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Arias, former world tennis No. 5 and WNY native, to host clinics at YMCA

Long before the late Van Miller made the term “fandemonium” part of his Buffalo Bills’ radio broadcasts, he very well could have served as the fan club president for one young tennis player from Grand Island.

Even at 12 years old, Jimmy Arias’ talents left mouths agape, including that of Miller, who was also the longtime sports anchor at Channel 4 in Buffalo.

“Van Miller was my buddy,” Arias said in a cellphone interview last week. “When I won the 12-and-under nationals, he was always the first to be excited.”

So imagine Miller’s euphoria one day in the mid-1970s when he was informed that the pre-teen would have a chance to play an exhibition match with 11-time major champion Rod Laver at the Buffalo Tennis & Squash Club.

At the time, Laver was 38. Arias was 12.

“I hadn’t even reached puberty yet,” Arias said.

Armed with the news of the match between the prodigy and the legend, Miller let his viewers know during a broadcast, and by the next day the club on Elmwood Avenue was jammed with people who wanted to see history made.

And they almost did.

Arias, who even at such a precocious age had developed a very good forehand, went ahead 2-0, prompting Laver to reportedly proclaim that the youngster wouldn’t win another game. All Arias did was win three more before ultimately falling to his hero, 7-5.

It was merely one noteworthy entry on a tennis resume that includes: turning pro at age 16 in 1980; finishing ranked No. 6 in the world in 1983 after reaching the U.S. Open semifinals by defeating Jonathan Canter, Tom Gullikson, Gianni Ocleppo, Joakim Nystrom and Yannick Noah, before losing to Ivan Lendl; ranking No. 5 in the world in 1984; and earning $1.8 million in his career that ended in 1994.

And, guess what? The self-admitted “cocky little kid” is now 53 and he’ll be coming to the Lakewood YMCA on Saturday, July 21.

“It is a great honor to have Jimmy Arias return to the Lakewood YMCA tennis facility,” branch manager Tom Anderson said. “He played here when he was 11 years old, beating college players, and went on the become the fifth-best player in the world. He is excited to be coming back home.”

Arias first played at the Lakewood facility more than 40 years ago as part of his whirlwind weekend tournament schedule that routinely took him from Erie to Syracuse and points in between. The one memory that Arias has of his time at the Lakewood Y was when he was beating a local club member, 6-4, 4-0, on his way to a 6-4, 6-0 victory. After he double-faulted, however, Arias’ father, Antonio, wasn’t happy.

“Dad started banging on the glass,” Arias said. “With the score, 6-4, 4-0, normally you chill out, but not my dad.”

By the time he was a seventh-grader, it was clear that he was something special on a national scale, too, as he found a place in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd,” and made a television appearance on “To Tell the Truth.”

Just a few years later, Arias turned pro, moved to Sarasota, Florida to train under Nick Bollettieri and ultimately stood at No. 5 in the world by 1985. Thirty-three years later, Arias is now an assistant tennis coach at the University of South Florida in Tampa and also does some TV work for the SEC Network.

“I probably wasn’t playing well two years ago,” Arias said. “Last year, playing with college kids, I started playing well again.”

Area tennis enthusiasts will get to see just how well on July 21. The day will include a kids clinic at 9 a.m.; an adult clinic at 10:30 a.m.; lunch with Arias at noon, followed by a question-and-answer period; and an exhibition doubles match with Arias and top local players at 1 p.m. The cost is $60 for the clinic, lunch and the exhibition; or $10 for the exhibition only.

“Jimmy is still a great player and has great stories about his career where he beat tennis greats like John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors,” Anderson said. “Any fan of tennis will not want to miss this event.”

For more information, call the Lakewood YMCA at 763-0303.

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