Kyle Bates and Bret Bruder survived a rainy night and a full 24-player field to win the Platform Tennis League's Summer A/B tournament. Each finished first in his respective "group" during round-robin play. Bruder teamed with Jamie Priest to win Group C and Bates partnered with Erik Simonson to finish in a tie for first in Group A. Other qualifiers for the semifinals were Andy Taylor and Mark Pohlman from Group B and Scott Triplett and John Fovel from Group A. Qualifying players were re-seeded and new teams were formed for the semifinals. Bates and Bruder won a tight 7-6 (3) final over John Fovel and Andy Taylor to take the championship. Click for full A/B Tournament results and a 2015 summer paddle tennis recap.

Fabian Schmahl won his 5-player court to hold on in a close race for second place in the standings. Click for the complete final standings & season recap (A/B results pending). Click for the week #7 court results. For those of you who have not yet signed up, the A/B Tournament is next Thursday, June 18.

Eric Toth has been a regular member and major contributor to the Cincinnati platform tennis community since the early 1990s. Today we thank him for his contributions to local tennis. It was announced that Eric will be inducted into the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame later this summer. Toth just completed his first season as the UC women's tennis head coach after spending 17 years as an assistant and head coach of both the men's and women's teams at Xavier. As Xavier's head coach (2007-14), he compiled a 234-130 combined record. His teams won three Atlantic 10 championships and he was chosen as the men's coach of the year three times and the women's once. In all, he coached 41 all-conference performers in the A-10 and Big East. As a player, Toth had some of his greatest accomplishments as a doubles player. He was Ohio high school state 3A runner-up in doubles while at Elder. He achieved ITA Region IV rankings of 6th in 1993 and 12th in 1992 while playing college tennis at the University of Cincinnati. Toth was a two-year co-captain and a two-time team MVP at UC. He currently spends his summers as the Director of Tennis at Hyde Park Country Club and spent several years teaching both tennis and platform tennis at Losantiville Country Club. He currently resides in Hyde Park with his wife Lynn. If there was a local platform tennis hall of fame, Toth would certainly be selected to that as well. He and long-time playing partner Tim Foster were responsible for recruiting dozens of tennis players to the sport while co-captaining GCPTA travel teams in the 1990s and 2000s. PT League players that owe their inclusion into local PT include myself, Rob Bakker, Scott Triplett, Brett DeCurtins, Kyle Bates, JR Randall, Brad Meadors, Anthony Palmenter, Marc Pretorius, Phil Diaz, and others. As a platform tennis player, Toth has held national rankings multiple times with his highest being #16 with Tim Foster. The duo was ranked in the top 20 for three straight seasons in the early 2000s. Toth has won two West Penn National Ranking Tournaments, one with Brian Brockhoff and one with Dan Mott. He has also made the semifinals of the Midwesterns twice, once with Curt Josselyn and once with Rob Bakker. He won the 2012 Hertzel Cup (City) with fellow tennis hall-of-famer Joe Leytze and is a 5x runner-up. Toth paired with another tennis hall-of-famer, Heather (Hairston) Prop, to win three city mixed championships. Eric continues to bring tennis players to PT as an advocate and promoter. He (along with Scott Estes and Brad Pierce) was instrumental in helping me gain support for the Platform Tennis League in its infancy. He continues to be a successful recruiter for the league, bringing at least a couple of new tennis players into it each year. Again, thanks to Eric Toth for his contributions to local tennis and PT and congratulations on the much deserved honor of being selected to the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame. Toth will be inducted Sunday, August 16, 2015 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center during the opening night of this year's Western and Southern ATP/WTA Tour event in Mason, OH.