October 16, 1998

$50,000 HealthSouth/USTA Challeger Heads into Final Weekend

By J. Fred Sidhu

Tennis action continues through Sunday at the $50,000 HealthSouth/USTA Challenger at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club.

Today's schedule which begins at 10 a.m., features two quarterfinal singles matches with Alejandro Hernandez of Tijuana facing Cedric Kauffman of France and American Paul Goldstein taking on Mark Knowles of the Bahamas.

Early round matches have been both highly competitive and entertaining as five of the eight second round matches went to three sets and six of the eight seeded players were knocked out in the first round.

Former Wimbledon finalist, Malivai Washington, was seeded fifth in the tournament. He hardly had a chance to enjoy the San Diego weather as he was quickly ousted in the first round by Michael Hill of Australia, 6-4, 6-1.

Hill, who had won the $25,000 Challenger of Tij-uana earlier this summer, was beaten in the very next round by rapidly improving Maria-no Sanchez of Mexico.

Sanchez was scheduled to play a quarterfinal singles match yesterday against Jared Palmer of the United States.

The semifinals are scheduled for tomorrow and the finals will be played on Sunday.

While there was plenty of action on the courts at the San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club, there was also lots of activity off the courts.

The Southern California Section of the United States Tennis Association in conjunction with the tournament, held the USA Tennis Schools program at McKinley Elementary School in North Park and Oak Park Elementary School in Oak Park.

The program gave kids a chance to see what tennis is all about as well as take part in several tennis drills with a tennis pro.

USTA TENNIS CARNIVAL SCHEDULED

The HealthSouth Callenger of San Diego and the USTA is sponsoring a free tennis carnival for kids from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Barnes Tennis Center 4490 W. Point Loma Blvd., Point Loma.


ATP tour player Jared Palmer took time out from his tournament schedule to participate in the USTA Schools Program at McKinley Elementary in North Park.

Children of all ages and levels of tennis ability are invited. All attendees will receive a free gift compliments of HealthSouth.

There will be appearances by ATP Tour tennis professionals; tennis instruction by local teaching pros and more.

All those attending will receive a free ticket to Saturday's semifinal matches.

For more information on the tennis carnival, call (619) 221-9224.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for today's quarterfinal matches are $5; Saturday's semifinals are $10 and Sunday's finals are $15.

For ticket information, call (619) 275-3270.

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