Bailey & Lauer defend their Peachtree Invitational Title

Jay Bailey & Peter Lauer successfully defended their Peachtree Invitational title for this, the 2nd annual regional paddle tournament in Atlanta on January 14th. Playing to some 50 spectators on a beautiful sunday afternoon, they edged past Mark Schmidt & Carlos Engel 6-2, 6-4. This year's tournament, oversubscribed with 19 teams for a 16 team draw, had excellent competition from Atlanta & beyond. The event featured players from Boston, New Jersey, Cleveland, Charlottesville and Philadelphia.

Most apparent in this, our second year, was how improved the level of play was from last year, as well as the addition of several hot AA tennis players to the draw. New entrants this year included Paul Mancini, Robby Weiss and Dennis Fine plus returning tennis stars Ellis Ferreira, Carlos Engel, Michael Rollauer, Mark Avedikian, Berni Staub and Todd Assini. Clearly the sport of Platform Tennis is catching on with the tennis players around the city.

Courtesy of Mori Luggage & Gifts, there were prizes to go around in this triple elimination event, that also featured a great party at Peter Lauer's house and raffle prizes gallore from sponsors including Wilson, Ferreira Tennis, Play it Again Sports of Buckhead, Georgia Commerce Bank & Uline Packaging.

Tournament Director Peter Lauer remarked "this tournament is a hit, and has created National Buzz in Platform Tennis circles. We hope next year to expand to a 32 team tournament if we succeed in building 2 courts at Cherokee Town Club...the demand & interest is clearly there".