Phong has been amazing and I include his summary of the tennis tournament 2024:
Smoke Tree AMTA Tennis Tournament 2024
The weather was beautiful, and the group was wonderful to be around. Everyone had fun at the tournament at Smoke Tree this year. We always had the die-hard tennis players that wanted to play all day long and did not get red doing it. I have to give kudo to Hamid Hussein, Emmie Ko, Roxanne Breaux, and Ed Breaux for playing all four events as well as being the team captain for the TEAM TENNIS: Team, Single, Double, and Mixed. Thank you for being enthusiastic about tennis as well as AMTA. However, I have to give a shout-out to Vicki McEvoy for playing all four events after having surgery 3 months ago. She is a trouper and tennis God. However, the tough and endurance awards would go to Reza Ghorbani and Hamid Hussein for playing all four categories and playing early each morning with each other. They spent about 8 hours/day playing tennis. Saying all this, I have to give a standing ovation to Kris Vadlamundi for playing team, single, and double at the age of 85. He showed us that age is just a number.
Despite moving people around and accommodating a few requests and injuries, the tournament went very well. This year, people really like to travel to Palm Springs Tennis Club to play in its beautiful backdrop. The club is very hospitable and accommodates all our requests for courts and play.
TEAM TENNIS was a very strong addition to our tennis tournament. The format allows the players to mix and match with other players that they would normally play with due to the level of playing. This way, we get to know other people in the organization better. This is a round robin event. Congratulations to the FRENCH team Captain ED, BREAUX, for winning the Gold and the US OPEN team Captain, ROXANNE BREAUX, for winning the Silver.
GOLD MEDAL: French team Captain by ED BREAUX: Ed Breaux, Jake Sall, Meade Palmer, Ed LaCava, Peter SeLon, Zef Abraham, Igor Sister, Vicki McEvoy, Kay Coghlan, and Judy SeLon.
SILVER MEDAL: US Open team Captain by ROXANNE BREAUX: Roxanne Breaux, Martha Newman, Jill Abraham, Kathryn, Reza Ghorbani, Phong Nguyen, Peter Monsantofils, Marc McKenna, ScoX Solomon, Kurt Newman, Steve Tanaka.
Australian team Captain by EMMIE KO: Emmie Ko, Angela Hei, Linda LaCava, Randy Sall, Hugh Burris, Doug Bell, Jim Christian, Jim Coghlan, Randy Eckert, Victor Farrah.
Wimbledon team Captain by HAMID HUSSEIN: Hamid Hussein, Bruce Dalkin, Ryan Caldeiro, Soren Nielson, Steve Waszak, Kris Vadlamundi, Bonnie Sidoff, Mary Bridges, Carol Burris.
The single, double, and Mixed Double was down to the wire before we can determine the winners. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists.
