Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Sunday, May 04, 2003

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The time was right. Don Mercer knew it.

He stepped down after eight years as chairman of the Future's/National Collegiate Clay Court Championships in Mt. Lebanon that is the premier tennis event in Western Pennsylvania each summer.

"I was planning to stick around a couple more years, but they need somebody fresh and young to run it," said Mercer, who recently turned 65 and has moved from Mt. Lebanon to Wheeling, W.Va.

Dan Hackett, the tournament's treasurer the past two years, will take over this year to become the sixth chairman since the West Penn Championships became a national event in 1975.

Mercer replaced Mike Petrocky eight years ago when the future of the tournament was in doubt.

"I kept the tournament going. There wouldn't be any tournament. That would have been it if I hadn't stepped in," said Mercer, who, along with his family, has been involved with district tennis for many years. "The tournament was in shambles. Things were pretty bad, and they were talking about canceling it.

"Being part of the tournament was part of my life, part of my family's life. I'll miss it, no question."

But it got to be too much of a strain on Mercer, who has been ill the past four months.

"I'm just now getting better. Decisions had to be made," he said. "It was time to get away from it. I've seen too many matches, too many situations started to hurt my health. I'll miss the people, the volunteers who gave their time and energy and I'll miss seeing it all come together after four months of work."

When Mercer told the people at the United State Tennis Association he was going to leave, they quickly decided to move the Future's tournament to Cleveland. About a week later, Cleveland decided it couldn't do it.

"That's when Hackett decided to take over," Mercer said. "Somebody else other than myself had to do it."

The clay court championships have fallen on lean times during the years and are no longer one of the country's glamour attractions for the nation's top college players as they were in the 1970s. The caliber of competition has decreased, along with the size of the crowds that once filled the stands at the Martin Tressel Center.

To pump new life into the aging collegiate event that goes back 115 years, Mercer brought in a Future's tournament that featured many of the rising young men players from around the world.

"I think the college tournament might eventually fade out," Mercer said. "It's not a national event any more."

Mercer tried to bring in a women's Future's tournament, but he wasn't able to get a spot on the summer circuit.

He said it will be a different feeling this July when he attends the tournament as a spectator and can lean back in his chair and check out the matches.

"I'll be up to watch," he said. "I still love tennis. I've always loved tennis."

Campus courts

Duquesne junior Alina Klinova was named to the Atlantic 10 Conference women's all-conference team to become the first player in school history to make it three times. She played No. 1 and No. 2 singles and No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.

Grove City, led by Patrick Donahue, won its 13th consecutive Presidents Athletic Conference men's championship. Patrick, a 6-foot-6 junior and the league's MVP, won the No. 1 singles title with a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Washington and Jefferson's Matt Dubow. Joe Walters led Grove City to a 14-2 record and is Coach of the Year.

Robert Morris went 1-1 to finish tied for third in the Northeast Conference men's championships at Windsor, N.J. Mamoun El Kettani was 2-0 at No. 1 singles and 1-1 with Mhaed Mekaoui at No. 1 doubles.

The Lady Colonials went 1-2 to finish 10th, with juniors Katie Dellich (Butler) and Julie Wolf (Baldwin) posting a 3-0 record in No. 1 doubles.

Frostburg State's Justin Stephen, who was undefeated at No. 1 singles in league competition this season, is the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Men's Player of the Year.