APTA now has 265 member clubs with courts in seven countries, including Poland and Russia

“This season,” APTA’s President Robert Brown reports enthusiastically, “our Association, with 265 member clubs and about 1,000 individual members, is sanctioning nine national championship tournaments and another thirty-nine regional tournaments- a record for us.”

These tournaments are being held not only in the Northeast, the longtime bastion of platform tennis, but in such far-flung places as Hilton Head, South Carolina, Chicago, Cleveland and Denver.

The APTA estimates that there are now 2,500 to 3,000 courts in the United States, with more than 100,000 devotees of all ages. Courts are also springing up in Japan, Germany, Italy, Puerto Rico, Canada and Poland.

NOTE: There were also courts in Russia – see articles referenced below.

Source:“It’s Platform Tennis”, John P. Ware, Travel & Leisure, March 1974.

See also: Moscow thrashes Warsaw and US Ambassador to Poland, Walter Stoessel, imports Platform Tennis to Warsaw

APTA changes to a twelve-point tie breaker

It didn’t take long before a committee consisting of tournament level players and headed by APTA President Bob Brown re-visited the nine-point tie-breaker adopted in early 1974.

The nine-point tie-breaker rule stated that if two teams reached 4-all the next point decided the set. This was considered unfair.

The APTA subsequently adopted a 12-point tie-breaker of its own, one in which the first team winning 7 points takes the set. If the teams reach 6-all then it takes a margin of two points to win (e.g. 8-6 or 12-10)

The sequence in the APTA 12-point tiebreaker is as follows:

Assume the last point of the set has ended, and the game score is 6-all. The players stay on the same side of the net and the next player in the regular service rotation serves once from the ad court.

When that point is over, the players change sides and the normal serving rotation continues with each player serving twice from the deuce court first and then the ad court.

After two players have served and the four points are over the teams change sides again and the other two competitors serve twice apiece in the normal service rotation.

This pattern is maintained through-out the remainder of the tie-breaker.

In this system, each player serves on the same side as he had been doing from the start of the set and do not have to contend with a new orientation to the winter sun.

This approach to the 12-point tie-breaker is unlike tennis where the first serve is from the deuce court and then each player serves from the ad court and then the deuce court. The teams also remain on one side for six consecutive points

Source: Platform Tennis Feb/Mar 1981

Cleveland Masters – They thought this was going to be the first money tournament

Welcome to the best location in the nation – Cleveland, of course. To all our old friends its super to see you again, and to you new faces, its great to see you guys as well.

For the men it is a historical occasion! Who would believe we would be pounding the pill for the long hard green. For the first time in the history of our favorite sport, dollars are replacing the firm handshake and the clasp on the back1 from the not so ardent admirers. For some, perhaps the courts will get smaller, the wires a little looser, and the lines altogether erased; but not to any of the fine sportsmen gathered here this week. I am sure, it will be more of the same – great paddle, good fellowship, super parties, and naturally lousy weather.

Masters? You know what masters are. Masters are the top of their professions, the best of whatever they are trying to do; and what we have gathered here this weekend, male and female, is exactly what we hope to do as the years slide by. We think we have the right formula for Paddle Tennis success in continuing the innovations that hopefully we are known for in Cleveland.

We have two companies in particular that are making this possible and many, many others in the supporting role. Myles Reilly, President of R. J. Reilly, Jr. Inc., paddle tennis court builders extraordinaire, called on the phone on a typically Cleveland dreary fall day and said that their firm would be interested in sponsoring the first, and hope· fully, the best sanctioned monied tournament ever played in the U.S. Myles said his company wanted to do it in Cleveland where innovations have become commonplace. Flattered we were, and accepted their kind offer we did. Not only is their support a valued cash donation, but the center aluminum court at the Cleveland Racquet Club is also installed and loaned to the Masters by their company as well.

We are also fortunate to have in town one of the great companies with an eye not only for the girls but for the sport-minded as welL Jess Bell of Bonne Bell Cosmetics was asked if he and his company would have an interest in joining hands to support the Masters, and Jess responded quite so. The final details were ironed out one morning when Jess was running his daily five-mile jog from home to office. Bonne Bell also is the only company, believe it or not, in greater Cleveland to have its own paddle tennis court less than one hundred steps from the President’s office! To all of the Reillys and all of the Bells, we in Cleveland so thank you for sponsoring our First Masters. We are also most appreciative for all of the other sponsors from the Corporations as well as to the Individual Sustaining Sponsors that are making the tournament possible.

Why Prize Money? Cleveland was most anxious to trap the best athletes in the country to play the game we all love. At some point in time we are hopeful of spreading the game to the inner-city and other places where it might not normally be found. We think controlled
commercial ism is good for the game and we want a part in it, to help direct the game on a direct course rather than have it slide into the hands of people that sell their interest first and the game itself somewhere less than last place. It is our way of helping the APT A to sponsor junior tournaments, Executive Secretary, training films, year book and whatever.

We are glad you are here to participate in the First of what we hope will be many fantastic Masters. We have to apologize to everybody about the draw — – but don’t call us, we’ll call you.The Directors

Source: Cleveland Masters Tournament Brochure, November, 1974

Note 1: Not so. The first APTA-sanctioned professional tournament was the Vat Gold Cup held in 1973 and the Mercedes Benz Classic which had been held the week before the Cleveland Masters on Amelia Island, FL was the first tournament for cash

The first platform tennis tournament for cash – Mercedes-Benz Platform Tennis Classic

Held in Mid-November at Amelia Island Plantation, FL, the tournament consisted of eight of the top nine nationally-ranked teams. The winning team of Mangan and Kingsbury received $2,000, while the runners-up, Steele and Jennings, earned $500.

Highlights of the tournament were shown on the CBS show Sports Spectacular on Sunday February 23, 1975

Even though most of the players on the tour had full-time jobs outside of platform tennis, with the majority of them working in the finance industry, the prize money added another enticement to the game.

APTA Honor Award: Reilly

Richard J. Reilly, Jr. was a major force in developing the game through his innovations in court construction and his unwavering support for the game over many years.

Among his many improvements to court engineering was the pioneering of the aluminum deck in the early 1970s

Reilly’s contributions helped make the game what it is today and was a factor in expanding the reaches of the game across the U.S., as well as to Canada, France, Poland, Bulgaria, and Japan.

Committee on Commercialization

Foreseeing the likelihood of company-sponsored “tours,” a special Committee on Commercialization chaired by Mike North, was formed.,

By mid-1974, the APTA formally established its policy on commercial activities and decided to maintain control over all commercial tournament activities, as not doing so would have undoubtedly led to the establishment of a separate professional organization.

Bob Kingsbury was appointed director of commercial activities, while Gloria Dillenbeck, Executive Secretary, assisted him.

Umpires Committee established

Prompted by increasing concern about line calls and foot-faulting, APTA President Robert Brown formed a committee to advise and recommend steps to cope with these matters. The committee recommended the establishment of an Umpires Committee, whose function would be to post line judges to make out calls and any foot-fault calls.

The APTA concurred with the recommendation. Paul Malloy, Paul Sullivan and Brook Kindred, from Fox Meadow formed the nucleus, along with renowned tennis umpires Jack Stahr and Mike Dunne.

Change to rule for ball over the screen

Previously, when a ball went over the screen, the point had been played as a let. Under the new rule, approved by the APTA Board in September, the striker lost the point outright.

The Board intended to evaluate the rule over the coming season to see if it should be confirmed or discarded.

It was later confirmed.

APTA addresses foot-faults

In order to discourage foot-faults, the partner of the receiver was now empowered to call them against the server. This experimental rule was based on a Jack Stahr “Decisions” column from the July 1973 issue of World Tennis. The intent of the APTA was to evaluate the rule over the coming season to see if it should be confirmed or discarded.

The appropriate section of this ruling was as follows:

Question: “…who is entitled to call foot-faults?”

Ruling: ” …..simply call a few of those services ‘faults’ under a broad interpretation of the official Explanation under Rule 8, which says that ‘it is customary for the Receiver to determine whether the service is good or a fault.’ (If it is illegally delivered, it is a fault.) This might not be the most sociable thing to do, but consider the unsociable effect that legal servers experience upon seeing their opponents take unfair advantage of them. ”