After Three Weeks, Frenchman Is No. 1 in Singles at CSUN : Mareschal Finds New Home and New Sport

As a young boy, Pierre Mareschal liked several sports.

Tennis was not one of them.

As a 10-year-old in Grenoble, France, he enjoyed volleyball. He got into skiing. He liked team sports.

Tennis? He couldn’t deal with the national rankings in his native country, rankings that follow players from childhood into adulthood and often determine their fortunes in the sport.

At 24, Mareschal has left all that and his native country. He has found a new home and a new life in America--as a tennis player.

“Here it is different,” he says, choosing his words in English carefully as he serves and volleys with a new language. “Here you play for the game, not only for the rankings.”

And play he can. Mareschal has enrolled at Cal State Northridge where, as a freshman, he has already been installed as the team’s No. 1 singles player. Coach Craig Witcher chooses the occupant of the No. 1 spot on the basis of challenge matches in practice and the makeup of opponents.

Mareschal, however, is not in bad company. Two other team members are All-Americans: Ed Charles, who is ranked seventh nationally among Division II players, and Bill Johnson, who is ranked 11th in Division II. A fourth singles player, Robert Burns, is also highly regarded by Witcher. The coach believes he has an interchangeable top four.

“He (Mareschal) has got to be among the top 15 to 20 Division II players in the country right now,” Witcher says. “If he plays here four years, he’s going to be great. His junior and senior years, he’s going to be one of the best. He’s got to be. He’s got a really big serve and a big forehand.”

So, although he has only been in this country since December and has only been on the Matador team for three weeks, Mareschal has already made the transition from foreign prospect to rising college star. Like they say in the commercial, “Parts is parts.” Or as Witcher puts it, “Tennis is tennis all over the world.”

On the surface, however, there has been one big problem for Mareschal. He is not used to the fast, paved surfaces of this country. In France, he played on clay, a surface that slows down the ball considerably.

“It’s been hard for him to adjust to the faster surface,” Witcher says. “He’s not used to attacking so much. It’s easier to get to a ball on clay and hit a passing shot. So they sit back and play in the backcourt forever. Here we serve and volley a lot because when you hit the ball on asphalt, it just goes. When you’re not used to it, you tend not to do so well.”

Mareschal remembers the day he first stepped out on the Northridge courts. The balls certainly moved quickly. Especially since they were being hit by Ed Charles.

“He beat me easy. Here, everybody serves and volleys. It was hard for me. I didn’t know if I can play here or not,” Mareschal says, his brow furrowing. He thinks about how far he has come in just a few weeks, however, smiles and adds, “I have good potential. I need a lot of practice.”

And a little cajoling.

“He plays better when he is pushed hard in practice,” Witcher says. “Some players do not like to be pushed in practice. They like to save it for their matches. But he works really hard. And after practice, he’s always coming over to me and asking, ‘Can you hit me some of these shots and some of those?’ ”

It was his father, Jean Francois, who first pushed Mareschal onto the courts and kept him there when he wanted to be elsewhere.

The younger Mareschal eventually was ranked among the top 100 players in France, but even at that level, the rankings can be tough. Elite players are often given byes all the way to the quarterfinals of a tournament. That means a lesser-ranked player may be forced to play as many as 20 times to reach a match his higher-ranked opponent was handed just for signing up.

Other aspects of French tennis also bothered Mareschal. You think Americans are competitive?

“Here, there is more fair play on the court,” Mareschal says, shaking his head at what he considers the bloodthirsty nature of tennis back home.

To him, it’s all fun and games here. Give him time. It’s only been three weeks.

When Mareschal got out of high school, he knocked around for five years--teaching tennis and putting in time in the military and art school.

When he decided to go to college, however, there was a problem: In France, a student can pursue either an education or a tennis career--but not at the same time or at the same institution.

There are no school teams. Tennis competition is limited to clubs.

So Mareschal came to America, to Southern California which he had heard attracted the best players. He looked at several schools--including UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Cal State Long Beach--before choosing CSUN, where he was given a partial scholarship to supplement money he received from his family and money he earned by working. He is taking English and art courses at Northridge.

“There is a different mentality at the other schools,” he says, “especially Pepperdine. They are . . . how do you say it?”

To indicate what he is trying to express, he tilts his nose up in the air.

Are you trying to say they are snobs, he was asked.

“Yes,” he says, smiling. “I like the people here. I like the ambiance.”

It seems when it comes to American schools, Mareschal already has a ranking system of his own.