Roswell’s Simon Reaches National Pinnacle

publication date: Jun 16, 2008

 | 

author/source: John Breech / STAFF

By John Breech / STAFF

Roswell resident Angela Simon had a storied career at UGA before reaching a No. 1 national ranking for players 35 and over earlier this year.

There aren’t too many people in North Fulton who can make the claim that they’re the best in the country at something. However, one Roswell resident can certainly make that boast, and nobody can argue with her. Her name: Angela Simon. Why can Simon boast? Because according to the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the 36-year-old mother and wife is the number one female tennis player in the country over the age of 35.

Now don’t read this and think that being ranked number one is as easy as going out and picking up a tennis racket. It’s takes a lot of time and even more practice. Simon’s been playing tennis for the better the part of three decades.

With the proliferation of tennis academies over the past two decades, the talents of most young tennis players are discovered by scouts or agents. Not Simon though. Her coming out party was at a neighborhood court.

“Our neighbors had a tennis court, so all the kids in the neighborhood did clinics at our neighbor’s place,” explains Simon. “One day they wrote a note home to my mom and dad that said ‘she has a lot of talent.’”

The neighbor’s note also included a phone number, a number that would lead to more comprehensive tennis instruction for the budding star.

Over the next few years, Simon’s talents increased exponentially. By age 15 the Vero Beach, Fla., native was playing in her first professional tournament, although by her own accounts, she stuck mostly to “junior tournaments.”

By the time her high school graduation rolled around, Simon had a big decision to make. Try to gut it out on the pro tour or get a taste of college life. Simon’s dad was thinking pro tour, but Simon was having other ideas.

“After I graduated from high school I told him, ‘I really want to go to college for a year and see how I do.’”

Following her heart, Simon headed off to Athens and the University of Georgia in the fall of 1991. However, being a Florida native, Simon does admit that “Florida was my first choice,” but she quickly added that, “UGA was a very, very close second choice.” She also mentioned that she had absolutely no regrets over not attending Florida. Plus it’s hard to regret something that ends up being so successful, like Simon’s career with the Bulldogs.

That career hit its apex in 1994 when she led the lady Bulldogs to the NCAA national tennis championship. The Bulldogs won the team championship, while Simon won the individual title. Fourteen years later, Simon still seems surprised by her team’s flawless run.

“It was a Cinderella story,” she said. “We weren’t supposed to win, nor was I supposed to win the singles.”

The magical season could have been just a little bit sweeter if Simon and her doubles partner Michelle Anderson had also been able to win the national championship. However, due to an injury to Anderson, the two never got the chance. The doubles title that year would instead go to Rebecca Jensen and her partner from Kansas. Ironically, over the last three summers, Jensen and Simon have worked together as pros at the River Club in Roswell.

In 2005, Simon became the first and only women’s tennis player ever at UGA to be named into the school’s Circle of Honor. The Circle of Honor is the highest award that the university bestows upon its former student-athletes.

“That was amazing. That was really an exciting thing to be a part of,” Simon says of being honored. “Winning the NCAA’s and then being a part of that just makes it that much sweeter, always knowing that there’s a part of me at Georgia.”

Following her stellar college career, Simon headed to the professional circuit, but her time there was filled with uncertainty, as she doubted whether that was what she wanted to be doing with her life. After playing some singles and a lot of doubles for four years, against the likes of Chanda Rubin and Anna Kournikova, Simon decided that women’s tennis in 1998 wasn’t as glamorous as it sounded.

“I decided it just wasn’t for me,” she said. “The money wasn’t there, nobody really cares if you’re playing doubles or not, it’s not really what it seems like, so at that point I decided it was time for me to move on.”

So Simon called it a career, but not before winning two straight doubles titles at the Dow Corning Classic.

Eight years later, Simon found herself back in the tennis world. Having just turned 35, she found out that reaching that age was the only prerequisite for entering USTA open events. With a one-year-old at home, Simon knew she couldn’t be away too often.

“I decided that I would play a few tournaments… I played three,” she said.

Simon used the first two tournaments she played in to gauge how good her competition would be. And she liked what she saw. That convinced her to sign up for nationals, which were being played on a clay court in Houston.

“The top one and two (top two ranked players in the 35’s age group) were at this event. I had already played the number one girl…and I had beaten her,” she said.

Simon breezed past the competition in Houston, proving that eight years of rust can be worked off in 12 months. Over the course of four matches in Houston, Simon didn’t even drop a set. The win vaulted Simon to a number two ranking that would eventually become number one.

Along with her number one ranking came an invitation to the world tournament for players over 35. Unfortunately, Simon won’t be able to attend the October tournament being played in Turkey because of family obligations.

Simon’s ranking has dropped recently, not because she’s losing, but because she’s not playing in enough tournaments. Simon bases the number of tournaments she plays in on her 2-year-old daughter Emma.

“I’ve been taking her with me, and the older she’s gotten, the harder it’s gotten. Plus I need someone to travel with us because there’s no way I can travel with just her and I,” said Simon, referring to the impossibility of her watching her daughter during practice and her match.

When she’s not playing competitively, Simon passes her time as the head tennis pro at the River Club, and someday she just might discover the next…Angela Simon.