Beach tennis, anyone?
Better stay out of Team Rhino’s way
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
Article published on Wednesday, April 23, 2008  |
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![[Image]](/content_images/042308_cit-03.jpg) |
| Photo courtesy of BULLSEYE PUBLIC RELATIONS |
| Mike Edison of Clearwater, competes in the 2007 National Beach Tennis Championship in Long Beach, N.Y. Edison and his tennis partner, Brett Johnson, won the Tampa Bay Open in Clearwater April 20. |
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CLEARWATER – Clearwater’s Team Rhino captured the trophy at the Beach Tennis Tampa Bay Open in Clearwater April 20.
Mike Edison and Brett Johnson, both from Clearwater, grew up playing tennis together outside of Washington, D.C. Throughout college, Edison played tennis and tried going pro after he graduated.
His professional career didn’t work out he said, but after playing in a tournament, he got recruited by Beach Tennis USA. The friends became beach tennis partners and called themselves Team Rhino.
The team took home $2,500 April 20 in prize money along with the coveted trophy. The competition was held at Club V, 12901 U.S. 19 in Clearwater.
And what is beach tennis? It’s like the X-Games for tennis, said John Rarrick, Beach Tennis USA account executive with Bullseye public relations. Mix beach volleyball with tennis and that’s what you get. The ball has less pressure than a regular tennis ball, and of course it can’t hit the sand, so it makes for an intense, fun game Rarrick said.
“It’s everything that tennis isn’t,” Rarrick said. “As much as it’s a big sporting event, it’s a big party.”
Beach tennis has been played for several decades, Rarrick said, but it only became an official U.S. sport in 2005. It’s gained popularity in sunny states like Florida and California and now Beach Tennis USA is on its 10-city 2008 national tour. Clearwater was its second stop, and it will wrap up the Florida leg May 3 with the Sunshine State Slam.
All the winners qualify for the 2008 National Championship in Long Beach, N.Y., Aug. 30 to September.
Pro tennis players have been known to come back to play beach tennis, Rarrick said, such as Gretchen Magers, a former Wimbledon competitor from the USA, and Pablo Arraya, an Argentinean tennis player who competed in the 1992 Olympics. But the atmosphere is the opposite of a conventional tennis game, Edison said.
“It’s not like regular tennis where you have to be quiet and everyone wears white,” Edison said. “Girls wear bikinis, guys wear just shorts, there’s music and food.”
Last year Team Rhino competed in the nationals but couldn’t nail down the win. Edison and Johnson will have another chance in a few months.
“My personal goal would be hopefully to finish No. 1 in the world,” Edison said, “but my goal for the game is to spread it to as many people as we can.”
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Article published on Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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