Tennis

They were different. Opposites, really. Martina Navratilova, the left-hander from Czechoslovakia who used tennis as a passport to the West. Pam Shriver, the right-hander raised in an upper-middle class household in the suburbs of Baltimore.One became the pre-eminent singles player of her time, perhaps even of all time. The other made a fleeting appearance in one Grand Slam final as a 16-year-old, and then spent the rest of her career trying to recapture the moment.One registered as a Democrat and covered the left side of the court.

Boxing Taylor will box Cayo on 'Friday Night Fights' Emmanuel "The Tranzforma" Taylor of Edgewood Arsenal will fight Victor Cayo in the main event on ESPN's "Friday Night Fights" this week in Atlantic City, N.J. This will be Taylor's second appearance on national television; the first came Jan. 25, when he stopped Ray Serrano (18-1) in the sixth round in Huntington, N.Y., on "ShoBox. " Taylor, 22, a junior welterweight trained by David Sewell , is 16-1-0 with 11 knockouts as a professional and was 186-26 as an amateur.

Congratulations to Ken Knouse and the Columbia Junior Open Tennis Tournament Committee on another successful year. And his tribute to Peter Finck was a great idea. Peter was a terrific supporter of tennis at all levels. He is missed. It was indeed refreshing and inspiring to read about what Ken and his tennis tournament team have quietly, and inexpensively, accomplished over the years. Local and the U.S. Tennis Association really benefits from these grassroots efforts. Who knows, maybe the next (Andy)

College basketball Towson's Benimon, Hairston, Johnson honored by CAA Towson junior forward Jerrelle Benimon was named the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week for the third time this season, while Tigers freshman Jerome Hairston was selected as the Rookie of the Week for the first time, the league announced Monday. Benimon and Hairston led Towson (5-8) to an upset win at Oregon State (9-3) on Saturday. Despite trailing by as many as 19 points in the second half, the Tigers rallied for a last-second 67-66 overtime victory.

Ramon "Ray" Santamaria Jr., a retired tennis pro and captain of the 1954 Johns Hopkins University lacrosse team, died of cancer Dec. 9 at Union Memorial Hospital. The Cockeysville resident was 80. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he was the son of Ramon Santamaria Sr., who came to Baltimore in 1938 as consul for the Republic of Honduras. His mother, Ramona, was a homemaker. He lived on Keswick Road in Roland Park and was a 1950 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, where he was class president all four years, played lacrosse and wrestled.

Three years ago, Mount St. Joseph's tennis team finished 0-10, but if the Gaels' early-season exploits are any indication, they just might be headed for the best tennis season in school history. They opened with their first-ever win over McDonogh, the two-time defending Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference champion and one of two teams with a chokehold on the conference title for 14 years. McDonogh and Gilman have won every title during that stretch except in 2001, when Calvert Hall took it. The Gaels are hoping this will be their year.

The senior has been nothing but perfect this season, building a 24-0 singles record and 7-0 doubles mark. During the past week, he won the No. 1 singles title at the NEMA Invitational, in which he bested players on 16 teams from eight states. Then he won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference playoffs, with three wins, to help McDonogh to its 17th tennis championship in 25 years. Sidney, who will finish his high school career with more than 100 wins, is described by his coach as "much more than a cocky tennis player.

Playing his first season at No. 1 singles, the junior shined with a 17-0 mark that was capped on Saturday when he defeated Blair's Dukyoung Park to capture the state title at College Park.  Razumovsky, who played doubles his first two years, came away with a hard-fought 6-5, 7-6 (7-5) win over Park to give Pikesville its first state champion.  After missing an easy overhead that would have sealed the match in the tie breaker, Razumovsky regrouped to win the next point on a long rally.

Dulaney swept the boys events as the host Lions defeated Owings Mills, 5-2, in the Baltimore County dual-meet tennis championship.Pat Delaney and Jeff Smith had straight set victories in boys singles for Dulaney. Craig Elliott and Pat Botz won boys doubles, 6-0, 6-0.Katie Compton won a girls singles match for the Lions, and Shaye Loughling and Jen Ralph took the girls doubles.

THE POET, John Keats, would have understood about tennis. When three members of his family had succumbed to tuberculosis, and he feared the same fate, he was spurred to write his greatest works.This frenzy of creation in the face of extinction is called spes phthisica, pronounced ''space tizica.'' (Spes, Greek for ''anticipation,'' phthisica, for tuberculosis.) Keats even had a premonition (fulfilled, sadly) of his own early demise:/!When I have fears that I maycease to be,, Before my pen has gleaned myteeming brain . . .The phenomenon can be recognized in a much broader context -- in tennis, for example.

Ramon "Ray" Santamaria Jr., a retired tennis pro and captain of the 1954 Johns Hopkins University lacrosse team, died of cancer Dec. 9 at Union Memorial Hospital. The Cockeysville resident was 80. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he was the son of Ramon Santamaria Sr., who came to Baltimore in 1938 as consul for the Republic of Honduras. His mother, Ramona, was a homemaker. He lived on Keswick Road in Roland Park and was a 1950 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, where he was class president all four years, played lacrosse and wrestled.

This is for all those people who are seriously ill and thinking they may never do what they love again. I was like that in 2010, recovering from back-to-back breast cancer and heart surgeries and the aftermath. I thought tennis, which is my athletic passion, was probably not going to be part of my future - if there was one. During my illnesses, tennis was a number of things to me: distraction, as my recovery efforts happened to be perfectly timed for watching the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open; incentive, because I couldn't wait to get back onto the court; and dream - would I ever make it back?

Colleges Two goals by Mullins lift Terps men to 13th win in row Patrick Mullins , the Atlantic Coast Conference Co-Player of the Week, added two goals to his league-leading point total as the No. 1 Maryland men's soccer team earned a 2-1 victory over visiting Lehigh. The Terps won their 13th consecutive game and matched their best start in program history (14-0-1). Mullins, who has 28 points, scored in the 12th minute, then broke a 1-1 tie in the 88th minute with his 10th goal of the year.

Despite receiving its biggest single payday in the history of the athletic program last week, Towson University  might not be able to avoid the financial reality that has affected many larger schools in recent years. Three days after taking home a check for $510,000 from its nationally televised football game at LSU on Saturday, Towson announced Tuesday that it is recommending cutting the school's baseball and men's soccer as part of the athletic program's reorganization. Third-year athletic director Mike Waddell said in an interview that he began meeting with the coaches and athletes of the teams involved around 8 a.m. Tuesday and continued to meet with staff members and athletes who had morning class later in the day. Waddell said the athletic department has been studying possible changes for about 18 months but kept coming to the same answer.

Football and tennis don't share much in common except perhaps that Raven tackle Bryant McKinnie is crazy about both. So much so that it got McKinnie into the famously gossipy Page Six section of the New York Post. The Post found the big man at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday -- just as he headed into a contract dispute with the team that pays his bills. He was there to watch his good friend Serena Williams in the US Open quarterfinals. "According to a spy, McKinnie, an 11-year NFL vet, 'loves to pick up a racket on his off days . . . often with Serena and Venus Williams.

The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. on Mondays. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). We do not accept results by phone. When two Howard County teams play, players from both teams (first and last names) must be mentioned in the write-up. Questions? Call 410-332-6606. Tennis Awesome Aces The Howard County Awesome Aces junior tennis team competed in the Maryland State Championships held at the Tennis Center at College Park recently. The Quick Start Tennis 8-U Purple team and the 12-U Beginner/Ravens won first place in the state.

Tennis is making a comeback in Baltimore County, according to several high school coaches in the Baltimore area. "Tennis is back," said McDonogh coach Laddie Levy. "The game is increasing in popularity, especially in urban areas, and the coaching is improved. We're starting to see increased parity in high school tennis, even in our league." The Eagles play in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference, undoubtedly the area's best tennis league. McDonogh finished second to Gilman in the league last year, and the Eagles figure to be one of the teams to beat again this year - along with Calvert Hall.

Derek Nie sat down in front of the camera at the Maryland Table Tennis Center in Gaithersburg and fielded the question from the television reporter. "Will [making the Olympics] make all this hard work worthwhile?" Derek, of North Potomac, paused and then shook his head. "No," he responds. "Because I still have to win the gold medal. " Never mind that the United States has never won an Olympic medal of any kind for table tennis. Never mind that Derek is just 11 years old, and never mind that he is about 4 feet tall and weighs just under 70 pounds.

Sustained greatness a plus Diane Pucin Los Angeles Times Roger Federer became the No. 1 tennis player in the world Monday, one of the consequences of his 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 Wimbledon victory over Andy Murray on Sunday. He's also the best ever. That's not an immediately easy conclusion to reach. Federer has lost to contemporary Rafael Nadal more than he has beaten the Spaniard; the career record is 18-10 in Nadal's favor. Nadal leads Federer 7-2 in meetings at Grand Slam tournaments.