Making Their Marks Loucks Brothers Following In Dad’s Footsteps

Twenty-five years after his father had won the 14-under boys division of the Pacific Northwest Sectionals tennis tournament, Matt Loucks has duplicated the feat.

By finishing second in the 12-under age group, younger brother Adam made dad even prouder.

“I never won the 12 year olds,” said Tom Loucks. “The highest I finished was ninth. I told him to be proud.”

The Loucks brothers are making their mark on the junior tennis circuit, much as their father did before them.

Matt, 13, seeded fourth in the sectional tournament, is one of three to advance from there to national competition in San Antonio, Texas, in August.

While there is no national tournament for 12-year-olds, Adam, 11, has qualified for zone play in Tucson, Arizona, on July 20.

The way Matt won the Pacific Northwest Sectionals, the summer’s biggest junior tennis tournament, was particularly intriguing. Twice he lost the first set of matches and trailed in the second before rallying for victories.

In the finals, he scored a stunning 6-1, 6-1 victory over top-seeded Shannon Buck of Fairchild Air Force Base.

Matt’s second-round foe, who had once beaten him four straight times, won the first game 6-4 and led 4-1 in the second.

“The first set he hit hard and came to net. I can beat him that way,” Matt said, before winning 6-4, 6-4. “He began hitting moon balls and it took a while to adjust. It was a big relief.”

In the semis, after losing 6-2 and trailing 2-0, Matt won 6-2, 6-2 to earn a national berth.

“Before that I thought it was too bad nationals depended on one tournament,” said Tom. “I was excited for him because he had worked hard and I felt he was a top-three player.”

The icing was Matt’s title victory over a player who had beaten him twice previously.

“Both play a real consistent game,” said Tom. “They played some tough, tough points. But Shannon hadn’t been through what Matt had.”

Adam was also seeded fourth until upsetting the top seed in the semifinals. A player to whom he had lost 6-1, 6-0 two months earlier beat him 7-6, 6-2 in the title game.

The younger of the Loucks siblings played up in age as a 10-year-old and was ranked eighth in the Pacific Northwest last year.

“He’s always been able to compete with kids older than him for quite some time,” said his dad.

Now he gets to follow his older brother into more high pressure tournaments.

The two youngsters, who practice two and three hours per day depending upon the time of year, have been playing tennis since age seven. They became hooked after watching Tom play.

“I wanted to be like that,” said Matt. “I wasn’t any good, but knew I wanted to play top tennis.”

At first, said Adam, he was mad when Matt went to zone competition and he couldn’t.

“I had to stay home because there was no tournament to play,” he said. “Now I get to do the same stuff, basically, just in different areas of the country.”

Matt, a right-hander, has developed powerful ground strokes and, said Tom, has gotten mentally tougher.

Adam is left-handed, with a back-spinning serve that baffles his opponents.

“He’s a serve-and-volley type which will pay off as he gets older,” said his dad.

They have played some doubles together, but as brothers are wont, sometimes their personalities clash.

“Especially when he misses a volley in a tiebreaker,” said Matt.

“I don’t get on you when you miss one,” countered Adam.

So leave the doubles play to Matt and Tom. For now it’s probably best the brothers are playing on their own in singles tournaments.

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