Chris Compton (chrisjcompton@hotmail.com).

The 2nd Annual Frick Park French Open Tennis Celebration will be held Saturday, May 30 from 4 to 8 p.m. (Rain date Sunday, May 31, at 4 p.m.) at the Frick Park Red Clay Tennis Courts in Pittsburgh’s East End.

This event is sponsored by the USTA as a Block Party during National Tennis Month. It is free and open to the public. Children and newcomers to the game are especially welcome. The festivities include free tennis clinics and games for all playing abilities and Quickstart tennis clinics for children 10 and under. To celebrate the rich tradition of tennis at Frick Park, this event features the return of the Wooden Racquets Doubles Tournament that proved to be a smashing success at the inaugural event last year.

Registration for the wooden racquets tournament is free and on site, and wooden racquets are provided for all players. For more information, please visit WWW.CLAYFRICKTENNIS.ORG or email redclayfrick@gmail.com.

Parents or club volunteers who wish to enter Junior Team Tennis (JTT) teams in the AMD championships July 26-27 must first contact Alan Bandell, AMD Junior Team Tennis Coordinator, by June 9 to receive a team ID number. Players have until June 16 to register for teams online. Bandell may be reached at 800‐493‐2630 ext. 202, or by cell phone at 412‐400‐7505, or by email at: alan.bandell@axiondata.com.

Teams will consist of four boys and four girls and may compete in one of four divisions: 14-and-under Intermediate, 14-and-under Advanced, 18-and-under Intermediate, and 18-and-under Advanced. A maximum of five teams will be registered in each division on a first-come, first-served basis.

AMD's 14-and-under championships will be held at the Peters Township Tennis Center, while the 18-and-under championships will be held at the Mt. Lebanon Tennis Center.

The four division winners will advance to the Middle States Sectional Championship August 8‐9 in New Jersey, with the sectional champions advancing to the national championships in Alabama in October.

Six USTA-sanctioned Adult Tournaments will be held in the District in June and July. All are listed on the AMD web site (www.amd.usta.com) and all permit easy, online entry with a credit card.

• June 6-14 – Monroeville Classic Tennis Tournament – Closing date for this new outdoor tournament is June 3. A number of singles and doubles events for men and women will be held, from open divisions to 65-and-older. Contact Keith Clawson at 412-245-0439, or e-mail keith.clawson@verizon.net.

• June 17-21 – Wheeling Oglebay Senior Open – Closing Date June 10. Numerous singles and doubles events for senior men and women from ages 50 to 90-and-over. This is a Category II national event for men and a Sectional Championship for women. Contact Lynette Parker- lynette@stratuswave.net -- (304) 243-4040

• June 20- 28 -- Bob O’Connor Summer Tennis Classic – Pittsburgh – Closing date June 13. Men’s and Women’s Open Singles events are sanctioned but also a number of age division events will be contested. Contact: Jane Famili – 412-244-4188 – Jane@tennisinpittsburgh.com.

• June 27 - Clarion Adult Open – Clarion, Pa. – Closing Date June 21. One-day tournament with open division events for both men and women. Contact: Lori Sabatose, 814-393-1663 Email: lsabatose@clarion.edu

• July 7-12 National Collegiate Clay Court/West Penn Amateur. Closing date: July 5. Adults, regardless of age or collegiate status, may enter this storied tournament in Mt. Lebanon, Pa. that is sanctioned by both the USTA as an adult tournament and the ITA as a collegiate summer event. Open division singles and doubles events for both men and women. Contact: Dan Hackett, danhackettcpa@yahoo.com.

• July 22-26 - West Virginia Open. Sectional Championship with numerous singles and doubles events for both men and women. Prize money for open divisions. Age-group and 3.5 rating competition also will be held. Contact: Mark Panepinto (304) 232-9500 or markp@stratuswave.net

AMD is still hoping to field one women’s adult 5.0 team and two men’s 5.0 teams for this summer’s League Tennis competition.

The women’s 5.0 team will automatically qualify for the Sectional Championships Aug. 28-30 in Princeton, N.J. where the team will play a round-robin tournament against 5.0 teams from the other five districts. The winner of the Friday-to-Sunday round-robin event will advance to the national championships in Indian Wells, Calif. Oct. 2-4.

The two men’s 5.0 teams would compete in a best-of-three match playoff in the district for the right to represent AMD at the Sectional Championships in Princeton.

The 5.0 category is the highest level of adult league competition in Middle States. Anyone can play for a 5.0 team but the team rosters usually include present and former Division I collegiate players, as well as top players from Division II and Division III schools.

Captains and players interested should contact league coordinator Jim Block at Block41@verizon.net

Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) certifier Marcy Bruce will conduct an 11-hour on-court International Certification Workshop at Frick Park Red Clay Tennis Courts in Pittsburgh’s East End, Saturday and Sunday, June 13 – 14.

The workshop fee is $95 but there is a significant discount for full time college students and for multicultural and urban area instructors.
For more information or to register, call PTR Headquarters at 800-421-6289 or visit www.ptrtennis.org.

The workshop will emphasize the fundamentals of teaching group lessons, the development of biomechanically sound strokes, error detection and corrective techniques, and the logistics of organizing group drills. The course prepares members for the five-part certification exam that will be administered at the conclusion of the workshop.

A number of collegiate teams and players with AMD connections had excellent 2008-2009 seasons.

• The University of Miami, with sophomore Michaela Kissell of Latrobe, Pa. at No. 4 singles, reached the "Elite 8" of the NCAA Division 1 championships, losing to Duke in the quarterfinals. Kissell is ranked No. 44 in the nation and will receive a bid to compete in the NCAA singles championship.
• Annie Houghton of Sewickley, playing No. 1 singles at Army as a sophomore, let the cadets to a second straight Patriot Division championship.
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  Casey Watt
  Notre Dame freshman Casey Watt of Pine Richland won three matches in the Big East to help his team to a second-place finish in the conference championships and an appearance in the NCAA team championships.
• Marshall University Senior Kellie Schmitt of Bethel Park, Pa. was named Conference USA’s Player of the Year for the third year in a row. Schmitt again had the best singles record on the team at 21-4 and went 17-6 in doubles at the No. 1 positions.
• University of Pittsburgh’s women’s team, with a number of local players in the lineup, posting its best record ever, finishing 7th in the 15-team Big East with an upset win over Cincinnati, before losing to No. 4 nationally ranked Notre Dame. Sophomore Elizabeth Adams of Reading became the first Pitt player ever to be named to the All Big East team. Senior Kristy Borza of Beaver extended her school record for most career wins. Senior Christie D’Achille of Wexford and Junior Shannon Benic of Fox Chapel had winning records for the Panthers.
• Duquesne University’s women’s team placed 7th in the Atlantic 10 and beat Pitt during the regular season. Freshman Stephanie Novakowski of North East, Pa. was in the doubles lineup.
• Duquesne men, with North Allegheny’s Zach Skorupka at No. 1 singles and Jeremy McClelland of Wheeling at No. 2, finished 7th in the Atlantic 10.
• In NCAA Division II, California University of Pennsylvania, with a roster of outstanding international players, again qualified for the NCAA championships, reaching the "Elite 8" in the nation.
• In Division III, Denison University women, with senior Meghan Damico and freshman Sarah Short, both of Fox Chapel, in the lineup, reached the NCAA semi-finals and will play for the national championship this week. Damico, who plays No. 1 singles, also qualified for the NCAA singles and doubles championships in June.
• Carnegie Mellon University women, with a roster of outstanding national players, also have reached the NCAA quarterfinals.
• Carnegie Mellon men, with North Allegheny’s Jonathan Spero in the starting lineup, qualified for the NCAA team championships.

Denison men, with Fox Chapel sophomore Evan Verbofsky in the lineup, placed second to Kenyon in the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Alison Riske, 18, of Peters Township is headed to Vanderbilt University next fall where her older sister Sarah had an outstanding career, but first she’s turning more than a few heads on the USTA Pro Circuit tour. In back-to-back $50,000 tournaments this month she battled through the qualifying rounds to reach the second round of the main draw at Charlottesville, Va. and the semi-finals in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla. Along the way she beat 2007 NCAA champion Audra Cohen and veteran pro Lilia Osterloh, also a former NCAA champion.

Recent success, however, has not persuaded her to alter her planned tennis course, which calls for four seasons of college tennis. Click here for more.

John Woffington doesn't play much tennis any more. That's the direct result of age and four back operations. But when it comes to winning, nothing seems to be slowing the 64-year-old Woffington.

Woffington, in his 38th year as North Allegheny High School's tennis coach, won another state team championship this month.  His team recorded an undefeated 23-0 record and he won his 21st section title. A few weeks ago, Woffington reached a milestone with his 600th career win. His all-time record is 611-131.

Woffington's success earned him a spot in the 2009 class of the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. To give you an idea of how big of an honor it is, consider one of the other inductees will be University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari, who grew up in Moon.

Woffington, who graduated from Tarentum High School and still lives in Tarentum, doesn't take himself too seriously, despite the many victories. He said these days, many high school tennis players take private lessons from pros so he doesn't have to teach them much about technique. But he teaches players a lot about other things -- and not just winning.
Click here to read more.

AMD’s Competition Training Center (CTC) season for juniors under the age of 14 concluded successfully April 4 at Westend Racquet Club in Allentown, Pa. with the annual Middle States Jamboree Interdistrict Team Competition. AMD sent two teams of eight players each who did exceptionally well. They were coached by Mt. Lebanon tennis director Hank Hughes and his daughter Jackie, a Duquesne University grad. Parents of 15 of the children also made the weekend trip to cheer them on and to celebrate with team dinners and other team bonding events.

The 44-person AMD entourage included players Madison Adams, Adam Blasinsky, Nina Barbano, Abby Cummings, Hannah Famili, Callie Frey, Kevin Goth, Christopher Grubbs, Eric Grubbs, Peter Hazlett, Mitchell Kreider, Jackie McDermott, Jonathan Perkins, Caleb Troy, Jessica Warshaw, and Megan Wasson. Click here to read more.