The tennis community on Wall Street is extremely tight-knit. At 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings, you can probably find Bill Ackman of Pershing Square and other finance folks playing on the Randall's Island courts.
This weekend, the Wall Street tennis community held a fundraiser tournament for the R Baby Foundation—a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to saving babies lives through improving pediatric emergency care.
Some hedge fund managers in attendance included, Bill Ackman (Pershing Square), Marc Lasry (Avenue Capital), Jon Bader (Halcyon) and Bruce Richards (Marathon), just to name a few. There were also a bunch of world-ranked players at the tournament. In the end, a professional poker player and fund manager duo were the winners.
The tournament raised at least $270,000 for R Baby.
A big thank you to photographer Tom Newton, who was kind enough to share some of his photos with us. We've included highlights from the tournament in the slides that follow.
Andrew Rabinowitz, the CFO of Marathon, started R Baby with his wife following the passing of their baby girl in 2006.
Andrew Rabinowitz' wife Phyllis with Jared Palmer, the former No. 1 doubles tennis player in the world.
Every year, about 30,000 babies die in the U.S. Most emergency rooms aren't equipped to take care of babies. That's because infants require specialized medical training and equipment. R Baby gives grants all over the country to improve this. Those grants are used to fund training programs, including simulation technology seen below.
The players had the opportunity place wagers on each team. This helped raise even more money during the tournament.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Hedge fund managers Marc Lasry and Bill Ackman teamed up to match up to $100,000 raised during the event.
The tournament was played out with six teams in four groups. Each team played the other five teams in their group for eight games with no add scoring. This makes it go faster. So whoever had the most game cumulative wins moved on to the semifinals.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Jeff Appel, also known as 'the mayor' of New York tennis, was unable to play this year due to an injury. He was the co-host of this charity event. He also has a reputation for being a great connector in the tennis community. He's the guy who called up Bill Ackman and got him to pick up the sport for the first time since high school nine years ago. He's also Bill Ackman's favorite opponent.
Jason Pinsky, the chairman of the R Baby Tennis Tournament, played with Bill Ackman. Pinsky works for Wexford Capital in Connecticut. He was one of the top ranked juniors in the U.S.
'Bill Ackman plays as if he was a D1 college player. He's considered a physical phenom. He never gets tired. He gets better as other people close to his age bodies' start to break down,' a knowledgeable player commented.
Adrian Contreras, who runs West Rock Tennis Academy, played.
Jeremy Mindich, the co-founder of Scopia Capital, teamed up with Contreras.
Phil Han from Goldman Sachs prime brokerage was there, too.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Georgy Chukhleb was Han's partner.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Linda Tempelfelde, who played D1 for UNLV, was the only woman in the tournament. She's a real estate broker for Corcoran. She played with Robert Jundelund, a teaching pro at City View.
Jon Pastel of Wexford Capital made it to the semi-finals. He was ranked No. 718 in the world in singles.
Christian Nagler, a partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis, played with Pastel.
Michael Sabat of Sanford Bernstein gets ready to serve.
Sabat played with Phillip Simmonds. Simmonds was the No. 2 ranked junior in the world. He reached No. 200 in the world for singles (ATP).
If there was a sportsmanship award, Avenue Capital's Marc Lasry certainly would have won it. The hedge fund manager had a smile on his face the whole time and he commented how other players were really good. He also only missed one forehand all day.
Lasry's partner James Blake was No. 4 in the world.
David Kirsch and Josh Mactaggart of Mudrick Capital were a team. Their CEO Jason Mudrick came out to watch them play. He also donated money generously to R Baby.
Stephen Bass, a pro poker player and former SAC Capital intern, crushed it on the court. Bass was ranked No. 354 in the world in singles.
The CEO/president of Ellington Financial Larry Penn played with Stephen Bass. He was a member of the U.S. mathematical Olympiad team.
Mark Powers played No. 1 singles all four years at Yale where he graduated in 2013. He now works for Israel Englander's Millennium. (He's a welcome 'new addition' to the Wall Street tennis community).
Jimmy Bass, the older brother of Stephen Bass, works for Credit Suisse. He also played for Notre Dame.
Bass' doubles partner Tim Scanlon also works for Credit Suisse.
Jon Bader, the CIO of Halcyon Asset Management, played in the tournament and is a big supporter of the Wall Street tennis community.
Bader played with Justin Natale, who works in insurance. He was formerly No. 586 in the world in singles.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Amit Hampel and Jon Boym of Tudor Investments shake hands with their opponents.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Phil Stolt of Cirrus Fitness played. He was a former NCAA doubles champion.
Stolt played with Andrew Zaro, who runs distressed-debt fund Calvary.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Bruce Richards, who runs Marathon, made it to the tournament following last week's SALT Conference in Las Vegas. He played with James Blake's brother, Thomas Blake. Thomas Blake was ranked No. 264 in singles in the world.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Mark Finnerman, the CEO Jefferies LoanCore LLC, gets ready to serve.
He played with Mark Green of Jefferies.
Gary Brody of Marcraft Industries gets ready to return a serve.
Jared Pinsky played for Duke. He works at J.H. Whitney.
Kunj Majmudar, an analyst at Seven Bridges Advisors, won the NCAA All-American National Championship with partner James Blake in 1998.
Majmudar played with David Eigen, who runs family office Post Road Capital Management.
Magdy Elmihdawy works for Cantor Fitzgerald. He played at Columbia University.
Ron Marks and Todd Paul teamed up together. Todd Paul was No. 1 in the NCAA in singles. He reached No. 480 in the world (ATP).
Drew Courtney played for the University of Virginia where he was No. 1 in college doubles. He was ranked No. 212 in the world for doubles (ATP). He now works for Brown Advisory in Washington, D.C.
Robert Glanville a partner at Pine Brook teamed up with Drew Courtney.
Photo courtesy of Tom Newton
Michael Dubb, who owns homebuilding company The Beechwood Organization, played with former No. 1 in the world doubles player Jared Palmer.
After lunch it was time for the semi-finals.
Jason Pinsky and Bill Ackman lost their semi finals match. They made a great doubles team, though.
Jeremy Mindich and Adrian Contreras after losing the finals. Mindich got a cramp in his hand after hours of tennis. He still had a big smile on his face.
Larry Penn and Stephen Bass were the victors.
Here are the final players—Jon Pastel, Christian Nagler, Jason Pinsky, Bill Ackman, Stephen Bass, Larry Penn, Jeremy Mindich and Adrian Contreras.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-baby-tennis-tournament-2014-5?op=1#ixzz32BvJZYje
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