THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160410
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 82 lines
If one doesn't look too closely, these appear to be boom times for the fortunes of South Hampton Roads junior tennis.
Three weeks ago, Virginia Beach's Ryan Davidson won the Mid-Atlantic Tennis Association boys 16s championships, while Virginia Beach's Mily Kannarkat, showing no ill effects from January surgery to repair torn cartilage in her right shoulder, captured the girls 16s crown. The double is believed to be a first by players from the same Hampton Roads city.
In that same tournament, Michael Duquette, also of Virginia Beach, reached the quarterfinals before losing in three sets to Davidson. Duquette then won the consolation draw and also teamed with Davidson to win the doubles title.
The region features five of the country's top 20 16s players, and Davidson and Duquette have realistic shots at finishing among the nation's top 10.
``We've never had two national-class boys in the same age group at the same time,'' said Roy Beskin, a star on Granby High's 1969 state championship team, the 1995 Virginia 40s singles champion and a keen observer of the Hampton Roads tennis scene.
Meanwhile, Kannarkat, at No. 2 in the region's 16s rankings the area's highest-ranked junior since Virginia Beach's Julie Shiflet in 1988, is in action this week in the National Girls 16s Clay Courts at the Virginia Beach Tennis & Country Club.
Suffolk's Michelle Grover was in the doubles draw of this event, and reached the doubles final with Kannarkat last week at the Burger King Southern Open.
Grover's brother, Nate, blitzed through the semifinals and final of the state 12s tournament without losing a game. He'll begin national competition next week.
And there's Virginia Beach's Jessica Zaganczyk, who ranked among the nation's top 40 girls 18s players last year. Zaganczyk, who will attend the University of North Carolina on a tennis scholarship, has concentrated on women's satellite tournaments this summer.
Such a national contingent seems unusually large for an area that over the last 20 years has only sporadically produced even one player capable of holding his or her own nationally and whose talent base consistently pales in comparison to Richmond and Northern Virginia.
But is this the kind of crop local tennis fans can expect to see developed here regularly?
Those in the know say the answer is no.
``I don't think there's anything more here than than a group of talented kids who've done very well,'' said the Virginia Beach Tennis & Country Club's John Atiso. ``I don't think you can say this area's undergone some kind of resurgence.''
Not when the talent base behind the players mentioned above is as thin as it appears to be. Of the 120 ranking spots in the top 20 of the boys and girls 18s, 16s and 14s in last year's Mid-Atlantic Tennis Association rankings, South Hampton Roads residents occupied only 10.
No area boy has earned a Division I tennis scholarship the past two years. The one with the best chance of doing so next year, Virginia Beach's Nathan Shanks, moved here from Northern Virginia last summer. (Davidson is also not homegrown, having moved from Charleston, S.C., last summer.)
The situation is a far cry from the 1960s, when Norfolk and Suffolk routinely produced the region's premier players. Norfolk schools won five state titles during that decade, and Beskin's 1969 team featured four players who went on to play No. 1 at their colleges.
Virginia Beach took over dominance in the '70s, but with the development of more facilities and programs first in Richmond, then in Northern Virginia, South Hampton Roads gradually lost its place as the center of the region's junior tennis. And while this area still features top-level age-group adults from the 35s to the 70s, the junior scene has yet to catch up.
Nor will it, says Beskin, until the area's tennis leaders adopt the mantra that's been chanted by activists for landing a professional sports team for years: more regional cooperation.
``The problem with tennis is everything's so fragmented,'' Beskin said. ``We've got a lot of great (teaching) pros here, and they all work well independently, but we need someone to pull it all together. That's what Richmond and Northern Virginia have.
``You know how Boo Williams brings all those kids together with AAU (basketball)? That's what we need. A tennis Boo Williams.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Mily Kannarkat, No. 2 in the region's 16s rankings, is the area's
highest-ranked junior in eight years. She's in action this week in
the National Girls 16s Clay Courts at the Virginia Beach Tennis &
Country Club. by CNB