In Memory of Tennis Legend Phyllis Adler

by Joel Drucker

 In Memory of Tennis Legend Phyllis Adler

--first-rate friend, first-rate competitor, won 58 national titles

The tennis world lost a legend recently when Phyllis Adler died on May 22, 2024. Phyllis was 99 years old and living in her native Los Angeles.  

Friendly and generous, passionate and intelligent, Phyllis enjoyed tennis as much as anyone who has ever walked on a court. Tennis was always fun for Phyllis Adler. But she also knew something all honest competitors must surely admit: It’s more fun when you win. And Phyllis won tons. Over the course of a tremendous tennis career, Phyllis won a staggering 58 national titles. Phyllis also represented America in many international team events, including the Marble Cup. She is enshrined in both the Southern California Senior Tennis Hall of Fame and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.    

Remarkably, Phyllis didn’t earn her first national title until she was in her 40s. Her final gold ball was earned the year she turned 90, a win in National 90 doubles. Viewing the action that day was Phyllis’ good friend and frequent rival, Dorothy “Dodo” Cheney, the legendary winner of a record 391 national titles. Phyllis always relished the chance to compete versus the incredible Dodo, earning her share of victories in singles, doubles, and mixed. Phyllis’ last title run took place at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. It was a fitting bookend, as that fabled venue had been where Phyllis had won her first national title.  

A proud member of the UCLA class of 1946, Phyllis’ commitment to our sport was relentless. Well into her 80s, she was competing strongly with players in their 40s, often at her long standing home base, Toluca Lake Tennis and Fitness Club. Phyllis’ greatest weapon was a first-rate net game. She was an excellent volleyer with a terrific overhead, covered the court superbly, and was a keen strategist and tactician.  

Phyllis’ first-rate people skills made her an asset for any team in any situation. Says her son, Doug, “Watching my mom play when I was a child, at tournaments all over Southern California, as well as at the parks where we played, was where I learned the nuances of doubles.” The lessons paid off handsomely, Doug going on to earn All-American honors as a four-year letterman at the University of Southern California.  

Amazingly, after taking up the game late at age 18, only in her late 20s did Phyllis start to compete seriously. A strong reason for this was that these were the years when young Phyllis Kadner met Joel Adler, an excellent player from the East Coast who’d moved to Los Angeles in the early ‘50s. Joel was also a P.E. teacher and a strongly motivational force, urging Phyllis to sharpen her skills, train rigorously, and compete with high energy and intensity (sadly, Joel died in 1976).

Besides being a devoted athlete, Phyllis was also tremendously gracious. “She knew how to win with class and she knew how to lose with class,” says Doug. One of Phyllis’ trademark sayings: “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”   

I got to know Phyllis in the early ‘90s, when I wrote several stories about age group tennis. As natural as Phyllis was when it came to wielding a racquet, she was every bit as sharp when it came to talking with a journalist. Here was someone with insight, knowledge, and warmth.  Once, when Phyllis was in her late ‘70s, she told me about the lessons she was taking from prominent Southern California instructor Forrest Stewart to add more topspin to her forehand.  Another time, she explained the challenge of teaching serve-and-volley to her pals at Toluca Lake. To talk with Phyllis was inspiring, our chats always leaving me keen to play immediately.  “She won at life,” says Doug.  

The world will miss this amazing woman. The next time you walk on the court, raise your racquet in tribute to Phyllis -- and get your butt to the net.

– Los Angeles-based Joel Drucker writes frequently about tennis for the likes of Tennis Channel, Tennis.com, Racquet, The Second Serve and the New York Times. He’s also the historian-at-large for the International Tennis Hall Fame and this fall will be inducted into the Northern California Tennis Hall of Fame.