Greg Hansen's top 10 boys high school tennis players in Tucson history
- Updated
Tucson High's Bill Lenoir, who played at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, tops the list.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: The top 10 boys high school tennis players from Tucson:
Eric Evett got his tennis genes from a good source: his father, Arthur Evett, was a standout tennis player at Washington State who continued to win age-group competitions after moving to Tucson to become a physics instructor at the UA.
Those genes were passed along to Eric’s younger brother, Rand Evett, who went on to win Western Athletic Conference singles championships at Arizona in 1971 and 1972.
You could make a strong case that the Evett’s are Tucson’s No. 1 tennis family, although the Hardy brothers, Mark and Craig, should be considered. And also the Bermudez family – Dom, Rita and Carlos – as well as the Lee’s, the McGeorge’s, the Pothoff’s and the Sufi’s, among others.
Eric Evett won back-to-back state championships at Catalina High School in 1964 and 1965, putting together a 54-match winning streak until losing the state title in 1966 to Scottsdale’s Butch Palmer, then ranked No. 5 in world 18U rankings.
Evett himself was ranked as high as No 35, and later became the captain of Arizona’s then-powerful men’s tennis program, which included a victory over No. 1 Trinity College of Texas.
After his UA days, Evett was awarded an NCAA Post-Graduate scholarship for his work in math/physics. He had a 3.96 GPA as a Wildcat and went on to be on the breaking edge of computer technologies at Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments before returning to Tucson 12 years ago.
Tennis hasn’t been a high-profile sport in Tucson for several decades, but from the ‘50s to the ‘80s it carried both clout and style. Here are my rankings of the 10 leading boys tennis players from Tucson:
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Not only was he ranked No. 1 in the United States for boys 18U after winning 1959 and 1960 state singles titles, he played at Wimbledon and in the U.S. Open and became the UA’s head tennis coach when he was 23. He was a first-team All-American at Arizona and spent his life as a tennis instructor/coach.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Climbing to No. 1 in the world doubles rankings, Grabb won the French Open and was a finalist at Wimbledon. He was a first-team All-American at Stanford, captain of the 1986 NCAA championship team, and later a Davis Cup regular. Grabb did not win a state championship at Tucson, choosing to move to Scottsdale to train with a tennis instructor after his junior year.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
If there is anything like “The Father of Tennis” in Tucson, it would be the 1949 and 1950 state champion from Tucson High. He became a legend in Tucson’s tennis community for decades.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Their father, Arthur, was a physics instructor at Yale and was employed by the department of defense in Washington D.C. in the 1950s before moving to Tucson.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Winner of the 1962 and 1963 state championships, Salant might’ve become the first three-time state singles champion in Arizona but spent his junior year studying in Lebanon before returning in 1965 to win the state doubles championship.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Mark won the 1969 state singles championship and 1968 state doubles title; Craig won the 1966 state doubles championship. Both went on to become regulars during the top era of tennis at Arizona.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Tucson’s only three-time state singles champion, Kosaraju won the Class 4A titles in 1989, 1990 and 1991 as a freshman, sophomore and junior before becoming a standout at Harvard.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The father, Mike, won the state singles title at Sabino in 1980. He went on to play professionally and be a key player at Arizona. His youngest son, Mike, won the state singles title at Catalina Foothills in 2013, and his brother, Jackson, won the state doubles title at Foothills in 2011.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Winner of 11 consecutive City Championships championships, Styrmoe became an All-Big Sky Conference player at Weber State, where he was inducted into the school’s sports Hall of Fame.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
A standout at New Mexico who now plays professionally overseas, McDaniels has won six straight City Championships after finishing No. 2 in the state tournament in 2010.
More like this...
- Greg Hansen
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: The top 10 boys high school tennis players from Tucson:
Eric Evett got his tennis genes from a good source: his father, Arthur Evett, was a standout tennis player at Washington State who continued to win age-group competitions after moving to Tucson to become a physics instructor at the UA.
Those genes were passed along to Eric’s younger brother, Rand Evett, who went on to win Western Athletic Conference singles championships at Arizona in 1971 and 1972.
You could make a strong case that the Evett’s are Tucson’s No. 1 tennis family, although the Hardy brothers, Mark and Craig, should be considered. And also the Bermudez family – Dom, Rita and Carlos – as well as the Lee’s, the McGeorge’s, the Pothoff’s and the Sufi’s, among others.
Eric Evett won back-to-back state championships at Catalina High School in 1964 and 1965, putting together a 54-match winning streak until losing the state title in 1966 to Scottsdale’s Butch Palmer, then ranked No. 5 in world 18U rankings.
Evett himself was ranked as high as No 35, and later became the captain of Arizona’s then-powerful men’s tennis program, which included a victory over No. 1 Trinity College of Texas.
After his UA days, Evett was awarded an NCAA Post-Graduate scholarship for his work in math/physics. He had a 3.96 GPA as a Wildcat and went on to be on the breaking edge of computer technologies at Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments before returning to Tucson 12 years ago.
Tennis hasn’t been a high-profile sport in Tucson for several decades, but from the ‘50s to the ‘80s it carried both clout and style. Here are my rankings of the 10 leading boys tennis players from Tucson:
- Greg Hansen
Not only was he ranked No. 1 in the United States for boys 18U after winning 1959 and 1960 state singles titles, he played at Wimbledon and in the U.S. Open and became the UA’s head tennis coach when he was 23. He was a first-team All-American at Arizona and spent his life as a tennis instructor/coach.
- Greg Hansen
Climbing to No. 1 in the world doubles rankings, Grabb won the French Open and was a finalist at Wimbledon. He was a first-team All-American at Stanford, captain of the 1986 NCAA championship team, and later a Davis Cup regular. Grabb did not win a state championship at Tucson, choosing to move to Scottsdale to train with a tennis instructor after his junior year.
- Greg Hansen
Winner of the 1962 and 1963 state championships, Salant might’ve become the first three-time state singles champion in Arizona but spent his junior year studying in Lebanon before returning in 1965 to win the state doubles championship.
- Greg Hansen
The father, Mike, won the state singles title at Sabino in 1980. He went on to play professionally and be a key player at Arizona. His youngest son, Mike, won the state singles title at Catalina Foothills in 2013, and his brother, Jackson, won the state doubles title at Foothills in 2011.
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