CMS men's tennis coach Paul Settles, and his father Jim, have won a fourth consecutive USTA National Super Senior Father-Son Grass Court Championships title, in an event held Sept. 1-3 at the Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, N.Y. They have been playing national father-son tournaments for 25 years.
To prepare, Settles says he "crammed" for the championships by entering an open tournament in Huntington Beach just three days before Nationals, winning the Open-Mixed category with wife, Kathy, (they currently are ranked No. 1 in the U.S. in the husband-wife division, and have four national championships together) and the Open Men's Doubles event with a friend.
Settles and his father won their first national championship in 1995 and now have six National Championship awards. They ranked No. 1 in the U.S in 2002 in the Super Senior Father-Son division.
Settles is the former director of player services of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the governing body of men's professional tennis. He says it was his father, who played tennis in public parks in Glendale, who first inspired him to pick up a racket. "I used to follow him to the courts and watch him from the time I was 4 or 5," Settles says. In later years, he drew added inspiration from his older brother, who also plays Father-Son with the senior Settles, and played his first tournament at the age of 9.
Settles earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he captained the varsity tennis team, and earned a master's degree in criminology from Cambridge University. He was named the new head coach for men's tennis at CMS, the combined athletic program for Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd and Scripps colleges, last fall. The team ended its season 17-7, was named SCIAC conference champs, and finished sixth in the U.S. in Division III.