Serving, and volleying, in family business

Sudbury teen has in-house mentor

William ‘‘Bud’’ Schultz sits back during a break from playing tennis in Sudbury with 17-year-old son Christian, who has risen near the top among New England juniors with a little help from the former touring professional.
(Globe Staff / Dominic Chavez)

Christian Schultz is the second-ranked 18-and-under boys' tennis player in New England. Aided by the wisdom and fatherly guidance of a mentor who played in every Grand Slam tournament on the professional tour, the Sudbury teen's rise on the court has been steady and impressive.

His father, William "Bud" Schultz, has been a constant in the development of the 17-year-old nicknamed "Christo," who was honored by the US Tennis Association as the New England region's most-improved junior player.

"He's always stressing to me how to get it right in a way that I understand," the younger Schultz said of his father. "He knows what it takes to succeed. His experience has been a positive for me."

That's particularly good news these days, since he's facing a busy and important summer of tennis.

Starting Monday, Schultz will compete in the USTA New England junior championships at the Yale Tennis Center in New Haven.

Next month, he will play in the USTA's National Clay Court Championships in Delray Beach, Fla., and then join his mentor in the USTA National Father/Son Grass Court Championships at the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill.

In August, it's a return to the USTA national junior championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he went 2-2 last year in singles and doubles.

The Schultzes have been semifinalists at the father-son tournament at their home club the past two years.

Bud Schultz, who was ranked as high as 40th on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour in 1986, was featured in a magazine story "Better Late Than Never," a title that could well describe his son's introduction to competitive tennis.

"I always felt it was better for Christo to play multiple sports," said Bud, "and while he used to hit in the summertime at Longwood, he didn't really go at it full tilt until a couple of years ago, when he broke into the top 10 . . . in New England and eventually was No. 1.

"He's at the stage now where his tennis skills are catching up to his athleticism because he's played in the tougher level of tournaments against better players, and to be No. 2 in his bracket is quite an accomplishment. He's met a lot of my friends from the tour and, thankfully, they'll say 'Listen to your dad.' "

His son has had the opportunity to meet and volley with tennis greats Rod Laver, Tom Gullickson, Todd Martin, and Martina Hingis. Gullickson, a fellow lefty, was especially helpful.

"So when my dad and his friends speak, I listen," said Schultz, who will be a senior this fall at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High, where his brother, Luke, is a sophomore; their sister, Hailey, is a seventh-grader at the Rivers School in Weston. "What most impresses me about his advice is that he knows there's more than one way to solve a problem.

"I was watching the HBO John Adams miniseries and I felt there was a similarity between my relationship with my father and John Quincy Adams's relationship with his father, who had strong opinions but had walked the walk."

The 6-foot-1-inch, 160-pound Schultz, who played varsity tennis and football at Weston High before moving to Sudbury and turning his focus to junior tennis, and has also played basketball and baseball, is ranked 93d nationally in his age bracket.

"Christo has some catching up to do, but he's made a huge leap in the rankings," said David Zeutas-Broer, player development manager for the USTA in New England. "That's the result of his cross-training and a lot of hard work."

He is also described as "a raw-cut diamond who is just starting to get polished" by a longtime family friend and Needham resident, Bill Drake, head tennis professional at The Country Club in Brookline.

"There are some real parallels between father and son. Both are all-around athletes and the quickest learners I've ever seen on the court and both approached tennis at their own pace," said Drake, who has coached Bud in the past and with his own son, Chris, a Northwestern assistant coach, has hit occasionally with Christian.

"There's a special bond between Bud and Christo. You can see it in a minute."

The elder Schultz, a Connecticut native, was a standout basketball and tennis player at Bates College and is enshrined in halls of fame by both Bates and USTA New England. Although he never played in a junior tournament, he was an NCAA Division 3 singles finalist. He turned professional in the summer of 1982, and became a consistent top-50 player on the ATP tour three years later.

Bud Schultz posted victories over five top-10 players during his career and reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and third round of the US Open. Nagging injuries prompted his retirement as a pro at age 29, but he went on to become a national grass-court singles and doubles champion.

In addition to cofounding Tenacity, a program that teaches life and tennis skills to Boston youths, he is owner of the Cohasset Tennis Club, and a former director of tennis at Longwood.

There's another tennis player of note in the family.

Bud's wife, Framingham native Elaine (Power) Cosseboom, was a captain on her tennis team at Boston College, and part of the clan honored as the Tennis Family of the Year by the USTA in 1980. Cosseboom and her father, Leo Power, a former USTA board member, won the Super Senior National Father/Daughter Grass Court title at Longwood in 2004.

She was also a semifinalist in 2003 and 2005 in the National Mother/Daughter Tournament with her mother, Kathi. Her three siblings - Leo Power Jr., Karen Power McNamara of South Natick, and Bill Power - also played Division 1 college tennis and were top-ranked junior players.

"I used to keep pace with Christo but now I'd be happy to get a game off him," said Cosseboom, who runs the Cohasset club with her husband. "Christo never beat me before I turned 40, but he still claims I ducked him for the few months before my 40th birthday."

Christian Schultz, who trains with Jeff Bearup at the New England Academy of Tennis in Natick, plans to play in college (Harvard is high on his list) and perhaps someday enjoy the professional life.

"Chris Drake did that after going to Brown and that's also the path my dad took," he said. "It would be a great accomplishment."