Photo by Sammy Dallal

Marek Dvorak will play mixed doubles in the Denver Open before heading to California to use his final year of college tennis eligibility.

With one year of playing eligibility remaining but no tennis team left at his school for which to play, Marek Dvorak faced a tough decision last year: transfer for his senior year, or stay, finish his degree, redshirt and try to find a place to play for his fifth season.

Dvorak, who was 19 victories shy of tying Colorado's all-time wins record when the Buffaloes' men's tennis program was cut, chose the latter, and the decision has yielded all aces so far.

Dvorak graduated from CU with a marketing degree in May, and he's got a full scholarship lined up to play the 2007-08 season at St. Mary's College in California while he works on earning his MBA. He will lace up his shoes for a match in Colorado for the last time for a while when he teams up with Halina Ruse for mixed open doubles play next week at the Denver Open, which starts today and runs through June 24.

"I think everything worked great for me," says Dvorak, who along with his wife Kristina is from the Czech Republic.

Granted, the past year without tennis hasn't been easy.

It was a choice others on the team opted against. Dvorak was the only Buff with playing eligibility left — of those who planned to continue playing — who stayed at CU this past year. While he admits that leaving was the right choice for the underclassmen, Dvorak says he thinks the other upperclassmen could have done better by going his route and finishing school before finding another place to play.

"When they told us (the program had been cut), a lot of guys on the team were full of emotion, but I think if they had more time to think it through they wouldn't leave," Dvorak says.

Dvorak, who expects to play somewhere between No. 2 and No. 4 singles at St. Mary's, has done his best to stay in competition shape during his year off from collegiate tennis, but it's been difficult. While he does get to hit fairly regu-larly with Niwot High coach Miikka Keronen, who is seeded seventh in men's open singles at the Denver City Open, and former teammate Chad Tsuda, most of Dvorak's time on the court has come in the form of teaching the game part time at the Millennium Harvest House.

Of course, he's also found out that living the college student lifestyle without the rigors of being a Division I athlete can be pretty fun, too. Dvorak has taken vacations to Aspen and Florida, gotten to spend more time with his wife, and has had more time for fishing. He also got the best grades of his college career as a senior.

"It was different; it was a change," Dvorak says. "But I think in the end it was a good change for me. I had three years here that were the same, and the fourth was different. It was good because I concentrated more on school and I still get to play next year."

Ironically, Dvorak credits the same CU athletic department that cut his tennis team for much of his success in the transition of the past year. He remained on scholarship at CU and got to use all of the athletic facilities like the weight room and computer lab. If he needed a tutor, someone in the athletic department arranged it for him.

"I still had the same accommodations that I would have had as an athlete, so I thought that was nice of them," Dvorak says.

Dvorak also got to grow closer to many people in the Boulder tennis community, including Ruse, whom he not only teaches tennis but also looks to as his mentor.

Ruse's parents were from Poland and she grew up speaking Polish, which is close enough to Czech, she says, that she was able to connect with Dvorak when they first met during his sophomore year. Ruse and her husband, Guy, whose kids are grown and living on their own, "kind of adopted" Dvorak and his wife, helping them assimilate to American culture by assisting with things like cars and leases and showing them different attractions in town, such as the Dark Horse.

"He thought that was kind of cool," Ruse says.

Next week's matches with Dvorak will be somewhat of a bittersweet occasion for Ruse, who says it will be tough seeing the Dvoraks leave for California.

"This is one of those things where he has a lot of folks who will really miss him, but who will also encourage him to follow his dreams," Ruse says. "What I saw in him is he never gives up. He exercised patience but he also figured out a way to do what he wanted to do.

"Regardless of distance, I'll always be supportive of he and Kristina."

Ruse says she'll try to follow Dvorak's tennis exploits online, and she and Guy may travel to Europe to see him there at some point.

Then again, with the fondness Dvorak's found for Boulder, chances are high they'll see him here again someday. Dvorak chose St. Mary's over roughly 15 other schools for its location near the beach.

"I don't know if I like it as much as here but it is a different place, so I'm excited to try something new after four years," Dvorak says.