PENGUIN PROVIDER : Cathie Anderson’s Encounters Aren’t Limited to Tennis

Every Thursday, Cathie Anderson puts in an eight-hour day taking care of penguins at Sea World.

It isn’t the way one might expect a tennis pro to spend her day off, but for Anderson, her weekly chores behind the scenes at the Penguin Encounter are a labor of love. On most other days, she is at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club, either playing tennis or teaching others how.

Unless, that is, she is playing in a senior tennis tournament. She is the nation’s third-ranking player among women over 45.

Senior tennis, for both men and women, hasn’t matched the rise in popularity of men’s senior golf, which is fast becoming a gold mine. While the senior golfers play for hundreds of thousands of dollars each week, the tennis prize money is minuscule by comparison--a few hundred dollars to the winners.

There are four national tournaments for each age group per year, and Anderson has been making a habit of winning them. Recently, she swept the over-45 singles and doubles titles in the Australasia tournament in Perth, Australia, then did likewise in an over-40 tournament in Lake Mirage, Calif.

“Unlike many others, I never get too much tennis,” said Anderson, 45, who lives in La Jolla. “That’s probably why I keep young.

“But as much as I love tennis, I wouldn’t want to give up my one day a week at Sea World. My daughter, Cindy, who is 20, works with the penguins there, and that’s how I got started as a volunteer.

“I put in a full day, 7 to 3, and I help raise the penguins. I feed them and clean up after them. I even make their formula. All penguins look pretty much alike, but they have different personalities. We get attached to certain ones, and they know us. It’s very enjoyable for me.”

But tennis is Anderson’s first love. She is a teaching pro at the San Diego club, and when she finishes giving her lessons, she usually plays two or three competitive sets of singles.

“San Diego is probably one of the best places in the country for me to find people to play,” Anderson said. “In fact, all three of us at the top of the national rankings live in or near San Diego. Suella Bowden is from La Jolla and Sally Huss from Bonsall.

“Plus, there are many others on our level, and all of them are in the immediate area. It isn’t like in L.A., where everything and everybody are so far apart.”

Besides ranking No. 3 nationally in the 45-and-over class, Anderson is No. 7 in the 40-and-over division. She was No. 1 in the 40 class in 1982 and No. 2 in 1986. Also, she is No. 17 in the world’s 40 division. The International Tennis Federation doesn’t have a 45 class.

“I’ve been in the top 10 in one age group or another since I turned 35,” she said. “I was down low for two years, ’82 and ‘83, with a bad knee injury. For a while I wore a big knee brace, like Joe Namath. It was heavy, made of metal, and clicked as I ran. They make them better now.”

Though senior tennis has grown considerably in recent years, Anderson doesn’t foresee the day when purses will rival those of the regular men’s and women’s tours.

“Rosie Casals is trying to put together a tour package,” Anderson said. “The money is not that important to me, but it would be nice to be able to pay some of my expenses. Winners of tournaments may get as much as $500, and that’s it.

“The sponsors are getting better, however. When I was in the 35 class, they wanted to do everything for the juniors. The No. 1 junior in Podunk could get everything donated, while the top seniors had a hard time getting rackets and shoes. Now I get my rackets donated by one company, my shoes by another and my outfits by another.

“The club has also been very good about letting me go to the various tournaments. I think very few places would let you do that when you’re not making a living off the tournaments. My next one will be the national clay courts in Houston, starting April 5.”

She has even played in Europe. “But that’s hard because so many people smoke over there. Even a lot of the players smoke, and I hate inhaling that stuff. We’re spoiled out here. California is very health-minded.”

Anderson certainly seems to think there’s a market for the increased women’s tennis an expanded senior tour would provide. Speaking of the younger players, she said, “The open women’s tour is at least as interesting as the men’s tour, if not more so.”

Asked to elaborate, she said, “There is more versatility in a women’s match. They not only serve and volley; they rally at the baseline. People can relate better to women’s tennis because the men’s points are so short.

“The men are awesome with their big serve-and-volley games. Their competition is far beyond everyone’s comprehension. On fast-court surfaces, especially, it’s just boom-boom. When you watch women, you see topspin, drop shots, lobs, the whole thing.”

Before Anderson reached 35, her ranking status was confined to the state level.

She grew up in Dayton, Ohio. As Cathie Gagel--she is divorced now but has retained her married name--she was runner-up in the NCAA tournament as a senior at California.

After college, she was a teaching pro in Danville, Calif., then at two clubs in Oakland before she moved to San Diego. During that time, she was ranked in the top five or 10 in Northern California every year until she entered the 35 class 10 years ago.

“I hadn’t planned on teaching tennis when I went through college,” Anderson said. “I majored in economics and had a minor in cartography, which is map-reading.

“My first job was in drafting. I worked at that in San Francisco and Richmond for two or three years. Then I decided that dressing up and the 9-to-5 commute were not for me.”