BECK COLUMN: Top girls showdown looming

Patricia Kirkland's graduation to Washington and Lee doesn't mean there are no obstacles left for Porter-Gaud senior Mi'Kola Cooper in SCISA tennis.

Junior Narni Summerall has stepped up to No. 1 in Kirkland's absence for three-time defending SCISA Class AAA state champion Ashley Hall.

Last Tuesday's showdown between Cooper and Summerall at the Porter-Gaud courts was one of the best matches I can recall in girls high school tennis. These two standouts have turned up the volume this season.

Cooper is a big-hitting exceptional athlete whose battles with Kirkland captured the spotlight last season, while Summerall was overshadowed by Kirkland's Lowcountry player of the year performances.

Summerall is no longer hidden. The always consistent, highly mobile and quick 5-8 performer has added power to her game and is ready for the spotlight. She defeated Cooper in the Bishop England Invitational, and it appeared for awhile that she had Cooper's number in their first regular-season meeting.

But down 7-6, 5-1, Cooper made an amazing recovery to win six straight games and then survived a match tiebreaker to gain revenge against Summerall. Cooper also prevailed against Summerall in doubles a day later as Porter-Gaud won the darkness-interrupted team match, 5-4.

Cooper had been ahead, 5-2, in the first set before Summerall rallied to take the set and then charged into a commanding lead in the second set.

Of course, this isn't the end of the rivalry. Ashley Hall and Porter-Gaud are scheduled to meet again on Oct. 12 at Charleston Tennis Center, and likely will collide in the SCISA Class AAA state title match. Ashley Hall and Porter-Gaud have met in the last two state finals.

Porter-Gaud, Ashley Hall and Hilton Head Prep all have one Region III-AAA loss each, with Ashley Hall having defeated Hilton Head Prep and the Hilton Head team owning a win over a Cooper-less Porter-Gaud, which will visit Hilton Head for a rematch on Tuesday. Cooper should be in the lineup this time.

The region race likely will be decided on Oct. 11 and 12 when Hilton Head Prep visits Ashley Hall the day before the next Cooper-Summerall showdown.

League Tennis mission?

What is the mission of USTA league tennis? To get more participation? Or more defaults or retirements?

Last weekend's local 6.5, 7.5 and 8.5 adult combo playoff matches in Mount Pleasant were scheduled so tightly that some players had to choose between retirements from matches already in progress or defaults from matches at a different level?

Although that's what happened last weekend at Snee Farm, it apparently happens often at the state tournament.

League tennis encourages participation at multiple levels of play during the regular season. The sound of the cash register -- or credit card data being entered online -- is music to league tennis during the regular season.

But at playoff time, league tennis takes another approach. Players lucky or good enough to play on more than one team that makes the playoffs suddenly become expendable to league tennis officials.

Rain played havoc with last weekend's scheduling, putting extra pressure on coordinators. But the original 90 minutes allowed for most matches already had put additonal pressure on players who played on two different teams.

Players shouldn't be put in a position where they have to decide if they are going to walk off the court in the middle of a match in order to avoid default at another level of participation. This is done at the state tournament, but that doesn't make it acceptable. The Lowcountry Tennis Association should be savvy enough to know that.

This type of treatment of its participants doesn't appear to be in the best interest of league tennis. Maybe league tennis has outgrown itself.

Notes

-- Brenda Carter is back from California where she won the national women's 65 championships in both singles and doubles. Carter, the top-ranked U.S. women's 65 player, is getting ready for a trip to Antalya, Turkey, to compete in the Super-Seniors World Team Championships Oct. 10-15.

-- Diane Fishburne and Matt Hane have completed the Grand Slam of the mother-son nationals for 2011 by taking top honors in the national competition on hard courts in Santa Belle Island, Fla., and will be honored for the feat at next year's U.S. Open. They already had won the mother-son competition on clay courts and indoors.

-- Tour Tennis held its grand opening on Saturday for its new tennis shop at 598 Belle Station Blvd. The store that is operated by Chuck Lee is unique in that it offers stringing while you wait, allowing customers to set an appointment and have a racket strung within 30 minutes. Tour Tennis also has announced a tennis ladder tournament for Oct. 27-30 that is open to the public. Contact Lee (330-1128).

-- In the recent state senior closed tournament, John Mitchell and Bob Adams took the men's 65 doubles crown, while Richard Weathers won the men's 70 singles title and Frank Mead was the 75s champion.

-- Ashley Hall's Narni Summerall took third place in the recent girls 18 Bullfrog tournament in Memphis.

-- In Friday night's Charleston Pro Tennis League's matches at LTP Tennis, Atlantic Shield defeated O'Brion's, 45-36, and HSI rolled over LCTA, 47-27, as the two winners will enter next Friday night's program at Family Circle Tennis Center tied for first place with 127 points each. O'Brion's is third with 120 points, followed by LCTA with 104 points.

-- The Lowcountry Tennis Association's annual party will be held on Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Wild Dunes as the highlight of the CPTL'S last regular-season program. The CPTL championship match will be held the following Friday night at Charleston Tennis Center.

Reach James Beck at jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. See his columns on pro tennis at ubitennis.com/english.