Delray Beach ITC Adds Tommy Haas, Three Others

Tommy Haas, who reached number two in the world in 2002, has confirmed that he will play at the 2006 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships January 30-February 5 at the Delray Beach Tennis Center & Stadium.
 
Tickets to the event are now on sale at the Delray Beach ITC ticket office. They can also be reserved by calling 561-330-6000 or by going to the tournament website, YellowTennisBall.com. The 14th annual ATP event now has one of the strongest fields in its history committed to play in the 32-man draw. Last month it announced that American stars Robby Ginepri, James Blake and Mardy Fish had entered. The German-born Haas is a seven-time ATP title winner and a nine-time finalist with four Top 20 year-end finishes. A shoulder injury that required surgery shelved his 2003 season but he worked his way back to finish at No. 17 last year. "It seems like over the last few years I've looked to play in this (Delray Beach) tournament, but it hasn't worked out with my schedule said the 27-year-old Haas, a native of Hamburg.
 
“I'm excited that I'll be playing my first U.S. tournament of 2006 in Delray Beach and hopefully putting myself in a position to compete for the title." Haas has trained fulltime at the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton since he was 13 years old.
 
“We are continuing to add players who will help this event take a major step forward,©˜ said tournament director Mark Baron. ©¯With these four players in our draw, tennis fans in South Florida are going to have a lot of reasons tocome and see exciting tennis.
 
Single session grandstand tickets range from $10 to $20 while box seats are $50 to $75. Championship packages that include preferred seating for all 11 sessions are $220 while the Weekender package (quarter finals through finals) is $150. Box seat packages begin at $930 for two seats and range up to $2,000 for four premium courtside seats. Box seats include parking and an array of amenities.
 
 
PHOTO IDS
 
1. The tennis tournament crowd at the most recent Delray Beach gathering. They’ll be congregating again from January 30 - February 5.  
 
Photo by Alese and Mort Pechter (Offical ITC photographers)

Florida Pitbulls is Hardaway’s Latest Interest
 
by Matthew F. Sacco

Wash cars? Sure, Tim Hardaway used to do that. A few decades ago when he was growing up on the south side of Chicago and washing cars was a better way to make a buck than shoveling snow or mowing lawns – though he did that stuff too.
 
But now?
 
“Nah, I don’t really wash the cars,” he says. “This is just one my businesses.”
 
He may not wash the cars, but that won’t prevent him from giving a short tutorial on how to make a car shine so much you can see yourself in it. His son Tim is the victim presently, for not getting efficiently cleaning out the wheel wells of a red Mercedes.
 
Tim gives him a short “how to” before reminiscing about the 1981 Brown Mazda 626 that he used to wash, “all the time.”
 
Hardaway throws the word “tough” around constantly when speaking on his upbringing. Not “tough” as in a struggle. But “tough” as in, the only way to do something is all the way.
 
That’s what he learned from his father, Donald, who was a playground legend that lacked outstanding athletic skill, but who could still dominate from any position on the court.
 
So Tim figured that keeping his car clean was just as keeping his grades up, or succeeding on the basketball court. That type of attitude prepared him for life as first, an undersized college point guard that everyone overlooked, and second, an undersized NBA point guard that nearly everyone overlooked.
 
“I was supposed to be too short for everything,” Hardaway says. Turns out he wasn’t too short to outwork everyone he ever played against which is how he earned the “Tim Bug” nickname that is currently tattooed on the back of his right ankle.
 
But while Hardaway’s mentality served him well on the basketball court, it might make him even more successful in the business world.
 
Since his retirement from the NBA in 2002-03, Hardaway has dipped his hands into numerous business ventures – including a luxury car wash in downtown Miami, a wings joint called Hardaway’s House of Wings and the American Basketball Association’s Florida Pit Bulls.
 
“I like being busy,” he says. “I don’t think anything well ever replace playing in the NBA. But I take it seriously. It’s not really just having fun, it’s a business.”
 
That much is certain from Hardaway’s schedule. Though his basketball career is over, save for some promotional player-coach appearances for the Pit Bulls, he still is up before eight to work out before he hits the ground running to spend as much time at each business as he can.
 
Today’s he’s at the car wash wondering out loud how people can be so lazy.
 
People don’t want to work,” he says. “We need more workers but people just don’t want to put in the effort.”
 
That’s something that “Tim Bug” certainly can’t understand. Effort was never the problem for him. And it won’t be in business either. He’s passionate, maybe not basketball passionate, but still ambitious.
 
“You have to sustain,” he says. “You can’t get complacent. Here (pointing to the car wash), we’re gonna put some plasma screen TV’s in, a pizzeria, have some music playing. We want it to be a good atmosphere.”
 
An hour later at his wings joint, where the spiciest flavor called “suicide” requires a patron to fill out a medical waiver, he talks about how all of his businesses have a connection to home.
 
When I was growing up in Chicago,” he says. “There were car washes on every block. And we had this chicken place called Harold’s Chicken. If somebody came into town and said they wanted some chicken, you had to send them to Harold’s.”
 
And then there’s the basketball. Chicago’s South Side is famous for its aggressive and sometimes violent streetball games. These were the games that made Tim’s skin double thick. Which makes it fitting that the minor league team that he will lead into its inaugural season, chose an undersized but overly tough mascot like Pit Bulls.
 
That’s how Hardaway has succeeded in the business world so far. People will underestimate him and say he’s just a name. But behind that name is the mind of a savvy businessman. A mind that somehow grew out of a childhood of washing cars, mowing lawns and shoveling snow. Doing whatever it took to make a buck. Toughing it out.

Just over a month into his first season with the Florida Panthers, Chris Gratton’s smile says it all when he is asked about how he is adjusting to South Florida lifestyle and his new home in Weston Hills, along with his wife Stephanie and their five-month-old son Zachary.
 
“My family and I really enjoy the area,” he says.  “[Former Panthers center] Mike Sillinger recommended the area to me and it has been the perfect location, very convenient to everything that we need.”
 
Gratton, who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning with their first choice (third overall) in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, returns to the Sunshine State for his second hockey stint, but this time donning a Florida Panthers uniform. The Brantford, Ontario native has played more than 800 National Hockey League contests with six different clubs (Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Phoenix, Colorado and Florida), recording more than 40 points six times in his 12-year playing career, including back-to-back 60 point seasons.
 
Now with the Panthers, the 12-year NHL veteran believes they have what it takes to be a competitive club night in and night out. 
 
[General Manager] Mike Keenan did a great job in bringing in some proven leaders like Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk to complement some of the younger players on our team,” he says. “It has been great so far to play with this unique blend of players under the direction of Coach Martin. We are still adjusting to one another’s playing styles, but as a team we continue to make improvements everyday.”
 
Off the ice Gratton will be the first to tell you that he is an avid golfer. “I started playing when I was about 13, on the Spalding Junior Golf Tour,” he says. “I look to get out whenever we get an off day, especially with all the great courses in our area.” Gratton, who also owns a house in Bonita Springs, Fla. has played several courses in the South Florida area including Herron Bay, Weston Hills and Grand Oaks. “My handicap is about a 3 when I play back home, but it is a 7 when I play down here with the guys,” he says.
 
Gratton knows both sides of the Florida-Tampa Bay rivalry well. He was the youngest player in the NHL during his rookie campaign in 1993-94, when he tallied 42 points for the Lightning.  “It definitely is a heated rivalry,” he says. “The fans really get into it and it seems the two teams always play in some very exciting games.”
 
Two years after being drafted by Tampa Bay, Gratton helped the Lightning to the first post-season berth in franchise history. “That has to be one of my best memories of playing in Tampa,” says Gratton. “A record crowd of over 30,000 fans packed our building to see us play against Philadelphia in the first round. It is something that I will neverforget.” 
 
Gratton also recently became involved in harness racing. Two years ago he became part owner of some standard harness horses that race in Ontario. “Harness racing is something that I have always had an interest in and now I get to watch my own horses race during the off season up in Canada,” he says, “It is a great way to spend some time away from the rink.”