We were thrilled to have Eric on the podcast! Eric won the USTA Men’s 55+ 4.5 singles National Championship at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, FL. Returning to tennis and competing at age 59 has profoundly changed his life and perhaps even saved it!

Eric is from Long Island New York. He currently plays in leagues, and trains in Naples, FL for most of the year, while living in Northern NJ during late Spring/Summer. He returned to competitive recreational tennis after a 35-year hiatus.

A Transcript of our Conversation with Eric

Carolyn: 0:05
Hi, this is Carolyn, and I’m here with aron, and we’re really excited to have Eric here with us. Eric recently won the USTA Men’s 55 Plus 4-5 Singles National Championship at the USTA National Campus in Florida and he has a really interesting background. So first, Eric, thank you so much for coming on, and can you tell us a little bit about this background?

Eric: 0:29
Oh, great. Well, thank you, it’s a pleasure being here with you today. I grew up playing tennis in Long Island, new York, and I was ranked in the Eastern Tennis Association when I was a kid. And then I had an opportunity to go on a trip to Sweden as like a sort of a player development as a kid and that was great. And then I was able to then play for the University of Denver and I played there for four years and went to nationals and then I stopped and this was like in the late 80s, and then I stopped to focus on a professional career, that I had gotten a job, it was all good. And then I played casually but nothing really competitively until about three years ago when my wife and I bought a place in Naples, florida, somehow through just playing and I got hooked into a tournament that got me into the golden ticket series of tournaments. So I qualified last year and played in the nationals, last year in Arizona and this year I played in Lake Nona. It’s really great, it’s been really great.

Erin: 1:26
The thing that blows me away is so I didn’t start playing till I was 40., so and I’m a four oh now and I’m pretty excited to be a four oh at you know, 50 some years old now, after never touching a racket. But it does prove to me that if you learn it as a kid and you play it as a high level as a kid, you can pick it back up very quickly as an adult. And you not only picked it up quickly, but you’re like four or five is the upper echelon for the United States, like you’re already a couple levels above, you know, the average best player in the US. So that’s really impressive to me.

Erin: 1:59
That’s not a question, that’s just a statement.

Eric: 2:02
Yeah, well, it’s definitely. I think when you do things as a kid, it’s there.

Erin: 2:06
Yeah, you mentioned returning to tennis and competing at age 59, not to out you on your age, but that it’s profoundly changed your life and perhaps even saved it. Tell us about how you feel like tennis saved you.

Eric: 2:19
Well, I think that after college I said I kind of stepped away for a little bit and I just wasn’t, I don’t know, over time over many decades just didn’t have the healthiest of lifestyles, all right. So let’s put it that way. And you know, I do some things. Once in a while I ran, I did a couple of marathons, but just over time it just just the work started getting to me and I had a you know challenge with my weight. Over time that sort of cropped up.

Eric: 2:47
And then around COVID, when that hit, I started, okay, trying to walk more and get on my bicycle. And around that time I had a bike accident. I fell off my bike and I broke my right hand I’m a right-handed tennis player. And then I was also going through another doctor’s appointment. I was diagnosed with heart disease at the time because of the weight that I’d had for a long player. And then I was also going through another doctor’s appointment. I was diagnosed with heart disease at the time because of the weight that I’d had for a long time. So it was a big wake-up call for me.

Eric: 3:11
And at the time it was two things. One, hey, the cardiologist said look, when I’m doing the whole assessment. He’s like you need more cardio in your life and your lifestyle. And I said, well, I used to be a tennis player, used to be. He’s like, well, play as much tennis as you can, because tennis is one of the healthiest sports.

Eric: 3:28
And then my hand was like now I needed surgery. So the doctor who was doing the surgery said well, I’ll do my part and fix your hand, but you have to do your part because you’re a little older, you have to put the work in for the therapy. And so going through that surgery was a bit scary for me. So I just, you know, I prayed for help and so forth and I said, look, I promised myself, look, if I can come out of the surgery and my hand works and I can put my hand on a racket again, this is like my second chance really to just be healthy again really and just really incorporate a better, healthier lifestyle.

Eric: 4:04
So I started the journey of, you know, just changing my diet. I lost a whole bunch of weight, like 50 pounds, and then eventually, you know, get myself to the point where you know you’re competing at a four or five level. What’s the difference between that? And so it is a lot of running around, and I think I still need to lose weight to run around with the guys that I’m playing with, you know. And so I think that the idea of not only just playing but competing to be able to and once I was able to start competing and realize there’s a place for that for adults, and how exciting and wonderful it is to meet all these wonderful people and there’s a like this is a place for me and it’s a place for me to just help me, just just get healthier and just get back on the court.

Erin: 4:51
Yeah, and you know I’m sure you’ve heard the statistics that tennis adds 9.7 on the average, 9.7 years to someone’s life. So not only did you get healthy, lose weight, now you’re socially, you know you have a group, you know that’s looking out for you. There’s just so many benefits to it. I actually think it’s also a huge brain game. I’m always like, sometimes I’m mentally exhausted after playing more than physically, because I’ve, you know, had to think and I realized that that’s why that 9.7 years is such a big factor for tennis, absolutely.

Eric: 5:22
You know, I find that what I really enjoy about it is that, well, you go on an emotional roller coaster ride when you’re competing I mean you really do and so some of that is not the good parts of it, you know. But you know I do find that, hey, when you can find your flow, when you find that peace, if you will, in the moment, which is hard to get, but once you’re in that moment it’s beautiful, yeah, and you just kind of want to stay there and just enjoy for what it is, regardless if you win or lose. You’re just doing your best and you’re just having a great time.

Carolyn: 5:55
Can you also tell us your most memorable moment?

Eric: 5:57
on the court. So just recently I played in the nationals and it was a real journey for me to get to that, to qualify. And you know, it was a real journey for me to get to that, to qualify. I qualified one year, the year previous, in Arizona, and I lost in the semifinals and I was kind of bummed about it. I said, hey, I need to get ready. If I’m going to win this thing. I have to get way more ready physically and just tune up a bunch of stuff to be able to do it. So it was great to just do it, go through the process. I was ready, super ready, everything was working well and my parents were there, my dad was there, so it was great for me to win it.

Eric: 6:32
But just the fact that he was there, my parents are in Naples, florida, as I am for the last three years, and I kind of feel like there’s this kind of irony that I’m 59 years old and I feel like my dad and I he’s around me supporting me, like my number one coach and fan and all that stuff. He’s around me now more watching me play tennis, more now than I was when I was in college, because when I was in college in Denver. He wasn’t around all the time. I mean, he didn’t see anything. I’m in nationals. I could just at that time I think there was no cell phones I think I put a quarter in the payphone and said, dad, I’m in Kansas City and they’re just telling them what’s going on. It was like you know all that stuff. So he was there and it was just a great, you know, milestone for us and we’d always wanted to go to Lake Nona and the campus facility, which was just a really like a destination. You know, I mean, for me in the United States, going to Lake Nona, the campus is the equivalent of like I don’t know a Christian going to the Vatican, right, okay, you know, it’s a beautiful, wonderful experience to just figure out a way to get there and play, okay, and that was, and I enjoyed that with my family, my mom, dad, my sister was there and a friend. That was just a just a wonderful thing. I would say.

Eric: 7:42
If there’s a time for another one, it’s. The second one was when, again, I was young and I had an opportunity to go. I was 18 years old and I was able to live in Sweden for a year After high school, but before college I lived in Sweden for a year and I was training and doing player development, all that kind of stuff. And I played in a tournament and I’m in Sweden and I was in like a I don’t know a tournament. It wasn’t really a big, it was like a level three tournament. It wasn’t really like a big deal, but it was enough that it was like it’s a tournament. It was like four rounds to the finals and I won it. Okay, and they’re calling the score in Swedish and everything, and it was like wow, I’m away, I’m off the long Island.

Erin: 8:21
Yeah.

Eric: 8:22
And I won this thing and so I got a little trophy and I got these glass dessert trays, or just glass desserts dishes that came from it, from Sweden, and I’m like, what am I going to do? I’m 18 years old, I got these things, I shipped them to my parents, whatever. To this day, we use those plates for every single birthday celebration. We get together. And the other cool thing about it was because I played that tournament, I was able to get a wild card invitation to qualify for the Stockholm Open at 18 years old.

Erin: 9:00
Wow so.

Eric: 9:00
I played in the qualifying rounds of the Stockholm Open. I’m like this tennis adventure journey is kind of like going to the next level of getting out of Long Island. Here’s where I am now, so that was a huge moment for me.

Carolyn: 9:18
Oh, that’s great.

Erin: 9:18
I love it. I love that you still use the dessert dishes to this day all these years later. Yeah, it’s crazy Right because I’m sure an 18-year-old was like what am I going to do with this? But now you appreciate it as an adult.

Eric: 9:30
Yeah, exactly.

Carolyn: 9:34
Thanks to Eric for coming on the podcast. We have another episode where he tells us the differences between playing in leagues versus tournaments and also the craziest thing that’s ever happened to him on a tennis court. We hope you check out our website, which is SecondServePodcastcom. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you next time.