THE STRANGER AT COURTSIDE: TOKYO 1988


In 1988 I landed the job of Chinese National Junior Coach. A total of 4 boys and 4 girls were selected from players from throughout the country and these players were trained for two months inside mainland China, at a small city called Chungshan. 

This was the beginning of China’s emergence back into the international tennis mainstream after decades of isolation.  We later played junior ITF tournaments in Jakarta, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.

Also at those same ITF tournaments was a junior Thai team under the management of a local ex-pat named Gordon U.E Martin.  I already knew Gordon from my time in Bangkok and also knew that he was a true tennis fanatic. 

Gordon helped put Thai tennis on the map in those early days by bringing professional men's tennis to Thailand and by starting ITF junior events in Bangkok for the first time. Those early ITF Junior events started by Gordon are still held annually each year until this day. 

Gordon was particularly interested in the history of Asian tennis and after years of research, he eventually published the Asian Tennis Encyclopedia. His book is still the definitive history of tennis in the Asian region.

Gordon and I spent a lot of time together on that trip and he was fascinated by my Chinese players, as he seemed to have a real interest in all things Chinese.

It was in Tokyo during that trip where my story takes place.  One evening as the matches were finishing for the day I was making my way back to the clubhouse and hoping to catch the bus back to the tournament hotel.  It was bitterly cold, but I noticed Gordon on the backcourts watching a late match being played under the lights.

I approached him and he was quick to introduce me to the only other spectator watching the match. It was the father of one of the players and Gordon explained to me that he had struck up a conversation while the man was watching his son. They discovered that they knew each other from years earlier in New York. Gordon used to buy his breakfast at the diner this man worked at, and now they had met here at courtside in Tokyo!

The three of us stood talking as the man’s son played his first-round match. The boy wasn’t bad either, a bit too laid back to ever make it at the top level but a solid player. 

As it turned out the stranger at courtside was Mr. Sampras and his son Pete went on to have a fairly decent career winning 15 Grand Slam singles titles!

Pete Sampras is one of the most successful players in tennis history

Many years later I met Pete's older brother, Gus, in L.A.  My colleague David Nelson and I were meeting Gus to try and establish a link with their new company Pure Sports Management. We wanted to join with them in nurturing and managing top Asian tennis talent.

I related the story from Tokyo to Gus that day and he believed that it would have been Pete's first overseas trip and that it was most certainly one of only a few times his father attended a tournament Pete played in ever. His father was present at Wimbledon when Pete broke the record for most singles titles a decade later.

Only two years after seeing him play in Tokyo that night Pete Sampras won the US Open Singles title.

Pete Sampras won his first Grand Slam Singles title (US Open) when only 19 years old



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