COLLEGE TENNIS DIVISION II WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS : Ludvigova Has Come a Long Way

Back in her native Liberec in the Czech Republic, Lucie Ludvigova’s father makes about $1,500 a month as a researcher. Helping their daughter become a top-flight tennis player may not be as important for Zdenek and Ludmila as making ends meet.

“Right now, the situation is very bad economically back home,” said Ludvigova, whose long journey from the former Czechoslovakia took another turn Thursday when she won the Division II women’s singles championship at Industry Hills.

Ludvigova, 21, a sophomore at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, defeated UC Davis freshman Pam Enkoji, 6-0, 6-4, climaxing a remarkable run.

Ludvigova was 27-0 against Division II opponents this season. She was beaten once, by Kim Shasby of Stanford at the Rolex National Indoor championships at Minneapolis, where Ludvigova was the only Division II player in the draw.

An aggressive right-hander who plays an attacking game, Ludvigova learned her tennis in Liberec, where she was ranked in the top 20 and yearned to play like her idol, Martina Navratilova.

The only problem was that both her idol and her brother had defected and Ludvigova learned it was better to keep something even as innocent as her opinions of heroines to herself.

“I really couldn’t talk about her because of that,” Ludvigova said. “But now it’s OK.”

That would be since the fall of communist Czechoslovakia in 1989, 14 years after Navratilova’s defection to the United States and eight years after Ludvigova’s brother, Jan, had defected to play hockey for the New Jersey Devils. Jan Ludvig now lives in Canada.

Ludvigova came to America after finishing high school, sat out a year, then played a tournament in Midland, Tex., and was noticed by Joe Williams, Midland College’s tennis coach. He coaxed her to play for his team in 1992. Ludvigova went 30-1 and was named an All-American and junior college newcomer of the year.

But Ludvigova became a player without a school when Midland dropped tennis after winning its third successive national title.

Coach Carol Sandvig of Grand Canyon had seen Ludvigova play, though, and scooped her up quickly.

At Grand Canyon, Ludvigova has developed into the best player in Division II and a top student. A physical education major with a psychology minor, she is carrying a 4.0 grade-point average.

“She is a very special person, a whole person, not just a tennis player,” Sandvig said.

Even if she has an opportunity, though, Ludvigova isn’t sure she wants to become a pro.

“You play tournaments and sit around and wait,” she said. “You don’t really have friendships. You don’t have stable relationships. I don’t think that’s a lifestyle. I know you can make money, but I’m not sure it’s for me.”

Ludvigova said she may wind up teaching tennis back home in Liberec, where she could talk openly about her idol and her brother for a change.

Tennis Notes

In the doubles final, the unseeded team of Lee Whitwell and Mary Hirst of Francis Marion College in Florence, S.C., upset third-seeded Rebecca Huereque and Tracy Nguyen of Cal Poly Pomona, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.