 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Nomad's new game
By JOSH ZIMMER, Times Staff Writer KEYSTONE -- His father was a truck driver and a Teamsters official in Oakland. Marc Georgian could not have been more different. He left California for a professional tennis career that would take him around the world. The juxtaposition isn't lost on Georgian, who recently moved back to Odessa for a second time to run a furniture business with a couple of partners. "One summer I remember working in the docks ... unloading containers to earn money so I could go to Europe that summer to play tennis," he recalled. "And when I was sitting on a veranda overlooking the bay in Monte Carlo drinking a beer, I had to laugh about how far I'd come in such a short period of time." At 49, Georgian has put tennis on the back burner to pursue his business interests. By his own description, he has led an exciting life, touring Europe, Asia and South America meeting interesting people, and living in Hawaii for more than a decade as a player, coach and businessman. Although he never cracked tennis' top tier, he competed against many Davis Cup players on the so-called satellite tour, which he called the equivalent of Single-A baseball. It also gave him entree into coaching and the business end of tennis, which would become his forte. "Great experiences," he said. "I have friends from all around the world." Georgian looks much younger than his years. His hair remains mostly jet black and he retains a athlete's ease of movement. There is no sign of waning energy as he juggles the Odessa store -- the Tree House Gallery on Gunn Highway -- and a much larger place he and his partners are opening in St. Petersburg. The businesses sell what Georgian calls "rustic" furniture with a simple, natural feel. Tennis was a relatively late passion for Georgian. After focusing most of his attention on baseball, which he played at the semipro level, he picked up a tennis racket and caught the bug at age 19. A coach in Alameda, Calif., took him under his wing. Georgian's basic future was mapped out. "Immediately it became a passion," he said. During his playing days, Georgian spent much his time traveling between European cities, often by train. The money wasn't great, but the tournaments often paid for room and board. He had a lot of fun, he said. One of his best wins came against a top-100 player in the world. One of his best appearances was qualifying for the Manchester Open, once a regular tour event in England, at age 35, though he lost in the first round. During his playing days he was hired as an assistant to help run the tennis center at a large hotel in Hawaii. Three months later, he was running the place, he said. Hawaii was a lush, largely undeveloped paradise at the time. Development problems would undo one of his dreams. In the late 1980s, Georgian said, he approached a developer about opening the largest tennis center in Hawaii. The plan was to surround it with an immense resort condominium appealing to the rich, including free-spending Japanese. The match seemed perfect, except for the timing. The Gulf War and the crash of the Japanese yen kept away the anticipated influx of Japanese customers. Much of the project was built, including his tennis center, but collapsed from the bad economy, he said. Shortly after that, Georgian came to Odessa for the first time. His then-wife got a job with Keystone activists and advertising company owners Jim and Laura Swain. Georgian, who stayed in Hawaii to sell the business, arrived later and found work coaching at the Palmer Tennis Academy, now at the Grenelefe Golf & Tennis Resort in Haines City. There, he hooked up with perhaps his finest student, Tampa product Kristina Brandi. He became her traveling coach for two years, helping her rise from 190th in the world rankings to 70, though she would later reach her best ranking of 28th in the world. They went to all the grand slam events together. Georgian, who is single, would later try stockbroking and real estate but found neither satisfying. Then, while helping someone he once competed against improve his tennis academy in Sacramento last year, he met another former tennis friend who had opened a furniture gallery. Six months later Georgian decided to start his own. Moving back to Odessa made sense. Always comfortable with the area's "rural feeling," he purchased a vacant house off Wayne Road. If the furniture business succeeds and he has the time, Georgian said he'd like to start a tennis program for minority and at-risk kids. For now, at least, this traveling man is making Odessa his home. "It's been an interesting life," he said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times |
