When you ask Martha Katsufrakis about some of the players she remembers most fondly in her more than 40 years of working in tennis in Southern California, she rattles off names like Austin, Sampras, Davenport, Chang, and the Bryans.

But Katsufrakis notes that it was all the players she had the pleasure to work with over the years, and not just the stars, during a career that began working part-time with the juniors and seniors before the 1984 LA Olympics where she ran the tournament desk for the new demonstration sport that year.

“I loved what I was doing and helping the kids develop and go on to become pros and famous players,” said Katsufrakis recently. “But it was also so enjoyable and fulfilling meeting all the players and seeing young ones develop and go on to bigger things, not only in tennis but also other fields after many attended college and played there.”

Since her retirement from the USTA Southern California section in 2021, Katsufrakis has had the honor of being the namesake and awarding medals at the Kats Kups Intersectionals, a Level 2 12-and-under event played in Orange County that has been won by the host SoCal team the past four years and includes teams from the USTA NorCal, Intermountain and Pacific Northwest.

Special recognition at this year’s event was given to SoCal’s Paolo Huerta for winning the boys’ Sportsmanship Award. The teams were led by SoCal captains and included: Hank Lloyd (Intermountain), Chuck Kingman (NorCal), Morisa Yang (SoCal) and Gail Brodsky Hanson (Pacific Northwest).

The 94-year-old Tarzana resident Katsufrakis is still active and drives to various events like Kats Kup and The Ojai tournament in April where she visited with her one-time boss and former USTA Southern California Junior Tennis Director Darren Potkey.

“For many years, Martha worked tirelessly for the USTA Southern California section and did so always selflessly and with a sense of dedication and pride,” said Ai Takamori, the USTA Southern California Assistant Director of Junior Tennis. “That is the reason why we named the Kats Kup after her. It’s to honor her for her many years of service to the section.”

Added USTA Southern California Executive Director Trevor Kronemann. “She’s one of the icons of the section. As support staff and an administrator she’s really been a lot of times the heart and soul of junior tennis. It’s amazing to see someone like Martha who has so much passion and understanding of our sport and we are proud to honor her with an event.

“I’ve been around tennis my entire life and you really get to meet some special people along the way, and she’s one of them,” Kronemann added. “She’s so humble and smart and keeps it light and fun for all of us. She’s an amazing role model to our players.” 

Katsufrakis could write a book about all she has experienced. “There are so very many moments, it would take volumes,” she said. “It has been a wonderful run. Now, I have seen the children of some like Michael Chang and his daughter Lani, Tracy Austin and son Brandon Holt, and of course Taylor Fritz, the son of Kathy May and Guy Fritz.”

She concluded: “I enjoyed the lucky opportunity I had to help run junior tennis in such an amazing section as well as pro tournaments and work with the wonderful people at USTA Southern California.”