28 | DECEMBER 2 • 2021 

SPORTS

S

torm Kirschenbaum 
figured it out very 
quickly.
“
As I was going into the 
tie-breaker of my match, I saw 
the looks on the faces of the 
guys on our team who had 
come over to watch,” he said. 
“I could tell they weren’t there 
to just enjoy watching the 
tie-breaker.”
Indeed they weren’t.
A United States Tennis 
Association national champi-
onship hung on the result of 
the tie-breaker.
Kirschenbaum came 
through.
He roared from behind to 
defeat his singles opponent 
from Austin, Texas, 6-1, 3-6, 
10-8, rallying from an 8-5 defi-
cit in the tie-breaker.
That gave the Franklin 
Athletic Club team a 3-1 win 
over Austin and the USTA 

national title in the 40-and-
over men’s team division on a 
windy day in Oklahoma City, 
Oklahoma.
It was the first time in at 
least 40 years that a team from 
the Midwest won the 3.5 age 
40-and-older men’s national 
championship, and the first 
time since 2001 that any team 
from southeast Michigan won 
a USTA national team title.
“We stormed the court after 
Storm won his match,” said 
Franklin team captain Ari 
Byer, at first not realizing his 
appropriate choice of words.
Later came an avalanche of 
congratulatory texts to Byer 
from the area tennis commu-
nity.
“I’ll bet I got a thousand 
texts in 48 hours,” he said.
Kirschenbaum, 43, Byer, 47, 
and Steve Cohen, 60, were the 
three Jewish members of the 

Franklin team, whose 3.5 skill 
level is in the middle of the 
USTA’s 2.5 to 5.0 scale.
Kirschenbaum, a 
Birmingham resident, played 
singles, Byer played No. 2 dou-
bles and Cohen played No. 1 
doubles in the national cham-
pionship match.
Cohen, who lives in 
Bloomfield Hills, also had a 
crucial victory against Austin.
He teamed with Jay Dalal 
to win 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 at No. 2 
doubles, finishing the match 
just before Kirschenbaum 
went into his tie-breaker.
Kirschenbaum has an excep-
tional sports resume.
He was named the 1997 
Jewish News Male High 
School Athlete of the Year 
after an outstanding baseball 
career at Birmingham Groves, 
and he was inducted into the 
Michigan Jewish Sports Hall 

of Fame in 2012 for also being 
a Division I college baseball 
player and an excellent hockey 
player.
He places what happened in 
Oklahoma in October at the 
top of his athletic accomplish-
ments pedestal.
“Winning that tennis match 
to clinch a national champion-
ship for my team was the most 
meaningful accomplishment 
I’ve ever had in sports,” he 
said.
“First, I don’t have much 
experience playing tennis. I’ve 
only played competitive tennis 
for four years. Plus, it’s more 
difficult to accomplish things 
athletically, and it’s such a 
mental grind to play at a high 
level when you get older.”
Kirschenbaum’s winning 
tie-breaker point came on a 
backhand shot down the line 
that his opponent could only 

Thrilling tie-breaker victory gives 
Franklin Athletic Club tennis team 
a national championship.

Drama on 
the Court

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

UNITED STATES TENNIS ASSOCIATION

UNITED STATES TENNIS ASSOCIATION

TOP LEFT: Franklin Athletic 
Club teammates rush 
the court to congratulate 
Storm Kirschenbaum after 
his national championship- 
clinching victory.
TOP RIGHT: Storm 
Kirschenbaum wins his 
match and a national 
championship for his 
Franklin Athletic Club 
team. 
LEFT: Franklin Athletic 
Club tennis team 
captain Ari Byer holds 
up his team’s national 
championship trophy.

