Monday, April 26, 2004 | 9:30 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
While raising the possibility of professional tennis returning to town last week, I referred to Las Vegas as the "quintessential country club city," which, with apologies to Palm Springs and Thurston Howell III, it is.
The irony is that on the very day I wrote that, while in pursuit of another tennis story, I found myself at the intersection of Washington and Martin Luther King -- literally miles from the nearest country club. Figuratively, it was even farther than that.
But if those are supposed to be the mean streets of Las Vegas, you couldn't tell. Maybe there would be sirens later, when darkness fell. But the only sounds I heard were the wail of sneakers on a synthetic court followed by the thwap! thwap! thwap! of a tightly strung racket making contact with the tennis ball.
It could have easily been Summerlin or Spanish Trail, or, had there been golf courts whirring nearby, behind the big iron gates of one of Las Vegas' many private golf and tennis enclaves, with one obvious difference:
Virtually every one of the kids hitting the blistering forehand volleys and delicate topspin lobs was a minority.
That, no doubt, is what Andre Agassi had in mind when he erected his Boys and Girls Club at that intersection. Not long thereafter, he established a tennis program for the neighborhood kids who otherwise, most likely never would have been exposed to tennis' funky way of keeping score.
The charter didn't say anything about developing champions, but that's exactly what seems to be happening. Easter weekend, Team Agassi's Asia Muhammad teamed with Krista Damico of Colorado to win the girls' 14-under doubles at the 37th Easter Bowl National Spring Championships at the Riviera Resort & Racquet Club in, you guessed it, Palm Springs.
The Easter Bowl is as big as it gets in junior tennis, as evidenced by the center spread in the official tournament program featuring some its more noteworthy alums, which include John and Patrick McEnroe, Harold Solomon, Chandra Rubin, Zina Garrison and Kathy Horvath.
Maybe one day -- and perhaps sooner than later -- Asia Muhammad's picture from 2004 will be added to the rest.
In terms of the Team Agassi roster, perhaps you'd put an asterisk alongside her name, as she is one of the few in the local program who isn't growing up in the inner city. Her parents live in Green Valley and her father has a job in real estate.
Notice I said a job in real estate, not that he owns a bunch of it. Only a land baron could afford the tab for private lessons and travel to and from the top junior tournaments.
Provided they keep their grades up and display good citizenship, that's what Asia Muhammad and her Team Agassi teammates receive au gratis, courtesy of the man himself and the fund-raising activities of his staff.
I asked Ronald Muhammad, a basketball standout at Southern Cal under Stan Morrison in the mid-1980s, if his daughter could have made it this far without the Boys and Girls Club.
"No way," he said. "This is a very expensive sport.
"For her to be able to practice and travel with a team and get the coaching along with it that is so first-rate ... it's just an awesome situation. What Andre and Perry (Rogers, Agassi's longtime friend and business manager) are doing is just unbelievable."
Asia Muhammad has been in the tennis program for four years, and although you wouldn't know it by the pace with which she strikes the ball, she didn't always win. She has blossomed in the past year under the tutelage of Tim Blenkiron, the tennis instructor at the Boys and Girls Club.
Blenkiron hails from Adelaide, and his accent puts one in mind of great champions from Down Under such as Rod Laver and John Newcombe. More important is that he plays a good game, too, as indicated by the 1997 NCAA doubles championship he won with partner and fellow Aussie Luke Smith at UNLV.
If Muhammad, a straight-A's student, can continue to raise the mental part of her game to where it equals the physical, Blenkiron said there's no reason she can't win a doubles championship of her own at Southern Cal, which is her dad's dream.
But watching her strike precise ground strokes in a tight trajectory to all angles of the court, you wonder if that might be setting the bar a little low.
"I've seen a lot of great athletes fall by the wayside because they couldn't get it mentally," Blenkiron said. "But she can be very good. She's got good genes ... and she's already a pretty good athlete. It'll probably come down to how much she wants it and how much more her brain develops."
Although she only turned 13 at the Easter Bowl, Muhammad already has sprouted to 5-foot-8. Her profile resembles that of her tennis racket, but in that her mom and dad were both rugged rebounders (her mom, Faye, played basketball at Long Beach State for Joan Bonvicini and also was an All-American in track and field), there's a pretty good chance Asia is going to fill out.
Given her parents' background, it's no surprise she has always liked sports. She also tried soccer, gymnastics and ballet but settled on tennis after being introduced to the game by her cousin, Jasmine, who played in high school.
"I really like it. It's a cool sport," Muhammad said. "Plus, I'm too tall for gymnastics."
It was her first interview, and she bashfully asked if she could be excused to practice some more.
A little while later, her dad arrived. He watched from the other side of the fence, at a distance that a pushy parent would consider too remote.
We've all heard those stories, but Ron Muhammad seems to have a grip on the important things in life. When I asked what has been the most rewarding aspect of watching his daughter progress up the junior ladder, his answer was surprising.
"What's really neat is to see kids from different (social) backgrounds hanging out with each other and becoming friends," he said.
"Black kids and white kids. And none of them noticing the difference."
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