MEET THE PROS

Chris Baar

Chris Baar is a USPTA certified teaching pro with a Professional 1 rating. Chris played at the college level from 1972 – 1974. Afterwards he played on the pro circuit from 1974 – 1975. Shortly after that Chris started teaching tennis in 1977 as an Associate Head Pro at the Jack Kramer Tennis Club. From 1979 until 1994 Chris was the Head Pro and Tennis Director at the South End Racquet & Sports Club in Torrance. From 1990 until 1992 Chris was one of the coaches for the South Bay USTA Area Training Center. In 1994 he became the Tennis Director at the John Wayne Tennis Club until 1996, when he went on to become the Head Pro at Palisades Tennis Club. Since 1998, he has been the Head Pro at Los Caballeros Racquet & Sports Club. During his years of coaching Chris has developed a lot of successful tennis players who have done well in Southern California, college and the pro tour. Melissa Gurney (#1 in Southern California), Trey Lewis (#31 WTA World Ranking) and Lindsay Davenport, are just a few of the many that Chris has worked with over the years.

Chris Hastings

Chris Hastings was born September 19, 1967, in Newport Beach, CA. His English-born father, Jim Hastings started teaching Chris to play tennis when he was 7 years old. He learned many of the game’s techniques and developed his own skills by watching the tennis pros teach and avidly watching the televised professional matches. His formal lessons came at the age of 12, when he was enrolled in the Chuck Boyle Tennis Academy at Los Cab in Fountain Valley. Chris played at Estancia High School and went on to play at Orange Coast College from 1987 – 1989. In 1998 he started coaching the girls’ high school team at Estancia High School. Chris has been a U.S.P.T.A instructor for over ten years. Chris has been a teaching pro at Los Cab since 2001. Chris is married to Lisa and has two children, Kyle and Jake. (714) 425 – 8626

Chris Hirtler

Chris Hirtler started playing tennis at the age of 18. After 7 years and countless Group and Private lessons, he became an Open player. In 1984 he began teaching at Los Caballeros Racquet & Sports Club. He earned his certification from the USTA in 1987 and continued to support the USPTA. Chris met his wife, Janet, on court 18 in 1996. They married in December 1996. They have one daughter, Krista, born March 1998, who is becoming quite a nice tennis player. Over the past 22 years at Los Cab Chris has taught many people to play tennis. He teaches to all levels, from the 2 or 3 years old beginner, to ranked and Open players. Many of his students have gone on to play High School tennis and College tennis, and become ranked players in Southern California. One example is Oscar (Fabian) Matthews of Newport Beach. Chris started Fabian playing when he was 4 years old. Fabian is now one of the top junior tennis stars in Southern California. Fabian won the prestigious Ojai tennis tournament in Boys 16s Doubles and the Southern California Junior Sectionals Boys 14 Singles Championship. Email at  chortler@socal.rr.com  or call (714) 926 – 0654

Mark Hirtler

Mark Hirtler is a Pro-level 1, United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) Tennis Teacher. He grew up playing competitive tennis in Orange County, California and has been teaching tennis professionally for the past 25 years. His gift of communication allow him to work with students of all ages and abilities and to help each and every one achieve their very best. Mark served as the Director of Tennis and Head Pro for the Los Caballeros Racquet & Sports Club from 1984 to 1998 and during that same time operated the Los Caballeros Junior Tennis Academy. He has coached many open level and ranked junior players from Orange County over the years including: Eddie Weiss, Noli and Noel Zosa, Colby Morita, Mark Westmoreland, Kieth Briscoe, Nora Kapche, Stephanie and Renee Uricarriet, and many others. In 1994 he received the California USPTA Presidential Service Award for his work and commitment to the betterment of tennis teaching in So. Ca. HA dedicated teacher, Mark loves the challenge of working players who are motivated to improve. His coaching philosophy is “Never give up” and “Strive to be the best that you can be.” cwtennis.com

Wojtek Pietrowski

Wojtek Pietrowski is a USPTA certified teaching pro with a Professional 1 rating. He has over 30 years of experience in teaching tennis to players of all ages and abilities. Since 1985, he has been working at Los Caballeros Racquet & Sports Club. Prior to working at Los Caballeros, Wojtek coached in Poland and Austria in their junior development program. Since 1990 he has been an integral part of the USTA Competition Training Center junior developmental program in Orange County. In 1995 – 1996 the Orange County Competition Center was named as the “Competition Training Center of the Year” by the SCTA. Wojtek is also USTA certified as Level 1 in Sports Science Competency.He coaches numerous ranked juniors in Southern California and the United States. Many of his juniors have gone on to receive full tennis scholarships at NCAA Division 1 schools such as Notre Dame, Stanford, USC, UCLA, UCI, UCR, UCSD, Long Beach State, Boise State, Cal State Fullerton, and University of San Diego to name a few. His students have won numerous USTA National Championships, NCAA Championships, So. California Sectional Championships, as well as CIF High School Championship Honors. His respect and love of the game has also rubbed off on to his students who have amassed countless sportsmanship awards including the highest junior sportsmanship award in the United States, the Bill Talbert Junior Sportsmanship Award, which is presented annually at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. (714) 801 – 9506 http://www.wptennis.com or www.cwtennis.com 

Jackie Heston

Jackie Heston is a certified USPTA teaching professional. She has 20 years of experience. Jackie Started Teaching at South End Racquet Club in Torrance before coming to Los Caballeros. She has won many doubles tournaments including Nationals on grass and hard courts. She was chosen 3 times to represent Southern California in National Team Zonals. Jackie also had the honor of being voted California’s USPTA  Player of the year. Her students have ranged from 3 to 80. Her heart and specialty is women’s doubles strategy. She loves the game of tennis and finds great satisfaction watching her student’s game improve and also seeing how the lessons learned in tennis carry over into their daily lives. Contact Jackie at j8squirrell@gmail.com

Jackie’s Clinics are on Monday’s between 6:30pm to 8:00pm, Thursday 6:30pm to 8:00pm, Saturday 8:00am to 9:30am and 9:30am to 11:00am, Sunday 9:30am to 11:00am. Schedule a lesson today!