MICHAEL GRANT
One of Eastern’s most accomplished junior players in the early 1970’s, Michael Grant went on to crack the ATP top 100 as a professional player, reaching the second round of both the US Open and Roland Garros in 1980. Following his retirement from the Tour, Michael continued to capture Eastern titles in the Men’s 35 and overs. He captained Eastern’s Talbert Cup team for three undefeated years in the mid-1990s.
Born in Queens, raised in Roslyn, Long Island, Michael currently lives in Garden City, Long Island and works in Queens as the Executive Vice President for Skyline Restoration, Inc. He continues to play tennis daily and has coached for the Israel Tennis Center and New York Junior Tennis & Learning, the country’s premiere non-profit youth tennis and education program.
BETTY NEWFIELD WALL
Betty was born into a tennis family. Her dad Herman was a tennis pro at Sterling Tennis Courts, in Flushing Queens and her mom, Margaret, was the manager there. Betty started playing tennis at age 2 and played her first ETA tournament at age 9 where she got to the finals of the 12 and under division.
1975 was a busy year for Betty. She was ranked number one in both singles and doubles in the ETA’s girls 14s; she was number two the 16s singles but held the top spot in doubles; and in the 18s singles, only Mary Carillo was ahead of her, but no one outranked her in the doubles.
Throughout her junior career Betty achieved the #1 ranking in every ETA junior division. Her highest national ranking was #2 in singles and #1 in doubles, where she teamed up with 2022 Hall of Fame Inductee, Caroline Stoll. She won 3 junior national championships and a finalist in 3. She also won the Canadian Open and was runner-up in the Junior Orange Bowl where she lost to Anne White.
She was recruited to play for the Florida Gators, the 2nd ranked team in the country at time, and where she was voted MVP in 1981.
Betty lives in Beacon, NY, with her husband, Steve Jaffe, and two sons.
CINDY SHMERLER
Cindy Shmerler is an award-winning sports journalist and broadcaster who has covered tennis, among other sports, for more than 40 years. She has worked in every medium, as a newspaper and magazine writer and as a commentator on television, radio and social media. She began her career at World Tennis magazine where she rose from summer intern to managing editor until the magazine folded in 1991. She worked as a contributing editor and frequent correspondent at Tennis magazine/Tennis.com and is currently a freelance tennis correspondent for the New York Times.
During her career, she has written about everyone from Rod Laver and Billie Jean King to Roger Federer, Serena Williams and a memorial tribute to her dear friend and longtime colleague, Bud Collins. She is also a commentator for both Tennis Channel and ESPN and she serves as the daytime voice of American Express radio at the U.S. Open. For more than 15 years she was the voice of men’s ATP tennis for ESPN International where it is believed she became the first woman to do play-by-play of men’s professional tennis.
A Scarsdale native, Shmerler currently lives in Westchester County, N.Y., with her husband, Ford Levy. The couple have two adult children.
MICHAEL FISHBACH
Michael Fishbach was born in the Bronx and raised on Long Island, where he began playing tennis at age three. Too young to hold a racquet with one hand, he played with two on both the forehand and backhand sides, a style he continued to use throughout his career. Michael played his first Eastern tournaments in the 12-and-unders at age six in the 12s and eventually achieved the top ranking in all of the Eastern age divisions.
After playing for UC Irvine, Michael turned pro and played ten years on the tour, achieving a top 50 world ranking in both singles and doubles. Qualifying for the 1977 US Open, Michael famously used the "Spaghetti Racket," and defeated former champion Stan Smith, 6-0, 6-2, in the second round. Eventually, Michael's racquet was banned – the first ever piece of equipment to so in tennis history – although his career continued to flourish.
His father, Joseph, was a former top ten in the world player and also built the first indoor court facility in the U.S. for public use in Great Neck in the late 1950's. His brother Peter, himself a former professional, teamed with Michael to play doubles at both the US Open (1971) and Wimbledon (1978).
For the last 30 years, Michael has been actively involved in field research on, and conservation of, the ocean’s largest whales. He is the Executive Director and co-founder of Great Whale Conservancy.
ANNE WORCESTER
Anne Worcester has spent nearly 40 years helping to grow the sport of professional tennis on a global scale and impacting every facet of the sport’s business, from players to tournaments to sponsors to governing bodies. Born and raised in Syosset, Long Island, Worcester was the first woman - and youngest person - to lead any major professional sports organization when she was named CEO at age 34 of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the world’s preeminent sporting circuit for women. Previously, she also served as Managing Director of the Women’s International Professional Tennis Council, the then-governing body of women’s pro tennis.
For over 20 years, she served as the Tournament Director of the Connecticut Open, developing the WTA and ATP tournament into one of the world’s best attended WTA events, a player favorite, and a leading example of leveraging a large-scale international sporting event to build community tennis, especially in the inner city.
Worcester also worked in wide-ranging roles across tennis from Sales and Marketing at US tennis events for Endeavor/IMG (1983-1987) to Tournament Director of tennis events in Spain (1987) to Director of Worldwide Operations for Virginia Slims Tennis (1988-1991). In her role as President of Universal Tennis, she was instrumental in growing the sport by connecting players globally through level-based play, innovative events, and a digital marketplace.
Anne is a graduate of Duke University, a co-founder and board member of New Haven Youth Tennis & Education (New HYTES) and serves on the board of the Tennis Foundation of Connecticut.
She is currently a Strategic Advisor to Major League Pickleball (MLP) and Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating (DUPR), where she sits on the board and is instrumental in growing the start-up league and technology arm in all areas including owner relations, sponsorship, marketing, communications and event operations.
In January 2023, Worcester was named a Presidential Appointee by USTA President and Chairman of the Board, Brian Hainline, for a two-year term.
LOU DIMOCK
Louis Dimock has been in the tennis vineyards for 52 years and still spends parts of each day wondering how the tennis world can do better. He started his tennis career playing for Aurora University in Illinois and quickly found a living by teaching tennis in Aurora and Sterling in the 1970s. It was there he began is volunteer involvement with the USTA, serving as president of the Northern Illinois Tennis Association for a decade and as his district representative at USTA Mid-Western sectional board meetings.
In 1981, Lou moved to Wappingers Falls in New York’s Hudson Valley. There he purchased Cross Court Tennis Club in 1984, which he still owns and where he continues to teach 40 hours every week. Lou served over 12 years on the USTA Eastern board of directors, including two terms as the Section’s President (the only person to have done so). Lou has also served on several USTA National committees, including Player Development, Junior Team Tennis, Schools, Budget and Finance, Presidents Committee, Delegates Committee, and National Nominating Committee. He also served for over two decades on the board of Junior Tennis Foundation.