Gender wars on the courts

On the floor of the Houston Astrodome in 1973, Billie Jean King silenced insufferable braggart and male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in a tennis match that transcended the sport and became forever known as the "Battle of the Sexes." Yesterday afternoon, that battle was continued on the floor of the Levy Tennis Pavilion, as the Penn women's varsity tennis team took on the Penn men's club tennis team in an intriguing scrimmage. In the five matches that were played, three resulted in triumph for the women, while two were taken by the men. One match was not played, as Penn junior Rochelle Raiss retired with a minor injury before facing men's club tennis player Ryan Hledik. Because the sociological impact of yesterday's match was not quite on par with the original triumph for females and feminism nearly 30 years ago, the men and women involved in yesterday's bout could concentrate on one thing -- tennis. And both teams agreed on one thing -- they both underestimated their opponents. "These girls are really good, a lot better than I thought they would be," said Penn men's club tennis team member Adam Eveloff, a former Daily Pennsylvanian sportswriter. Eveloff -- who beat Carla Dorsey, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 -- added that he got a few lucky breaks in his victory. "She was a really good player. She has some really good shots," he said. "It just came down to a couple points. "We really want to beat these girls.... A lot of the guys really wanted to win today, badly, and show that the club team was a lot better than the women's varsity. I'm not taking it too seriously, I just think it's for fun," Eveloff said. To their credit, the women reciprocated that respect. "They were a lot better than I expected," said Penn women's varsity team member Nicole Ptak, who defeated David Frank, captain of the men's club team, 6-4, 6-4. "I didn't think they'd be that good, and they were definitely very good." The men playing yesterday were some of the best players on Penn's campus outside of the men's varsity team, ensuring that yesterday's scrimmage would be competitive. According to Frank, because of space and time constraints, the club recently had to turn away 100 of 130 men who wanted to play tennis with the organization. Only six men were chosen to represent the club yesterday. In the scrimmage's other matches, Penn freshman Sanela Kunovac edged senior Steve Davis in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5; Wharton sophomore Billy Sherman defeated Rachel Shweky, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; and freshman Alice Pirsu, who practices with the team but can't play until next season, wore down Accounting Professor Wayne Guay, 6-4, 6-3. Now, having acquired a taste for facing varsity athletes, one member of the men's club team is ready to take the next logical step. "We want the guys' team," Davis said half-jokingly. "You hear that varsity tennis, varsity guys? This is our warmup, we lost, we're coming for you guys." But, for the most part, members of both teams downplayed the obvious "gender war" and "club versus varsity" aspects of yesterday's scrimmage and were grateful for being able to sharpen skills against worthy foes. Several members of the men's squad were happy that they had been able to find stiff competition -- something which has been hard to find -- in the women, and the women knew that the scrimmage would help the team heading into Thursday's season opener with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. "David Frank, their captain, e-mailed me, and was interested in a match," said Penn women's tennis coach Michael Dowd, who called the men "brave" for facing his charges. "We're early in our season, we haven't played a match yet, I [thought] it would be great to get on the court and play some opponents who you normally don't see everyday and play a competitive match before we start our season. It's good for us."

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