Formations and Movement – Chesterfield Athletic Club
It has been awhile since we have been able to find time to play a fun match. We have both been busy with life and full time work at ReMax and Central Realty and teaching kids tennis in East St. Louis. If you have been reading this blog for a while you will know that East St. Louis Community Tennis Association was inspired by our blog and it continues to grow and in 2023 served over 1,000 children. As the weather began to turn cold this December we scheduled a doubles match at Chesterfield Athletic Club a facility in west county with 8 indoor courts.
In November 2023 Scott and Florence Streeter traveled with The St. Louis Bobsled Team to Orlando Florida to play in the Impact Team Tennis National Tournament in the Super Senior Category. The Bobsled Team got 4th place. Several weeks earlier, Flo received treatments on her hip from The Bluetail Medical Group. While we were at the tournament, Flo received a great honor from the USTA St. Louis as 4.0 Player of the Year. In preparation, the entire team worked on doubles formations and movement. Flo wanted to continue to practice these so we decided to take on Stan and our friend Mark Zolman who teaches tennis full time at Good Vibes Tennis Academy.
Chesterfield Athletic Club or CAC as its known in the tennis world has a long history dating back to 1974 when it opened under the name Castle Oaks. Lou Sachs and Steve Apted were the original owners and John Connors and Paul Tobin directed tennis programs. Currently the facility has 9 indoor and 6 outdoor courts.
As we arrived we were assigned court six and walked down to the court and ran into pro Craig Sandvig a legend who recently joined the roster at CAC. We lined up Flo/Scott vs Mark/Stan and after the racket spin Scott and Flo chose to serve. Scott stepped up to serve and Flo lined up in the Australian formation to the surprise of the opponents. It did not work immediately as the first two points went to Mark/Stan but eventually it did have an effect and Scott held serve to go up 1-0. Mark stepped up to serve next and quickly put his big kick serve to work and held easily. Flo served and also got in a little trouble but was able to close out the game on her famous drop serve. Stan served and also had a tight game but was able to withstand some planned rally poaching and held for 2-2. Everybody held serve again with Scott and Flo mixing in the I – Formation and some regular poaches, fake poaches. 4-4 is where things took a wrong turn as Scott was broken by a stellar lob from Stan deep in the backhand corner. Mark finished it out on his serve and even hit a stunning between the legs winner off a Scott drop shot return of serve. 6-4 win for Stan and Mark.
We switched partners and Scott/Stan reunited for the first time in a long time held off Flo/Mark with a 6-3 win and then in the third set Mark/Scott barely defeated Stan/Flo 5-4 with a wild 12-10 -Ten point tiebreaker needed to decide the 4-4 tie when time ran out. Both teams had set points in the tiebreaker.
If we had a little more time we could have enjoyed a post match meal in the Cafe or Lobby Bar at the adjoining Doubletree Hotel but alas right before Christmas we all had places to go and stuff to do to prepare for the Holidays. We are always grateful to get on court with tennis friends and burn some calories and practice our skills.