Tennis a shared passion for mom, daughter

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer

Lynn and Toni Novack will try for a third in a mother-daughter tennis championship on grass courts during the summer. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser Toni and Lynn Novack Hometown(s): Honolulu for Toni and probably Daytona Beach, Fla. for Lynn, where she was born and where many friends live. Positions: Toni is director of junior competition for the U.S. Tennis Association, Hawaii/Pacific section; Lynn is on full tennis scholarship and a member of the Wahine tennis team at the University of Hawai'i. Achievements: United States Tennis Association National Mother/Daughter Grass Courts champions. Toni is ranked seventh for women in their 50s; Lynn is 39th among college players. Quote(s): "I don't have a lot of power, but I'm very tenacious," said Toni. ". . . We are both so different on the court but we consider that an asset. ... Lynn considers us a force. We hope the force is with us when we play. We've been lucky so far." Says Lynn: "This year we're ranked number 3 in the U.S. as mother/daughter. My goal is to get a ranking on the pro tour. Whatever it is I'll make my adjustments from there."

"She always dragged her racket around and went into any group I put her in," remembers Toni. "She's like a tennis brat. ... Gosh, we played our first 'mother/daughter' (competition) when she was 8 or 9. It was a tournament I was running in Hong Kong when we were living there. We were runners-up."

Now the Novacks are a full-fledged mother/daughter team. As national champions of the mother/daughter grass court competition two years in a row, they are already looking forward this summer to pursuing their third win.

"We've played six nationals, been runners-up in four, and won the last two," said Toni, director of junior competition for the U.S. Tennis Association Hawai'i/Pacific Section.

"And one day we want to play all four mother/daughter competitions Ü on grass, clay, hard court and indoors," added Lynn, 21, who is graduating from the University of Hawai'i next month with a bachelor's degree in fine arts and dance.

They are both ranked nationally; Toni is seventh in the nation among women in their 50s, and Lynn is 39th in the nation among college players.

Lynn attends UH on a full tennis scholarship, travels with the college team to competitions three times a year, and doesn't get much time to play with her mother. But Toni has been her coach since she was 4, and they know each other's strengths and weaknesses.

"She's the power behind our team, and I'm the finesse," said the senior Novack. "If we want to play Australian Formation (a positioning strategy where the partner stands at the net in alignment with the server), I tell her and we do it. She has so much respect for my knowledge of the game, and we each admire in the other what we don't have. We use that to our advantage."

Lynn's fitness routine requires weight-lifting two days a week, plus long-distance running as well as sprints. But mostly it just means putting in a couple of hours of tennis every day, seven days a week. As an arts major Lynn is also a sculptor and dancer, and someday hopes to open her own gallery.

For Lynn, playing competitively with her coach has been the ultimate way to grow in the game – and have an even warmer and closer relationship with her mother. "She's more like a friend," said Lynn. "Off the court we joke around a lot."

On the court, it's business, but friendly business, and there's a welcome ongoing learning curve. "She's very smart on the court and she's also my coach, so if you do anything wrong, she can help you with what's going wrong," said Lynn. "I have confidence she knows what shot to hit at the right time, so I don't ever have to worry about my partner."

In fact, said Lynn, "I don't think of her as my mom, but a tennis partner."

Tennis has been part of the Novack family for three generations. In the 1970s Toni was a touring pro with the Virginia Slims Tour; her father, too, is a retired tennis pro. Her husband is also an excellent player, though back problems have forced him to switch to golf.

But the Novacks have passed on a love of competitive sports to both daughters. Twenty-five-year-old Meredith is a triathlete who swims, runs and bikes for the love of it.

"Now that's the real athlete of the family," enthuses Toni. "You have to be driven. She represented the U.S. in the World University Games in Prague three years ago."

The family has lived all over the world, as Mike Novack opened golf clubs attached to major resorts. Hong Kong, Mexico, the Philippines, Egypt, Europe; all have been homes, and all tennis-friendly. Only in her mid-teens did Lynn give up competition for a year as she saw what her mother calls the "ugly" side of youth tennis: pushy mothers driving their children into unpleasant and unsportsmanlike behavior.

While Lynn backed away from competition for a year, she stayed with the game and is still so enamored, she hopes to join the pro tennis tour also, and hopefully take a job in Florida in the coming year.

"I'd always come back to tennis because I just love it so much."