Wanted: Games, SETS, MATCHES

On Sports • Former European junior star seeks help in renewing her career

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Sep 21, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Content for now to hit balls at Glendoveer, 19-year-old Hermon Bhrane may have only a short time left in Portland – but she would like to have a long career in pro tennis.

JAIME VALDEZ / Portland Tribune

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Jay Stokes, owner and director of Glendoveer Tennis Center, was giving a lesson in July when he spotted a pair of young ladies on another court.

One played like a beginner, the other like a Women’s Tennis Association veteran.

After introductions, Stokes began to take in small bits of the Hermon Bhrane story, which we don’t encompass in these parts very often.

Bhrane, 19, was born in Eritrea – a small country in the horn of Africa – but fled with her family to Germany when she was a year old to avoid Eritrea’s war with Ethiopia.

When she was 7, the family moved to a house next to a tennis club. Hermon’s twin sister, Blul, opted for ballet. Hermon chose tennis. It became a passion.

Though a natural southpaw, she was taught to play tennis right-handed, because at her club, that’s the way they taught everybody.

“If I want to, I can play tennis left-handed,” she says.

No need for that.

By the time she was 11, Hermon had won the under-12 title at the German Open. Over the next few years, she represented the German Tennis Federation at tournaments throughout the world, including the Junior Orange Bowl in Miami, and was her country’s top junior. Former tour pro Chanda Rubin discovered Bhrane at age 12 and provided sponsorship help for a couple of years.

At 15, as the result of a medication taken for asthma, Bhrane flunked a random drug test, routinely administered to top players throughout the world. She claims she was set up by a disgruntled former coach in collusion with her family doctor.

The result was a two-year suspension that effectively halted her career. Within a few months, she ventured to Granite Bay, Calif., where she spent two years honing her game at the Gorin Tennis Academy. She returned to Germany and played some tournaments in Europe with some success, earning a WTA world ranking at one point, but she has an adversarial relationship with the country’s tennis federation.

“I just couldn’t stay in Germany,” Bhrane says.

In July, she came to Portland with her mother and younger brother to live with an aunt under a 90-day visa waiver program. She has been practicing daily at Glendoveer, but is without a coach, a sponsor or a visa.

“I want to play pro events, but I’m stuck in the middle,” Bhrane says. “The things I need are money and a coach. I would travel and play tournaments, and I know I’d do good.”

Stokes, a longtime local pro, is convinced of that.

“Hermon is the best player I’ve ever been on the court with,” he says. “If she’s not world-class, I’m not a breathing human being.

“But that doesn’t mean anything. Without the proper sponsorship and stewardship, she’s just going to be someone who was a contender, and that’s all. She needs to be out there (on tour) right now. The clock is ticking.”