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Saratogans Ashley and Alexandra Lipton are ranked at the top of their age groups in the Norcal listings.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Game Plan
Social life becomes thing of the past as family gets behind two tennis champs
By Mary Ann Cook
When you're raising two tennis champions, the whole family plans, strategizes and dreams tennis. Saratoga has two rising stars who are sisters and currently at the top of the Norcal listings in their respective age groups. One is not even a teenager yet. They are Ashley and Alexandra (Allie) Lipton.
Fourteen-year-old Ashley Lipton is an eighth-grader at Kennedy School. She's been serious about tennis for the past three years. She's in the top rankings nationally. Just how top will be decided this summer after she gets a few more national tournaments under her belt.
She's played in three nationals thus far and done well. Regionally speaking she's at the top of the heap. And she had a meteoric rise to get there. The first year after she started playing competitively, she was ranked 45th in the Norcal listing.
At the end of the next year she ranked fourth. Needless to say, she was named most improved player that year. "That's a phenomenal rise," her father Doug says. He's the one who put a racquet in her hand originally. She played when she was younger, but didn't seem much interested until she was 10 or 11.
Then she really got serious about the game and her family joined in force behind her. The Liptons were members of Courtside in Los Gatos, and the girls took lessons from Mark Roberts there. Then came more intense workouts and training from Sylvano Simone, who runs Sylvano's Championship Tennis Academy, and teaches at West Valley College.
Doug Lipton, a lawyer whose Lipton Law Offices are in the Pruneyard Towers, played competitive tennis. And his brother Scott Lipton, now a professor at St. Mary's in Moraga, was a touring tennis pro. Their father, Dick Lipton, is one of the top five players in the over-75 division in Northern California. He served as a tennis coach at Lynbrook after his years as a toy salesman.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Eleven-year-old Allie Lipton goes for a backhand shot. She and her sister practice two to three hours daily.
On the other side of the Lipton ledger, the girls' mother, Kelly, doesn't play tennis at all. But by now she must be something of an expert, because all four of the Liptons' lives are centered on tennis. You don't produce champions without that kind of dedication and single-minded devotion.
Kelly Lipton takes Allie to tournaments while Dad takes Ashley, and vice versa. "We've all sacrificed a lot to live this way," Kelly says. "The girls don't have time to do the things most girls their age are doing--talking on the phone, hanging out with friends, shopping, going to movies. There isn't time for anything else besides school and tennis. And we've sacrificed. We used to have parties, get together with friends. Now we're at tournaments all weekend or getting ready for one."
To say nothing of transporting to lessons and competitions. It takes a tremendous outpouring of time and money to nurture and produce tennis champs. Their dad estimates it costs between $50,000 and $60,000 yearly to maintain two girls on the tournament track.Training, travel, clothing and equipment all add up. Both girls represent Prince, so clothing and equipment, at least, are discounted. "I dress in green [on the court] a lot," says Ashley. "Because that's Prince's color."
Allie sometimes wears black, which complements her blonde hair nicely, says her father. Both girls are roughly the same size, despite the three-year age difference. Since Ashley was small for her age and not particularly aggressive by nature, her father was surprised at the results when she first started playing tournaments.
But certainly she always was determined to excel, if her schoolwork is any example. Just because the Lipton emphasis is on tennis, doesn't mean school takes second billing. Ashley is a serious student who wants to be a sports journalist. When she gets an A minus, it hurts--she asks for extra credit so she can bring the grade up to a straight A.
She'll head for Menlo School in the fall, which she chose for its strong academic reputation and its equally strong tennis program. "Classes are small. Teachers really care about you," she says. Because of her tennis prowess, she's already being wooed by colleges. "They don't know how young she is," Doug explains.
And because she's dedicated to going to college she probably won't become a tennis pro. Competitive tennis players pick one direction or the other, not both. "[John] McEnroe went to Stanford for a year, then turned pro and never went back to college," dad points out.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Ashley Lipton will head for Menlo School in the fall because of its strong academics and tennis program.
The younger Lipton girl is Alexandra, 11, popularly known as Allie. She may be the more natural athlete of the two--at least she thinks so. She's also probably the more lighthearted and independent of the sisters. "She's funny," says Ashley about her sibling. But Allie is no less serious about academics than her sister, she insists. She wants to be a veterinarian and is also adamant about earning a college degree.
For now, both practice tennis two or three or more hours after school. Last year Ashley had a streak of tennis for 112 days straight, thanks to the indoor courts at Courtside. This string of practice days may be some kind of record in itself. After tennis practice, it's time for homework.
Such a disciplined routine doesn't leave much time for anything else. Allie mentions The Simpsons as her favorite TV show. Ashley says she doesn't watch enough TV to have a favorite.
In a recent tournament in Fremont, Ashley chose to play in the 18 or under category so she'd face a stronger field and greater challenges. She was seeded third. She's petite and younger, so her opponents often dwarf her in size. But it's hard to best her when it comes to strategy.
She says her ability to strategize her game, to out-think her opponents is her greatest strength. In the Fremont tournament she's won five of seven matches played so far. Does she get upset in the rare instances when she loses, cry even?
"Not anymore. I just think, 'Let's go on to the next match. I'll get her the next time.'"
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Doug Lipton works with his daughters Ashley and Alexandra (right).
Meanwhile, what's happening on another court or at another tournament where younger sister Allie is also competing? Remember, originally she was just along for the ride. As long as everyone was going, why doesn't Allie compete in the same or nearby event, her parents asked each other.
Thus, the Liptons began entering her in whatever tournament was handy. And she started winning. Quite convincingly. Today she's the one to watch in her age division. At the Fremont Tournament she was seeded number one. It puts a lot of pressure on her, which she doesn't like.
But she's naturally aggressive, naturally competitive. And even though she's the younger daughter, she's fiercely determined not to take a back seat to anyone. "She hits the ball hard. She's strong," her father says. She has a two-handed forehand, which is rather unusual.
A sixth grader at Kennedy, Allie plays on the co-ed tennis team there, and the team is undefeated. But at the tournament level in her age division there isn't as much competition as there is in the older age groups. She's head and shoulders above the others in the Norcal 12 and under, her father says.
There's a vast difference between the level of play in the 12-year-old and the 14-year-old division. And there's yet another giant leap at the next step, the 16-year-old category, where Ashley will be playing next year, explains Doug Lipton. Each year, each tournament, brings more depth of experience, a better-rounded game.
This summer's schedule will concentrate on Ashley and on national tournaments--in Asheville, N.C. for the USTA; then Plantation, Fla. for the national clay court championships; and Atlanta for the national hardcourt tourney.
Allie's schedule is still undecided, but may take in the USTA Tucson, then the hardcourt championship in Georgia, and the claycourt contest in Boca Raton. Since these two are at the top of their game regionally, in Norcal, the pressure and expectations will be on them to do well nationally.
"Here's what we expect them to get out of [tournament play]," says Kelly Lipton. "We want them to gain self confidence."
"We sacrifice a lot. We can't have sweet little girls anymore. You have to be strong. You have to be tough. You have to be an animal," says Doug Lipton.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
