On March 6th-9th , the sport of Platform Tennis will take it’s grandest stage as the sport travels to Las Vegas to be a part of the ATP Tour’s event called “The Tennis Channel Open”. This will mark the first time the sport has been associated with another professional event at the same time! The likes of defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, Fernando Gonzalez, Marcos Baghdatis, and The Bryan Brothers will compete on one stage as Platform Tennis will be a part of a side event called “Tennispalooza”.

0rganizers Jason Gray, Jean Kempner, and David Dodge (Premier Platform Tennis), along with the APTA, are proud to showcase the sport out west for the first time. The group has put together what they feel will be a unique one-of-a-kind, four-day event called “Platformpalooza”. The festivities will take place in Summerlin, Nevada, at The Darling Memorial Tennis Center. Along with “Platformpalooza”, spectators will also enjoy the Women’s USTA Pro Circuit Tournament, “Paddle Tennis” Championships, ITA Collegiate Tennis, USTA Jr. Tennis Tournament, Shotgun 21 Tournament, USTA Appreciation Day, Kids Day, Fabulous Las Vegas Night, High School Tennis Skills Challenge, and the Yellow & White Out benefiting the American Cancer Society & The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

“Platformpalooza” will consist of 4 days (Thurs-Sun) of various activities to bring awareness to the sport of platform tennis. The PPTA will be conducting daily (day/evening sessions) instructional clinics that will include some of the finest platform tennis instructors in the country. When clinics are not scheduled, fans will be treated to exciting exhibitions and an organized round robin tournament that will also feature some of the finest platform tennis player’s in the country. As a bonus for the round robin tournament, The Tennis Channel will attempt to provide a “Wild Card” team of ATP Touring Professionals to join the event and attract more exposure.

In addition to the on-court activities, volunteers from different regions of the country will be on hand to work an APTA booth and promote platform tennis throughout the entire facility. Spectators will be able to stop by the APTA booth to find out more about the sport, sign up for clinics, sign up for daily raffles, grab promotional materials (brochures, magazines, etc.), and check out the latest equipment.

As well as all the exciting activities that will be provided, the greatest exposure will come from guaranteed “LIVE” coverage that will be televised daily. This will be another first for the sport. As clinics are being conducted and matches being displayed the rest of the country will be able to watch with excitement, as the network will be viewing various segments of our activities each day.

When it’s all said and done, “Platformpalooza” will be the largest promotional platform tennis event in the history of the sport! To learn more about the event, please check out www.TennisChannelOpen.com and click on “Special Events” or go to www.PlatformTennis.org.

Sandra Odenbach filed this report with PTM:

Shortly after Christmas I received an email from PTM Editor Wayne Dollard asking me to call him. I learned that he wanted to do a feature article on my husband Fritz that would run in the February issue of the magazine. He wanted it to be a surprise and would I be willing to write it.

I started to panic and shot off a quick email to Wayne asking him to be more specific on what he wanted in this article. All I got was “Five hundred words, I’ll edit, I need it in two weeks.” Yikes.

So, undercover I decided to go, determined to find out as much information about him as I could, getting help from his friends, picking his brain whenever possible and encouraging him to tell me all his paddle stories.

A die-hard Red Sox fan, Fritz Odenbach, or “Freddie” as many like to call him, grew up in a family of nine children in the town of Penfield, New York.

As a young man, summers were spent sailing, playing tennis with his father and brothers, and working in the family quarry business. Winters were spent playing paddle.

Almost 30 years ago, Fritz and his brother Gardner built the first permanent, public paddle courts here in Rochester at Shadow Lake. Now there are twenty-eight courts at eleven neighboring clubs, Shadow Lake having the most with five (plus three temporary courts will be added at Shadow Lake to accommodate the Nationals, in March of this year).

Fritz didn’t start the platform tennis leagues in Rochester, but he was certainly a huge influence. Currently, there are over 700 men and women playing weekly in the Rochester Interclub Paddle League, a league that Fritz ran for over 15 years. The leagues are now run by John and Claudia Topping.

A tireless promoter of the game, Fritz has also run the Rochester Districts for 20 years and won it nine times with nine different partners. Fritz has won many more local tournaments over the years, including the Shadow Lake Tournament, usually with a different partner each time.

Always interested in bringing new faces to the game, Fritz will talk to anyone, anytime about the game and will play with any level player just to entice someone new into trying this sport that has brought him so much joy.

He has also served on the Board of the APTA for eight years and launched the Promotional Committee which put a press kit into effect and helped initiate junior paddle tournaments.

Twenty years ago Fritz took over the Ranking Committee and has served diligently ever since, only handing over the reins to Ray Crosta this year so he could concentrate on running the Nationals.

This will be the fourth Nationals that Fritz has chaired. Rochester was also the host of the 1988, 1996 and 2000 Nationals with Fritz at the helm and has the reputation for having the best party. Hopefully, we will be able to keep that tradition alive and strong again this year.

Fritz has had many partners over the years, some more successful than others, but I doubt you will find one person with something bad to say about Fritz as an athlete, competitor and gentleman.

Fritz’s longest standing partner was his cousin Rick Williams, who played with him for about seven years. After that came Martin Sturgess with whom he had a very successful number of years, winning many regional tournaments and playing President’s Cup. Mike Stulac and Fritz battled each other for years on the paddle courts. Fritz finally recruited him to play, winning several national ranking tournaments together and making it to the semi-finals of the Nationals in both 1999 and 2000. Unfortunately, Fritz was unable to make a real commitment to Mike as both of his kids were playing travel hockey during the winter months. As we all know, Mike went on to win the Nationals in 2005 with Bill Anderson and that brought Fritz great pride.

Last year, Fritz and I were lucky enough to make it to the finals of the Husband and Wife Nationals in Chicago and lost a tough three setter to Dan and Sarah Williams in snow, gale force winds and frigid temperatures. Fritz likes to joke that he’s a “mixed” player now. So I was thrilled when a couple of months ago Fritz and his partner Doug Jones won the Cleveland Tournament. It was the first National Ranking tournament that Fritz has won in many years and they did it in great style upsetting the number one, three and four seeds to claim the title. But I think one of Fritz’s greatest paddle achievements was winning the 45 Nationals with Rusty Wright in 2006 at the age of 50. It was an amazing three set match against Bill Fiedler and Scott Bondurant, won 7-5 in the third set. Senior players, I say, what are those?!

Just recently we received the news that Fritz was to be inducted into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame. To be inducted in his hometown in front of all his friends and family is truly an honor. It is an honor that has brought tears to my husband’s eyes. All his achievements and hard work really mean nothing to him. He has done everything for the love of this game. This game we call paddle tennis.

Ever the optimist, it is sometimes difficult for a mortal person like me to live up to the expectations of such a modest man. All he expects is to be treated the way he treats others, fairly and kindly. As a man, father, step-father, brother and husband I am in awe and so proud of him.

Fritz Odenbach was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008

The event was a Men’s and Women’s National Ranking Tournament

“Last year’s event was wonderful, but we want this year to be even better.” With those words, Dave Marvin, Co-Founder and CEO of Marvin and Palmer Associates, Inc., set the goal for the 2008 Philly Open.

The event will be hosted by the Overbrook Golf Club on the weekend of February 23rd and 24th and will be Chaired by Simon Peppiatt.

Philadelphia hospitality will welcome all visitors with open arms, plenty of food and drink and extra amenities, including on-site massage therapy, available all day Saturday.

Prize money will be increased to $5,000/team for the men’s and women’s winners and the top 10 men’s and women’s teams will end up in the money. [enlarge image to read more about the event and prize money]