The wacky
brothers will play an exhibition platform match Thursday at
Beckett Ridge Country Club in West Chester, against the nation's
top-ranked platform team of Dave Ohlmuller and Chris Gambino.
The Jensens also will play in the Midwestern Tournament, to
be held Saturday and Sunday at eight platform sites around
town.
Yeah,
it's a publicity stunt. But the exhibition will be taped for
nationwide airing in April on The Tennis Channel, which spells
exposure for the little-known sport.
"It's
like a hidden gem," Ohlmuller said. "We're trying
to get it more mainstream and out of the country club set,
where unfortunately it's always been."
Jason
Gray, director of racket sports at Beckett Ridge, arranged
this event and draws a distant parallel to the 1973 Billie
Jean King-Bobby Riggs match.
"You
think about what that did for women's tennis," Gray said.
"Hopefully this could catapult the sport."
OK. What
is platform tennis?
It's an
outdoor winter game, with a court that's 20 by 44 feet - one-fourth
the size of a tennis court - laid out on a deck that's 30
by 60. It's elevated a few feet and surrounded by a 12-foot,
wire-mesh fence.
There's
a slip-resistant surface, and many courts have heaters to
help melt accumulated snow. Matches can be played in light
rain or snow.
The paddle
has a fiberglass face and a foam core. The ball, heavier and
slower than a tennis ball, can be played off the screens.
Scoring is identical to that in tennis, though there are no
second serves. It's played primarily as doubles.
Platform
tennis - called "paddle" by regulars - was invented
in 1928 in Scarsdale, N.Y., and exists only in America. It's
played mostly in cold-weather, metropolitan cities, with the
largest bases being the New York and Chicago suburbs. Bob
Considine, who produces the www.paddlepro.com
Web site, said there are between 40,000 and 50,000 players
nationwide, and Gray said about 700 of those live here.
"The
game ebbs and flows," Considine said. "We're on
an upswing again. Probably the biggest period was in the '70s,
when NBC would cover the nationals."
Courts
cost nearly $50,000 to erect, so few exist for public use.
Of the nine platform clubs in Cincinnati, only one isn't a
country club: Queen City Racquet & Fitness Club, where
players can buy an annual platform membership for $347.75.
Gray said some locals are pushing for public courts to be
built at Lunken Playfield.
"The
barrier to entry is pretty great," Considine said. "If
you have to join a country club just to try the sport out,
it's not going to grow."
The Jensens
played this game some while growing up in Michigan, and they
arrived here Tuesday for more practice time.
"We're
going to be smoked, of course," Luke Jensen said. "We
have a better chance of winning the Iowa caucuses. But we
don't want to go out and embarrass ourselves."
Ohlmuller,
a 34-year-old from Long Island, has been ranked No. 1 for
six years. He and Gambino, a 34-year-old from Chicago, won
the 2001 and 2003 nationals together.
Jensen weekend
