Tourney Time: Ulises Arteaga Enjoys Tournament Competition
As part of National Hispanic Heritage Month taking place from September 15 to October 15 in the United States, USTA St. Louis is featuring Ulises Arteaga, an adult tournament and league competitor.
With his travel-intensive career as a field service engineer frequently taking him to countries around the world, Ulises Arteaga wasn’t convinced he had the availability to join an athletic club. But as a lifelong athlete he wanted to do something active, so Arteaga often danced at St. Louis facilities.
The shine of that wore off, though, and Arteaga wanted a change of pace. A friend mentioned to him he ought to check out the Steel Shop Tennis Club, which John and Carobeth Kelly had recently opened in St. Charles. So at the age of 49, Arteaga gave tennis a go.
“And ever since that happened, I just grabbed it like there was no tomorrow,” Arteaga said. “I enjoy it. Tennis is so good for the body, for cardio, for your muscles, to clear your brain and any stress you have. It’s a good family sport. I enjoy watching parents playing with their kids. It makes me so happy.”
Arteaga’s engineering job at Industrial Explosion Protection (IEP) Technologies — which he’s been doing for 20-plus years — often takes him to Europe and Asia. The Kellys worked with his schedule to ensure he’d have plenty of opportunities to play at Steel Shop. One of Carobeth’s USTA St. Louis teams advanced to compete in Arizona, and Arteaga was on that squad.
After the Steel Shop closed a tennis professional who coached there, Josh Patrick, began working at what is now Vetta Sports West in Saint Peters. Arteaga and several others followed Patrick to Vetta Sports West, and Arteaga has trained there and with Patrick ever since. Now 58 years old, Arteaga is grateful he found tennis about a decade ago.
“For the most part I’ve always been very athletic and like to play any sport, but I ended up picking tennis,” Arteaga said. “I started only doing a slice. I don’t have any tools. But little by little I started picking up more shots. I feel like I’m learning more. It’s been a good therapy for me.
“I always joke with my friends. I say all my frustrations, failures, disappointments, stress — I release all that on the floor. When I leave the place and finish playing tennis, I’m brand new. Just ready to go again and start the week again. I enjoy it so much.”
Arteaga would have progressed to play on clay in Florida at the 3.0 level, but the Covid-19 pandemic wiped away that USTA tournament. Arteaga was then bumped up to the 3.5 level that he currently competes at. He’s on a USTA St. Louis 3.5 team captained by Tom Rhoads, and he predominantly plays doubles for that squad.
But when the summer arrives, that’s when Arteaga goes into tournament mode and dukes it out in singles. Tournaments are how Arteaga “measures” himself, he said, testing his game and fitness against a variety of competitors. He tries to play about a tourney a month in the summer, with the low commitment level acting as an attractive alternative to leagues.
“A lot of these guys who are at the bracket of 50s or just turned 50 don’t do tournaments,” Arteaga said. “I feel myself that just because you turn 50 — ‘Nah, you can’t do any tournaments, it’s going to be kind of hard’ — I try to push them and encourage them it is fun. Every point we make, it’s almost like winning a trophy against younger people. We know we are getting older. For us, it’s fighting like we are young.”
Arteaga was born in Mexico City and speaks both English and Spanish. He moved to America 33 years ago to study aeronautical technology at Purdue University in Indiana. After graduating, Arteaga took a job with Boeing and moved to St. Louis where he has lived ever since.
This past May, Arteaga won the USTA Missouri Valley 55+ NTRP 3.5 men’s singles tournament at Dwight Davis Tennis Center. He was especially proud of claiming a tight 7-6 (5), 7-5 victory in the championship match.
Arteaga competed in the USTA Missouri Valley 18+ NTRP tourney before battling in the Missouri Valley 40+ NTRP tournament in August. He won the 40+ tourney at the 3.5 men’s singles level at Dwight Davis for his second title of 2023. Arteaga is planning on playing additional adult tournaments this year in St. Louis and is hoping to travel to compete in tourneys down the line.
“It’s just to me a great reward for the body and to be competitive,” Arteaga said. “I’ve always been competitive. I try to keep myself below the radar. I’m not that kind of person who wants to be a showoff. When people least expect it, ‘Oh, that’s it.’”
Check out a feature story on another USTA St. Louis adult tournament competitor, Laurie Burke, as part of our series on adult tourney players.
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