I started playing tennis when I was in the 5th grade with Bruce Murdy at Lake Arrowhead. The Murdys lived in San Marino and their backyard backed up to the fence of the Huntington Hotel's tennis courts. You didn't have to be staying at the Huntington Hotel to play tennis there, just be a neighbor or in my case the friend of a neighbor. Anyway, the Murdy's were all pretty good tennis players, Bruce's mom, Bubbles, was a top ranked woman and his dad, Ted was also good. Bruce beat the crap out of me most of the time, then we became doubles partners.
I remember discovering some old "gut" stringed tennis rackets in the garage and used them for a while (probably should have saved them as they are collectors items now). Anyway, I played on the courts at K L Carver Elementary School with guys like Tom Lehmer and Tom Schulteis, who went on to become CIF champion players. We played at Huntington Junior High too and that's when I met Baker Moore, who was pretty good.
If I made one big athletic mistake in my life it was deciding to play baseball at SMHS instead of tennis but that's another subject . . . . I still love baseball and rarely play tennis.
Oh, Toni and I once went to the Vic Braden Tennis School in Coto de Caza . . . . learned alot from the master at that school.
here's some interesting links to tennis:
Tennis Magazine ATP Tour Wimbledon Jimmy Connors John McEnroe Bjorn Borg
USTA Tennis Quiz for Beginners