Top Professional Tennis Stars to Play in Lubbock
June 21, 1999 | Women's Tennis
November 2, 1998
LUBBOCK, Texas - Two of the top players in the history of womens tennis, Mary Joe Fernandez and Chanda Rubin, will play an exhibition match on Sunday, December 6 at Lubbock Country Club.
The match, which is being coordinated by Texas Tech Director of Tennis Tim Siegel, will be the culmination of several events planned for the weekend. The SPTA will hold its annual banquet on Saturday evening at the Lubbock Civic Center. In addition to the Fernandez/Rubin match, there will be additional celebrity matches as well as an exhibition by current Texas Tech players. Events Sunday begin at 1 p.m.
Tickets for the exhibition match are $25 for adults, $10 for students and $50 for VIP seating. There will also be a limited number of reserved seating VIP tickets with a post-event cocktail party available for $100. All tickets can be purchased at the Texas Tech Athletic Ticket Office, Lakeridge Country Club, Lubbock Country Club, Hillcrest Country Club and the Municipal Tennis Center. Proceeds from the event will benefit Texas Tech tennis.
"We are really excited to bring two of the top tennis players in the history of womens tennis to Lubbock for this exhibition," said Tim Siegel. "Mary Joe and Chanda are two of the most successful and respected players in the game and it is a testament to this community that they have agreed to come play in Lubbock. The Lubbock tennis community is gaining momentum all the time and we are fortunate to be able to bring matches of this caliber to our area."
Fernandez, a resident of Miami, Fla., currently ranks 14th on the all-time womens tennis money list, earning $4,981,181 in her career. She ranked as high as fourth in the world in singles in 1990 and was rated fourth in the world in doubles in 1991. She has won seven career singles titles and 19 career doubles titles. A gold medalist for the USA Team in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, Fernandez is currently rated 53rd in the world in singles. Earlier this year she teamed with Mariaan de Swardt to reach the finals of the Boston Cup and, teamed with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to advance to the finals of the Princess Cup in Tokyo, Japan.
Rubin, a native of Lafayette, La., is currently ranked 38th in the world prior to last weekends loss in the finals of the Bell Challenge in Quebec, Canada. She lost a tight 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) match to fellow American Tara Snyder. Rubins best year was 1996, when she ranked as high as sixth in the world. That year she teamed with Vicario to win the doubles championship and was a singles semifinalists at the Australian Open. Rubin, the 1997 Linz, Austria, WTA event champion, has posted runner-up finishes in five other events, including the Lipton Championships, where she suffered a broken wrist which sidelined her for seven months.
The event is the second exhibition match between high-profile professional players that Siegel has brought to Lubbock recently. In 1994, he organized an exhibition between world-class players Jimmy Arias and Rick Leach. With plans for a new tennis center on the Texas Tech campus, Siegel intends to organize more high caliber events in Lubbock.
"When we get a new facility at Texas Tech, a whole new world will open for tennis in Lubbock and in West Texas," said Siegel. "We want to advance and promote the sport throughout the region and we plan to build a facility that is better suited for a variety of high-level tennis events, from junior and senior circuit tournaments to clinics and more professional exhibitions."