SERVICE BREAK : After a Leave of Absence Van Nuys’ Shannon Gordon Returns to Teach Tennis and Dominate Local Events

As Christmas morning surprises go, this one doesn’t exactly rank up there with finding bulging stockings over your fireplace or sled marks on your roof.

Instead, Shannon Gordon found herself in a cast after leaving skid marks on the sidewalk near her parents’ Van Nuys home, the result of a freak roller-skating accident. One minute Gordon was sailing down the street on a shiny pair of skates. The next, she was staring at a broken right foot and perhaps the end of a promising tennis career.

The competitive part of that career had begun at age 13 and had blossomed at Grant High in Van Nuys. There, Gordon had reached the City singles final as a junior. The following year, she moved from the girls’ to the boys’ team, seeking tougher competition. She thrived on it, working her way onto Grant’s No. 1 doubles unit and, by season’s end, the All-City team.

Gordon went from there to UCLA, where she made the squad as a walk-on and became a two-time All-American, playing No. 1 doubles and anywhere from No. 4 to No. 6 singles. In 1979, she was named Outstanding Women’s Athlete for Tennis.

“It was tough when I first got there,” Gordon said. “Almost everyone else was recruited. They all had scholarships and some were nationally ranked. I had never even played in a national tournament.”

There is tough, and then there is tough .

Upon leaving school, Gordon took a swing at the pro tour. Having barely qualified for a tournament in Tucson, where she lasted a couple of rounds, Gordon felt that her game was peaking when it came time for a holiday break.

The break she got, however, was nearly disastrous.

It was Christmas, 1980, when Gordon took her fateful roller-skating run. She sat out most of the following year but recovered completely and hit the pro tour in earnest in 1982. For the next two years, she toured the world, playing everywhere from Africa to South America to the Orient. She made enough money to break even and also cracked the top 200 in the world rankings. She even won several doubles events.

“I think I would have done better if I had had my own coach,” Gordon said. “Without that, it’s a pretty hard grind. It can be pretty lonely out there. You have friends but, the next day, you might be competing out there against them for financial survival.”

After two years of struggling to survive, Gordon came home.

“I just didn’t do as well as I had wanted to,” she said. “I probably should have given it another year. They say you should give it three years, but I was looking for some stability in my life.”

Gordon went back to school and another love--basketball. She enrolled at Valley College and became the school’s starting point guard.

But tennis remained her primary passion. She began to teach it and today, at 31, is a full-time instructor with about 30 students. She teaches at the MountainGate Country Club, various private courts and in her parents’ Van Nuys back yard, where her father has built a court.

She also has returned to competitive tennis, playing in area tournaments in both the open division and one for women aged 30 to 35. In the age division, Gordon has won 22 of 23 matches and six of seven tournaments, including the recent Southern California Sectional Championships in Universal City. Last June, in a tournament in Griffith Park, she played in both the open and women’s 30 divisions and won both.

She is currently ranked No. 1 in women’s 30-35 division and No. 7 in the open division by the Southern California Tennis Assn.

“It’s hard sometimes to mix teaching and playing competitively,” she said. “I remember I was playing an opponent at Universal City and I kept hitting the ball to her because that’s what you do with your students. I finally had to tell myself, ‘No, you’re supposed to be hitting it away from her. You’re supposed to end these points.’

“I just don’t have the time to put in to practice like I used to. But I still like to play competitively and I think it gives you fresh insights that you can give to your students, fresh ideas. What’s fun for me now is to see my students improve.”

But considering the large purses being awarded on the pro circuit these days, does she harbor any regrets about her decision to give up the pro tour?

“It would be awfully hard to get back to that level,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d have the desire to leave the life I’ve worked myself into and the clients I have. But you get tempted.”