MaliVai Washington Makes Senior Debut

Ponte Vedra Beach’s own MaliVai Washington is scheduled to make his senior tour debut on Aug. 22 at Newport, the lone grasscourt event on the Jim Courier-organized Outback Champions Tour. The 1996 Wimbledon runner-up has not competed in tournament play since 1999 when a knee injury prematurely ended his career.

“A couple months ago Jim Courier called me up at the last minute and asked if I’d fly to Boston to potentially fill in for a player who was injured,” Washington told JAX Tennis. “I flew to Boston that same day but as it turned out I didn’t play, but enjoyed being around the tournament, around the guys, and a part of me wanted to get out there and play. I never really felt like my knee (post two surgeries) could take the pounding of match play again, which is why I’ve never pursed playing Champions Series events before, but nonetheless I started doing a little more training, started hitting more balls, just to get a sense of how my knee might hold up. Right now my knee feels ok and I haven’t had any setbacks -- with that said I haven’t had to play three matches over four days yet either.”

Since hanging up his racquets Washington has put his efforts into establishing the highly-successful MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation, that among other things provides tennis and tutoring for inner-city Jacksonville children, and also into buying and selling real estate.

He is scheduled to take to the grasscourts at the International Tennis Hall of Fame against round robin group-mates Jim Courier, Todd Martin, and Richard Krajicek who beat him in the Wimbledon final.

“Making my debut in the Outback Champions Series will be exciting,” Washington said. “The funny thing is that the draw will look just like it did when I was on tour full-time. These are the guys I won and lost against my entire career.”

This article appears in the September 2007 issue of JAX Tennis magazine, Northeast Florida's Tennis Source at www.jaxtennismagazine.com.