TENNIS TEEN
The words come spinning out of Travis Rettenmaier as fast as he can humanly speak them. No use wasting time when he’s pretty darn clear on the situation.
“I have a certain lifestyle and I enjoy it,” he says. “I look at other kids and I think, ‘How can they live with themselves?’ ”
Don’t let the blond hair and skinny legs fool you. This kid is 14 going on 30.
“I know I’m different,” he says.
What makes Rettenmaier different is the quickness with which he navigates a tennis court. The shrewdness with which he feathers a drop shot.
These talents pushed him to No. 2 in the national rankings for boys’ 14-and-under last year. They have paid his way to national training camps and tournaments around the globe.
But with talent comes expectations. That is what truly separates Rettenmaier from all the kids he wonders about.
“They’re not as competitive as I am,” he says. “I expect a lot of myself.”
This week he has practiced hard, hitting balls at the Cabrillo Racquet Club, drilling on courts that overlook miles of agricultural fields just east of Ventura.
Having moved up to the 16-and-under level, Rettenmaier is fresh off a doubles title at the Easter Bowl and a victory over rival Ryan Redondo for the singles title at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament.
On Wednesday, he joins a junior national team for a six-week trip that includes training in Florida and tournaments in Italy and Slovenia.
It’s all part of a plan: stay on top of the junior heap for a few more years, play one season of college tennis, turn pro.
For all his worldliness, the fast-talking teen remains young enough to believe he can control his destiny in the same way that he slices a backhand approach shot.
He might be right.
“If you look at players who have not made the transition from juniors to pros, they had holes in their games,” said Bobby Bernstein, a United States Tennis Assn. coach who will lead the junior team overseas.
“[Some players] aren’t willing to put in the work,” Bernstein said. “Travis definitely has the right attitude about doing whatever it takes to be a better tennis player.”
That requires an arrangement with Newbury Park High. Administrators allow the freshman to leave campus at midday, keeping afternoons free for practice. They allow him to miss weeks of class for travel. He makes up schoolwork in his free time.
Rettenmaier must arrange for suitable practice partners, a group that includes former Cal Lutheran star Mark Ellis and Jose Lieberman, the boys’ interscholastic champion at Ojai.
And he must continue to win.
The USTA selected him to its 1998 Team USA, a group of the nation’s top 60 juniors who receive periodic training from national coaches, grant money for expenses and all-important trips to face foreign competition.
“The international scene is so much better than us it’s sick,” Rettenmaier said. “They’re like machines.”
So each time he gets chosen to a traveling squad, it is an accomplishment and a challenge: “If you want to go on another trip, you’ve got to do well.”
The travel and competition can make Rettenmaier seem older than his years.
“He’s been all over and he’s had to look out for himself,” said Dave McKinney, a coach at the Cabrillo Racquet Club. “He’s pretty worldly for his age.”
But worldliness goes only so far, as Rettenmaier discovered last year.
At the time, he was training at the prestigious Harry Hopman Tennis Academy in Tampa, Fla.
His mother, Karen, a former UCLA player and pro, moved there to be with him. His father, Tom, also a college and pro player, remained in Camarillo.
“I have sacrificed so much at this point to play tennis,” Rettenmaier said. “So has my family.”
In Tampa, though, Rettenmaier missed his friends. Even worse, he disliked the academy’s strict daily regimen.
“People always telling me what to do,” he said.
McKinney explained: “It was becoming work more than fun.”
So Rettenmaier decided to take back control of his training, leaving the academy last fall. It was a decision suited for only a certain type of young player.
“Travis has been around tennis for a long time,” Bernstein said. “He has worked with knowledgeable coaches. He has a good idea of what he needs to do.”
At this point, his game is marked by speed, consistency on the baseline and a natural touch at the net.
He has yet to develop a particular weapon that can see him through crucial points. At 5 feet 8 and 120 pounds, he could use some height and weight to bolster his aggressive play.
“He still has some more growing to do,” Bernstein said. “I think Travis is on the right track for his body type.”
As for the mental side of tennis, Rettenmaier may have helped himself by returning to Camarillo. Sometimes the best thing a player can do for his game is have fun.
Rettenmaier’s coaches know that. So do his parents.
“The parents’ role is pressure-reducer,” Tom Rettenmaier said. “He’ll think a match is really important. You try to tell him it’s not. You try to tell him that he’s got to do more than tennis.”
Back home, Rettenmaier can be with people he knows. He can hang around with his buddy, Davey Jones, who plays for St. Bonaventure.
“We’ve been best friends forever,” Jones said. “He’s easy going, a funny guy.”
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they like to think of themselves as different. Different from all those kids who like trendy clothes and pop music.
For Rettenmaier and Jones, it’s the beach or a ska concert.
“Or we’ll do something odd,” Rettenmaier said. “Anything that’s not common.”
And not expensive.
“We’re pretty cheap.”
Every once in a while, the 14-year-old sounds his age. As McKinney put it: “A kid’s got to be a kid.”
Even a kid like Travis Rettenmaier.
