The city’s best players have tried and failed.
Now, even time has, too.
Amy Recht was back on the tennis court after a year away from competitive play, and Monday she won her seventh city championship, 6-0, 7-6 (7-2), over Marcy Huck.
“I hate losing, so I didn’t want to get in it and lose,” said Recht, who admitted that thinking about participating in the tournament was “nerve-racking” since she hadn’t been in tournament mode for so long.
The former Homestead and IPFW star, 24, now does scheduling for a group of heart surgeons.
Her victory was her seventh – only two short of tying the all-time women’s record of nine, set by Lee Ann Berning – in the tournament that has taken place for 77 years.
A joke around Swinney Tennis Center was that everyone was losing track of just how many titles Recht has – she has won three in a row and seven of the last eight – and even Recht admitted that she doesn’t really keep track.
“I don’t think about it and I think that’s all part of it,” Recht said. “I don’t think you should think about it. You should think about points, just individual points. You can’t think about records.”
And Huck, who is from Anderson and plays for IPFW, fought off several match points to force the second set’s tiebreaker. “She’s not one to give up,” Recht said. “I’ve played with her sister, and I’ve hit with her here and there. I knew she wasn’t going to make it easy on me.”
On the men’s side, there was another repeat champion: Tom Murphy, who defeated Connor Andrews, a Homestead graduate and current IPFW player, 6-4, 6-0.
“I feel good,” Murphy said. “Connor is a good player, and it was a good match. I’m a little bit winded, but it was a lot of fun. … My forehand felt pretty good, and my serve was pretty good, and overall it all worked out.”
Murphy, 27, does medical sales for Stryker. He was the 2001 IHSAA state champion from Indianapolis Cathedral and played collegiately for Dayton, where he is regarded as the program’s greatest all-time player.
“Connor gave me a run for my money, and it was fun to compete a little bit again,” Murphy said, after winning the 102nd running of the men’s tournament.
Recht, whose brother, Ryan, has the all-time city record with 10 singles titles, was also just out to get the andrenaline pumping. She wasn’t too concerned with her place in history. “I’m never one to go out and play and the night before, figure out who I’m playing and figure out their strengths and weaknesses, how many times I’ve beaten them or how many times I’ve lost to them. My dad does all that,” she said. “I just go out and play my game and see what happens.”
