Tennis players with Big Dreams come to AILTC for ‘Classic’

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Anne Christine Lutkemeyer is a California girl who is California Dreaming about becoming a touring professional tennis player in the near — make that very near — future.

The Irvine resident who will be a high school senior this fall is the No. 1 women’s singles prep player in her huge homestate as well as the No. 3 player in the entire huge United States according to the latest rankings put together by Babolat, a renowned tennis/sporting equipment company.

Lutkemeyer plans to continue her tennis career at UCLA, whose women’s team is currently coached by Stella Sampras, sister of International Tennis Hall of Famer Pete Sampras.

“And after a year (at UCLA), I plan to go pro,” Lutkemeyer said.

You see, one-and-done is not for basketball alone.

Lutkemeyer may have big ambitions, but compared to the other Ladies Division competitors at the second-annual All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club Court of Dreams Classic held last weekend (July 30-Aug. 1), she was rather diminutive in stature. In a sport that tends to favor body and limb length, Lutkemeyer’s opponents all posed size advantages as well as an edge in experience with most being accomplished collegiate players.

One of whom was Samatha Mannix, a No. 1 doubles player for the University of Iowa this past spring. Lutkemeyer and Mannix squared off in the Ladies championship on Sunday — pushed up from Saturday due to rain delays on Friday.

With nimble grace along the baseline and precision placement on winning shots, Lutkemeyer won the first set 6-1 before taking a 4-3 lead in the second set.

But Mannix began to get her big first serve in more frequently while rallying to take a 6-5 lead in the second set.

Lutkemeyer tied the set at 6-6 forcing a seven-winner tiebreaker, which Lutkemeyer won (7-4) while claiming the classic’s first Ladies championship.

“I just tried to stay focused,” Lutkemeyer said of handling a tiebreaker situation against a game opponent.

Playing in one of the Ladies pool groups that honored Althea Gibson — the two-time Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion who played during an era when three of the four Grand Slam tournaments were played on grass — it was Lutkemeyer’s first competition on grass.

“I think I may have played on a grass court when I was a little kid,” she said. “The ball bounces a little differently … you have to adjust.”

One bounce really caught Lutkemeyer by surprise in her match against Mannix, causing her to whiff on a two-handed backhand.

“I haven’t done that in a while,” she said.

The Court of Dreams Classic was hosted by Mark Kuhn, owner/operator of the AILTC, and directed by Ryan Knarr, the national tournament director from last year’s Comeback Classic Series, which was conceived while the sporting world was starting to crawl out from shutdowns imposed by the pandemic.

The event was streamed live by the SSP Network with broadcast proceeds benefiting the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization that promotes youth tennis and children’s reading programs.

The Gentlemen’s final was an international matchup with direct ties to the state.

First glance at the press release indicated that Daniel Leitner from Niederfischback, Germany and Oliver Johansson from Gothenburg, Sweden are a long way from home.

But home away from home for Leitner is Iowa City, where he’s an assistant coach in the University of Iowa’s tennis program; and for Johansson is Des Moines, where Drake’s redshirt freshman is the Bulldogs’ No. 1 singles player as well as an All-Summit League selection.

It looked like the first set was going to come down to who would break the other’s serve first. With the set tied at 5-5, Leitner did just that while utilizing his deft backhand slice to finally solve Johansson’s big left-handed offering to go up 6-5 before saving his own serve to win 7-5.

In the second set, several unforced errors by Johansson enabled Leitner — a two-time Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year (2014, 2015) while playing for South Alabama — to pull away (6-1) to claim the match and championship.

“It’s nice to finally get to play on this court rather than just watch from the sidelines,” said Leitner, whose previous trip to the AILTC was as a coach during an exhibition featuring the Hawkeye tennis team.

The event was covered by Sports Illustrated for a feature the magazine plans to run this fall. To give credit where credit is due, one of the visiting SI journalists coined the term “Windbledon” while noting the wind turbines looming near the grass courts.