Tennis a 'lifetime sport' for world competitor Paul Wulf

Paul Wulf has been playing tennis for as long as he can remember.

Born, raised and having lived most of his life in the Salem area, he started playing at Bush Park against his mother, an avid tennis player herself.

"It's a lifetime sport, I couldn't beat (my mom) until I was 13 (and) she was 57," Wulf said. "She played until her 70s (when) she quit playing because she couldn't find anyone her age that was fun to play with."

Wulf, now 63, recently competed for the United States at the ITF Seniors World Team Championships in La Baule, France. It's the senior equivalent to the Davis Cup competition and is the highest ranked event on the ITF seniors circuit for male and female players in the age categories 50-60.

Wulf competed for the Von Cramm Cup (men's 60 and over) with teammates from North Carolina, New Jersey and Georgia.

The Von Cramm Cup consisted of 18 countries being split into three pools. In the pools, the countries faced off against each other in two singles matches and a doubles match, equaling three points.

In their pool, the Americans defeated South Africa (3-0) and Argentina (2-1). In the semifinals they defeated Brazil (2-1) and in the finals they lost to Australia (0-3).

This was the third time Wulf made the international team, even though he was originally an alternate for this year's squad.

"We played with three alternates and one original and still ended up finishing second," Wulf said. "That says a lot about the level of tennis in the United States."

Wulf isn't sure how he became such a good tennis player. In college he was the fourth-ranked player on his own team and in his sophomore year of high school he was fifth and sixth on the team.

"To be honest, I don't know what kind of flipped the switch," Wulf said. "I didn't play a lot for about 15 years as my kids were growing up so my body didn't break down. I'm more mobile than most people my age so that's probably my strength."

Over the past few years, Wulf and his doubles partner, Len Woffor, have won eight national titles. He's won one singles and seven doubles titles and is currently ranked No. 1 in doubles and No. 2 in singles for his age group in the country.

In the 60-plus age group there are four national championships played on four different surfaces, including hard courts, indoor, grass and clay. Players receive a national ranking based on how they fare in the national tournaments plus local tournaments throughout the year.

"We find that we kind of pick and choose our tournaments because when we play a tournament, it beats up our bodies," Wulf said. "I play singles and doubles, which means I'm playing two matches a day (and) in the big tournaments you'll start with a draw of over 70 and 80 players. It becomes a battle of attrition to be perfectly honest and so many of the people that I play against have artificial knees, hips, fused backs, you name it."

Wulf and his partner are competing at a tournament in Portland in a couple of weeks and Wulf sees himself playing for as long as his body will let him. He doesn't, however, want to be one of those players that is fully consumed by tennis.

"I'm not consumed by tennis, it's something that keeps me active and busy and I enjoy playing," Wulf said. "It's been a great experience for someone that's from Salem, Oregon and to be as successful as I've been is a testimony to a lot of the guys that I still play tennis with in town."