Pickleball Magazine 2-6 Courtesy of PickleballTournaments | Page 88

A CONVERSATION WITH
2016 NATIONAL AND US OPEN
SINGLES CHAMPION
MARCIN ROZPEDSKI
BY DEAN MANGIONE, USAPA DISTRICT AMBASSADOR
M
arcin Rozpedski, 2016 National and US Open
Singles Champion, is the Sports Director of the
Racquet Center at the Lakes Country Club in
Palm Desert, CA. Marcin was a former Davis
Cup Tennis Player for Team Poland in the 1990s and has
successfully overseen a smooth transition at Lakes Country
Club with the addition of permanent pickleball courts into
the mix of racquet sport facilities.
Marcin, 41, resides in the Coachella Valley with his wife
and three sons. He was born in Poland and was given his
first tennis racquet at age 6 by his mother. By age 14, he
was ranked in the top 10 by the Polish Federation Youth
Tennis Association. At that time, speaking no English and
armed with only $300 in cash and an athletic travel visa
from communist Poland, Marcin moved to Miami, FL,
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alone. By age 19, he was ranked number one in tennis in
Poland and a winner of the Polish Tennis Nationals.
Shortly after, while playing tennis for the Polish
Federation in Nigeria, Marcin contracted malaria and
had to spend the next two months in the hospital. As a
result, he lost his professional tennis sponsorships and his
conditioning. Marcin recovered, and at age 20 he signed
up for the College of the Desert community college tennis
team in Palm Desert, but was soon noticed by UCLA and
offered a full tennis scholarship.
Marcin made the change from competitive tennis to
pickleball three years ago, and won the 2015 Nationals
Open Division Men’s Singles.
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