Frank Clem became the newly crowned Men’s Singles Champion in the recently concluded Tennis Tournament conducted by the Recreation Department at the Rec Center courts. Clem, who has been playing tennis for longer than most of the tourney participants have lived, really gave the younger set a lesson.
His top-seeded position proved a good rating, as he swept through his five matches without really serious opposition. His final match last Sunday was against last year’s High- School team captain, Jerry Giesecke, with Clem completely dominating the match and winning impressively 6-0 and 6-0.
Many of the games in the two sets actually went to deuce, but Clem had the shots to take the games. At the conclusion of the match, a handsome trophy was awarded to the winner.
A total of 35 men participated in the tournament which was conducted by Jerry Giesecke and Jeff Johnson of the Recreation Department staff. Age limit was 16 with no upper limit. Many fine early round matches were played with more than half the third-round matches going three sets.
In the third round Clem permitted the most games to go to an opponent, Dan McKenna scoring 4 games in his first set against the eventual victor. The second set of that match was 6-0 however. One of the finest matches of the tournament was the semifinal between Giesecke and Johnson which the former took on Saturday by scores of 7-5 and 6-4.
Recreation Superintendent Richard E. Ready has issued congratulations to the winner Frank Clem, and thanks to all who participated in this revival of a formerly most popular event, with special thanks to the tournament Co-directors, Giesecke and Johnson.
