Seniors Start Drive to Save Tennis Courts

Since he retired to Laguna Beach 22 years ago, Martin Guris’ morning routine has included a few sets of tennis at Canyon Courts on Laguna Canyon Road.

Guris, a former ball boy at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, N.Y., not only enjoys playing the game. For the 81-year-old retired engineer, tennis is the center of his social life, a chance to hang out with other longtime players who may be slowed by wobbly knees and replaced hips.

“I want to get out and be with people,” Guris said.

But the last El Nino-related storm in late February rendered the two courts unusable to Guris and his group of skilled senior players, as well as the other 40 players who frequented them.

A mudslide damaged property on both sides of the courts, which miraculously avoided the storm’s fury. But city officials said the tennis courts are still in jeopardy because the hillside continues to erode; any new mudslides would land right on the courts.

“It’s as if someone drew an arrow in that direction,” Mayor Steve Dicterow said.

The Canyon Courts players have been using the city’s 16 other tennis courts. But Guris and other seniors don’t like driving to the city’s outer reaches. They and other players also say they miss the camaraderie at the downtown courts.

“They have an ambience you don’t find elsewhere,” said Charlie Anderson, who plays tennis at least three times a week.

Anderson is president of the Canyon Courts Tennis Assn., which formed April 2 and has raised $700 for fliers and other publicity materials they plan to distribute to encourage city leaders to repair the hillside as quickly as possible.

A geologist is studying the area to determine what can be done to secure the slope and how much it would cost, Dicterow said. The hillside is part of a parcel owned by the Irvine Co., he said.

The uncertainty has fueled a rumor--denied by city officials--that the two courts could be permanently unusable or that the land could be converted into a parking lot for the Festival of Arts next door or a skateboard park.

None of that is true, Dicterow said. The delay, he said, is because the property at the moment “is just not safe for any use.”