ALTA member Chris Bussert was inducted into the Indiana High School Tennis Hall of Fame on Feb. 2. Since 1992, IHSTHF has honored players, coaches and others who have made major contributions to high school tennis in Indiana.
Bussert played tennis at Munster High School in the early ‘70s, placing in singles and doubles competition the 1974 state championships. He went on to play for Kalamazoo College and led the school to the NCAA Division III national team championship in 1976 and 1978. Bussert was an NCAA Division III All American in 1976, 1977 and 1978, and was the NCAA Division III national singles and doubles champion in 1978. He was inducted as a charter member of the Kalamazoo College Hall of Fame in 1986.
After college, he played the USTA Penn Circuit, the Dutch Satellite Circuit and the U.S. Clay Court and Wimbledon qualifiers and achieved a personal high ATP singles ranking of 579.
In the past five years, Bussert, who plays ALTA tennis on the St Ives Senior Day AA1 team, has returned to competitive tennis. He has won two silver balls in the USTA Men’s 60s Division and he and his son, Shaun, have won two gold balls and a silver ball in the USTA senior father-son division. In 2016 and 2017, he was selected to play singles in the men’s 60s division for team USA in the annual Gordon Trophy competition between the U.S. and Canada. Bussert was undefeated both years. He was also a member of the USTA Southern Men’s Championship Intersectional team in 2017.
