Super-Seniors: Age Will Be Served

Little wonder that he is ranked No. 1. During practice sessions last week, he hit 100 forehand and 100 backhand shots--all with his racquet cover on to make swinging more difficult. Removing the cover, he stroked another 200 balls before loosening up his shoulder with 25 practice serves. Then he limbered up his legs--already toughened by twice-weekly circuits of a 4 1/2-mile-long cross-country ski trail--with 100 or so turns of a jump rope. Finally he took to the court for several brisk sets of tennis. Still, though he is as hard as a spike at 6 ft., 170 Ibs., the champ was not satisfied. "My return of serve is out the window, and I'm not in shape," he complained. "I need to lose six or seven pounds this month to get ready for the outdoor season."

Jimmy Connors? Brian Gottfried? Bjorn Borg? They should live so long. The tireless champ is Clarence Chaffee, 75, who dominates U.S. grass and clay courts in the 75-and-over division, and was winning matches when the parents of today's stars were in diapers. Chaffee, the retired tennis, squash and soccer coach at Williams College (Mass.), is one of the most remarkable of the 1,200 or so Super-Seniors--players who are at least 55 years old and still compete in tournament tennis. In the five years since the Super-Senior organization was founded, divisions have been formed first for free-swinging 60s, then for 65s, 70s and 75s. This year Super-Senior President C. Alphonso ("Smithy") Smith, who as a mere stripling of 68 has already won some 30 national championships, has organized the 80s, surely the sport's most exclusive fraternity. To mark the inaugural. Smithy, as nonplaying captain, is taking a team consisting of Henry Doyle, 81, and Travis Smith, 80, to England this June. There, as a side event to the Wimbledon tournament, they will confront a team of English octogenarians.

Pacemakers and Corsets. In addition to their long experience, Super-Seniors bring to the court a variety of infirmities. Travis Smith, who enters 15 to 18 tournaments a year, totes to each event a set of electrocardiograms for the benefit of local doctors--should their assistance be needed. His only real problem since a heart attack 15 years ago arose when his first implanted pacemaker proved inadequate for his vigorous regimen. Pacemaker No. 2, he says, works just fine. When Chaffee plays, he wears a steel-ribbed corset to support his back; he has a displaced vertebra. Yet he is able to intimidate most of his baseline-hugging contemporaries by constantly rushing the net. Says Smithy: "Before Chaffee, the only time the 75s came to the net was to shake hands after the match."

The scourge of the 70s group, Buddy Goeltz, 71, wears a hearing aid. It faltered during the finals of the U.S. Clay Court Championships last fall, preventing him from hearing any of the linesmen's calls. He still won, 6-0, 6-0, beating Sam Shore, 71. Bitsy Grant, 66, a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team in the mid-1930s, has had cataract operations on both eyes, and wears sunglasses and a sun visor on the court. But none of the ailments of the Super-Seniors is as celebrated as that of L. Roe Campbell, 77, secretary-treasurer of the organization, who three years ago faced surgery to lock his right wrist in place. Undaunted, Campbell arrived at the hospital on the day of the operation carrying a tennis racquet. Instructing the surgeon to watch closely, he held the racquet in an Eastern forehand grip. "Lock the wrist just so," he ordered. Campbell's forehand, opponents complain, has never been more effective.

Final Match. Super-Seniors were saddened this season when two nationally ranked players in the 70s category. A.L. ("Red") Enloe and Steve Gary, died on the court of heart attacks while competing in the Florida winter circuit. Their deaths led the U.S. Tennis Association to issue a ruling last month limiting Super-Senior players 65 and over to one singles and one doubles match a day during a national tournament. To a man, Super-Senior players say the heart attacks and strokes that occur occasionally on the courts would probably have happened anyway--at a desk or even in bed. They insist that the tennis court is where they want to face the ultimate match point anyway--preferably just after they have aced their opponent.

Indeed, medical studies show that most aged but active tennis players are in exceptionally good health. A team of orthopedic surgeons examining competitors at the National Clay Court Championships for 70s and 75s last fall found that their circulation, coordination and memory were superior to those of their more sedentary contemporaries.

Though Super-Seniors have as intense an aversion to losing as today's well-paid professionals, they make their own line calls, rarely dispute a referee's ruling and never indulge in Nastase-like tantrums. That gentlemanly attitude makes life easier for Alphonso Smith, who will supervise the U.S. Clay Court Championships for 70s, 75s and 80s this September in Charlottesville, Va. "But the real reason I like the Super-Seniors," he says with tongue tucked firmly in cheek, "is that you don't have to worry about getting harassed by the parents."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.