July 10, 2008 — vol. 43, no 48
Comeback trail brings tennis pro Stevenson to Dorchester
Professional tennis player Alexandra Stevenson (left) offers some career advice to Inasia Woods, a student at Barnard Elementary School in New Haven, Conn., after addressing New Haven children at the Connecticut Tennis center in this April 2003 file photo. Now fully rehabbed from a 2003 shoulder injury that jeopardized her career, the 27-year-old Stevenson is on the comeback trail, which brought her to Sportsmen’s Tennis Club in Dorchester last week. (AP photo/New Haven Register, Melanie Stengel)
Some may know Alexandra Stevenson as the daughter of basketball legend Julius Erving.
Others might remember the tennis player’s run during the summer of 1999 as the 18-year-old wonder who made it through the Wimbledon women’s draw all the way to the vaunted tournament’s semifinals in her first appearance there.
They might also clump her in that unfortunate group of world-class athletes stopped by an injury — in Stevenson’s case, shoulder problems — just as they hit their prime.
Those are the facts that define Stevenson to the masses; if someone knows who she is, chances are it’s for one of those three reasons, and they overshadow any other information about what her life entails.
But Alexandra Stevenson knows who she is, whether other people do or not.
The 6-foot-3-inch Stevenson, who is biracial, looks little like the “California girl” often seen crisscrossing courts in the major tennis events showcased on network television, and she knows it. Stevenson says that the media flocks to the skinny blonde girls in short skirts and showers them with coverage because, well, sex sells.
“I call it the Marilyn Monroe complex,” Stevenson told the Banner in a recent interview. “Except she wasn’t skinny.”
(p2)related CONTENT
ESPN.com: "My journey back"
In the blog for the Worldwide Leader in Sports, Stevenson describes her travels on the long road from injury and obscurity back (she hopes) to the top off the women's tennis world. More »
Sportsmen's Tennis Club
The Dorchester nonprofit club has brought the sport of tennis into the lives of thousands of Greater Boston residents since its founding in 1961. More »
Dominican all-stars to hit Hub for baseball exhibition
The series features Bay State stops in Lynn, Holyoke and Lowell, as well as games in Connecticut where the Dominican team plays the Torrington Twisters and the Danbury Westerners. At Jim Rice Field in Roxbury, the Latino ballplayers will play the Yawkey League All-Stars, a team comprised of the best players from the Greater Boston-area league. More »
