This time of year is a sports fan’s delight with the NFL playoffs, preparation for the Winter Olympics, the NBA reaching the halfway point and the Australian Tennis Open.
Strangely enough, recent press coverage was almost dominated by the tennis event. It concerned the plight of the number one men’s player, Novak Djokovic. Because of the fact that Novak refused to be vaccinated against Covid, he was placed in confinement until his case could be heard by Australian officials. The result of this controversy was that Novak was dismissed from Australia and it is doubtful if he would be allowed to play in upcoming tournaments, such as the French Open.
Novak’s departure from Australia probably leaves the door open for Nadal, but there are a number of upcoming young players who could challenge him, particularly Medvedev.
When it comes to local tennis, the biggest field of professionals ever to appear here occurred at the opening of Peter Paxton’s tennis club at Incline Village. Top pros were Pancho Gonzales and Rod Laver. They were joined by a half dozen others including Ken Rosewall. Laver defeated Gonzales in the final.
Today, Laver is considered a senior citizen of tennis and is seen at many of the major tournaments. The stadium that hosts the Australian Open is named after him.
As for other celebrity tennis events held at Tahoe, the top one was that of Clint Eastwood’s Celebrity Tennis Tournament that attracted a host of prominent movie stars, professional athletes and notable politicians.
LUD CORRAO PASSES. Checking out recently at the age of 84, Lud was recognized as one of the top contractors in America. Much of his famous work had to do with the construction of major casinos all over the country. The one I remember most was the tower of the Cal-Neva Lodge at Crystal Bay, Lake Tahoe. The backstory was that the one time owner, Frank Sinatra, had lost his gaming license at the lake and would have to sell the Cal-Neva.
I received a call from Leon Nightingale, one of the principals in the Cal-Neva Club in Reno and he informed me that negotiations were going well for the Reno group to purchase the lake property. The only sticking point was that the Reno group would only agree to the purchase if a hotel tower could be built. Leon also told me that getting the permit for a tower would be hard to achieve with all the lake restrictions.
When he had informed Sinatra’s people of this problem they suggested that Leon get hold of me to handle the campaign. Subsequently, I met with the Reno group and gave them a hefty budget. They informed me that Frank was picking up the tab, so the sky was the limit. The campaign was a success and the permit was granted and Lud got the building contract.
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