OPRC Member Spotlight: M. Andrew Avram

 By Mike Holder:

Andy grew up in Winston-Salem and was introduced to tennis by legendary Wake Forest coach Jim Leighton. He would end up playing for Coach Leighton at WFU. Then, after college, he played professionally, taught tennis in the US and Germany, became an assistant coach at Clemson, head Coach at McCallie school, and assistant coach at Wake Forest. 
While an assistant coach at Wake Forest, Andy went to law school and has been practicing law for 30 years. 
He joined Olde Providence in 1997 and loves all racket sports including tennis, ping pong, paddle, and pickleball. He, also, enjoys biking and hiking and is looking forward to getting back to all of these activities following recent ankle replacement surgery. 
Andy and his wife Tammy have two children, Ally and Gabe. His oldest son Tucker passed away in 2011 and they hold the Tucker Leighton Avram tennis clinics in his honor spearheaded and founded by Pender Murphy. Please visit tlatennis.com for more information.

What would you say is your biggest tennis accomplishment or most memorable moment?

Most memorable moment—winning the state father-son tourney with my father many years ago. It doesn’t get any better than winning with your Dad.  I look forward to playing father-son with son Gabe down the road.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned in tennis?

If you play tennis long enough you will sooner or later deal with some tough injuries and some tough losses. So you learn a lot about dusting yourself off, getting up off the mat, and getting back out there in the game. And life is going to throw even more curveballs and tennis has taught me the value of resilience.

How has tennis helped you in life?

Friendship- it doesn’t get any better than hitting some balls with your buddies. Ernie Banks of the Cubs used to say let’s play 2---meaning he wanted to play a doubleheader that day because he loved baseball so much. I feel the same way about tennis.

What is one piece of advice you could give about the sport?

You can play a million hours but if your technique is not good then you won’t likely get much better. Find a good pro to help you with your technique and you will make good strides with your game. Also, don’t take yourself too seriously out there. It’s supposed to be fun! 

 In your opinion, what is the best quality to have in tennis?

There are so many qualities that are important in tennis such as work ethic, persistence, athleticism, problem-solver, etc. But if you are going to pick one I’d say, heart.

What is the biggest difference you see in the sport from the time you began playing?

I started off with wood rackets. At that time, you’d see classic strokes with eastern or continental grips and a lot of serve and volleyers. Then along came high-tech rackets, extreme grips, poly strings, and the game evolved into long baseline duels. Also, you’d see Federer hitting that short backhand chip angle crosscourt that no one had thought about before and Rafa hitting the short angles. These are shots that you would not see in the ’70s and ’80s. The speed of the shots is also amazing. Borg and Connors, you could see an arc to their groundstroke rallies. Now the ball is shot out of a cannon. It’s a totally different ball game today and the pros are really impressive. 

 How do you see the sport evolving in the future?

It’s hard to predict where the game is heading but I’m seeing the pros starting to push forward to the net at the right time and it's fun to see good netplay. I can’t predict where it is evolving but I’m hoping that it involves variety and netplay.

 If you were to change one thing about the sport, what would it be?

I’ve watched a ton of junior tennis and college matches and the line calls are at an all-time low. You can see it from the 10’s all the way through college. I’d love to see the calls being true to the code—if you are not sure about the call then the ball is good.  Also, l am not a big fan of the injury time out or the bathroom break that always seems to happen when a player is losing. So I guess these things come under the sportsmanship umbrella and I’d love to see this fixed.    With that being said, all in all, it’s still a great game that’s brought a lot of joy to my life.   


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