Tennis is Geneva man's racket
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
On a tennis court at Rush-Copley Healthplex, Mike Lange of Geneva sends balls flying over a net, again and again, challenging the skills of two women on the other side.
These women will never play Centre Court in the championship at Wimbledon. But they love tennis enough to play on a team for the Aurora gym, and are dedicated enough to come on a midday afternoon to practice placing shot after shot after shot.
And Lange is happy they are here. It reaffirms what he's been doing as a tennis pro all these years, trying to piqué people's interest in the game he loves.
Lane was named the best tester of tennis pros in the United States in 2008 by the U.S. Professional Tennis Association; he's the top grader of teachers, as it were.
He's worked at Rush-Copley for 11 years, overseeing the programs on its eight indoor and six outdoor courts.
"We have everything," he says. "We do a lot of things to wow the members."
And a big part of his passion is making sure those who teach the game and run tennis programs do so properly. It is more than how to hold a racket or bounce the ball.
A pro needs to know about the business side of tennis, such as how to manage a shop, lead a class, schedule classes, develop programs and hire others.
But of course, there also is the game itself: the rules, the regulations. How consistent a teacher is with her serve, their rally skills, feeding the ball to their students, placing drop shots.
So Lange administers tests, all over the country. The test takes two days.
"That tells me that they are serious about this business," Lange said of the applicants.
He does it 12 times a year.
Early start
Tennis was huge in the 1970s when Lange was growing up and people like Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors were household names.
Lange started playing at age 10, in a school physical education class in Elk Grove Village.
"I just fell in love with it," he said.
He's been a certified pro for 25 years, working at the Butterfield Country Club in Oak Brook, the Hinsdale Racquet Club and the East Bank Club in Chicago before landing at Rush-Copley.
He also has a side business, running tennis programs for the Geneva, Batavia, Plainfield and DeKalb park districts.
Lange finds himself wielding his Wilson K-Factor on the court about 20 hours a week. The rest of the time is spent supervising the pros and overseeing the tennis facility, which draws players from as far away as Wheaton and St. Charles.
"We're successful here because we have good pros," he said.
Participation in the sport is on the rebound, with participation levels at a 16-year high, according to the U.S. Tennis Association. There are a variety of options besides plain games. There are classes that combine cardiovascular workouts with tennis, set to music; the Tennis Welcome Center initiative for people who have never played, designed to get them swinging away fast; programs for people who use wheelchairs; programs for people who have special mental and physical needs; and programs with shorter courts and modified scoring, designed to appeal to young children.
"Tennis is back. Tennis is definitely back," Lange says.