It was an amazing week for a local tennis team that traveled to Rancho Mirage, Calif., to represent the Midwest Section of the United States Tennis Association. In the end, the squad playing out of Warsaw Tennis and Fitness Club was the crowned the National Champion. “Unbelievable,” said team captain Leon Brenneman. “We knew we had a good team, but given the teams that represent the other districts at the National Championships this was pretty much a David vs. Goliath situation.” In order to qualify for the Championships the team first had to win the local league played throughout the summer, besting six teams from Huntington and Fort Wayne. From there, the team defeated the Northern Indiana Champion from South Bend, which allowed them to play for the Indiana State Title. After defeating a tough Indianapolis team, it was on to the Section Championship where they went undefeated against the state champions from Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. In Calif., the team was placed in a flight with three other Section Champions – Middle States, Intermountain and Northern California. “There is no margin for error in this tournament” said Brenneman. “One loss and your Championship hopes are over.” Surviving three tight qualifying matches the team advanced to the semifinal where they were matched against a very tough team from Dallas, Texas and won a thriller 3-2. The final match was a perfect script, as the Warsaw team went up against a highly-favored team from Los Angeles. “It was no surprise that the Texas and Southern California teams would be our final opponents,” said Brenneman. “It is a pretty big advantage to be familiar with the crazy hot conditions and to have large metropolitan areas to pull players from.” The heat was indeed a factor in the tournament, as on-court temperatures reached in excess of 120 degrees, twice postponing play and sending at least three players from other teams to the hospital. “The wins over Texas and Southern California were pretty surreal,” said Brenneman. “On paper they were much stronger then us. They had a lot of vocal fans. We made a lot of friends out there and it was incredible to see the teams we defeated support us in the final. It was quite a scene. We knew we had absolutely nothing to lose and had gained so much momentum from our prior wins. It seemed to just carry us through.” The Warsaw team finished as the only undefeated team in the country at 21-0. The USTA National Title is unique in the incredible amount of teams it is able to involve through its structured playoff system. This year's Championship involved over 3,500 individual teams from every part of the country.
