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Tennis Cause Of Lifelong Friendship

Friends of 20 years enjoy visiting Wheeling for Jack Dorsey Tourney

WHEELING -- When it comes to sports, sometimes it can bring people together and cause lifelong friendships. Such was the case for Selim Benbadis and Alex Kor with tennis.

For 20 years, the duo has been traveling to different senior tournaments. While on the road, they are also roommates at every tournament they go to.

This week was no exception as Benbadis and Kor made their way to Wheeling to compete in the Jack Dorsey Memorial Senior Tennis Tournament on Thursday.

"I'm from France. And I played the amateur circuit if you want to call it that. We don't have the equivalent of college tennis in France and I played competitively," Benbadis said. "We started playing on the senior tour in the 35's (age group). We met in the 40's and met in Pittsburgh. We became friends. We have a lot in common. We're both in medicine. So we have a lot to discuss between tennis and medicine.

"We are roommates at every tournament we go to. We meet here, we meet in Jackson, Mississippi, we meet in Atlanta or wherever there is senior events. It's a lot of fun."

When it comes to their professional careers, Benbadis is a neurologist who resides in Florida while Kor is a podiatrist living in Indiana.

While they did meet at an indoor senior tennis tournament in Pittsburgh, they really didn't start hanging out until later that year when they stayed at a house in Savannah Georgia with other players. There they realized that they had similar interests.

"We've been playing national tournaments for 20 years," Kor said. "We met 20 years ago in Pittsburgh. We were both in medicine.

"Typically we travel to these tournaments together. I go down down and practice with him a lot."

While they are friends, there are times at tournaments that they will square off against each other. Thursdays was one of those days as Benbadis got the upperhand 6-1, 6-2 in the 60's division.

"He competes well and always wants to get better like we all do," Benbadis said about Kor. "We have a good time. But, on the court, I need to win. That's all that there is to it. I don't care how good of friends we are. On the court, I'm going to try to win. On the court, I don't give away games. If he wins them, he wins them. I don't give them up."

Kor, who picked up the game of tennis at the age of eight and played at Butler in college, has secured a lot of victories in his career. However, there's one thing he hasn't been able to accomplish.

"I've never beaten him," Kor said about Benbadis. "He's very tough on clay. He's one of the top players in the country on clay.

"We played doubles together once and got to the finals. And I just played him two weeks ago in Indianapolis. So my last two losses are to him. We were talking when we drove over. We think we've been coming here for 10 years."

And there is a reason why both Benbadis and Kor have been coming back to the Friendly City all these years.

"This is truly one of our favorite tournaments," Benbadis said.

"The draws are on the smaller side, but it is very low-key. I was a tennis counselor in Maine and this reminds me of that. It's very low-key, people are nice. This is really one of our favorites tournaments. Except last year when it was canceled, we've come every year for at least 10 years. We've never miss it."

Although the Jack Dorsey Memorial Tournament was canceled last year due to the pandemic, Kor and Benbadis were able to play in some tournaments in the fall last year. However, they are happy to be back and playing at the courts at Oglebay.

"Everybody has kind of gone through the same thing," Kor said. "We did manage to get to some tournaments last fall. We played in a tournament in Jackson, Mississippi in October. Here and there, there are some tournaments that are not on the schedule, but (tournament director) Kelly (Molyneaux) Rose does a great job with the tournament here. The facilities are great. It's a nice town and we always have a great time here."