Tennis Tourney Will Aid Medical Research

In an effort to fund projects and research for the treatment and cure of cancer, leukemia and AIDS in kids, a benefit tennis tournament will be held at the Racquet Center on Sunday.

Proceeds from the 5th (Almost) Annual Music and Entertainment Industry Tennis Open, sponsored by the T.J. Martell Foundation, will go to the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, established in 1983.

Players can register for a fee of $150, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Racquet Center, 10933 Ventura Blvd. A pro exhibition game will begin at 11 a.m., followed by a doubles round-robin tournament for A-, B-, and C-level players at noon.

Pro players scheduled to compete include Bill Scanlan, past U.S. Open finalist and world Top 10 player, and 16-year-old Candace Fuchs, one of the nation’s top teenage players. The Hope for Kids Inner City Tennis Stars and the Palisades Tennis Center’s top juniors are also scheduled to give exhibitions. The tennis open is scheduled to be emceed by television and radio personality Harry Shearer, who is in “Godzilla” and was in “Spinal Tap.”

Entertainment industry attorneys Fred Goldring and Jay Cooper will chair the event. The Neil Bogart Memorial Laboratories, situated within Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, is the recipient of money raised by the fund, which was established after the cancer death of record executive Neil Bogart.