St. Louis Park Resident Using Tennis to Give Back to Community

Tennis has opened many doors for Mehdi Benyebka, and now the St. Louis Park resident is hoping to use the sport to do the same for disadvantaged children in Minnesota.

Benyebka has signed on to be part of the Diversity Council for the United States Tennis Association in the Northern region, which works in a number of areas including providing scholarships and offering free lessons to minority students.

“When I first joined the council, I realized that a lot of people in the USTA are really far behind in terms of understanding diversity and don’t realize how important it is to make people aware of different backgrounds,” Benyebka said. “As tennis players, it’s important for us to become more aware of our surroundings.”

A native of Algeria, Benyebka was introduced to the sport by his parents at the age of 8. He eventually became the top ranked junior player in his country and the No. 2 ranked junior player in Africa, competing in international junior tournaments throughout the world and also in some lower level professional events.

In 1990, when he was 20 years old, Benyebka was recruited on scholarship to play tennis for the University of Southern California, before eventually transferring to the University of Minnesota.

Benyebka said he was generally able to adapt to life as an American college athlete, but there were certainly some new experiences.

“What really surprised me was how big college sports are in the U.S.,” he said. “The facilities and stadiums were amazing, and the level of competition was something I hadn’t experienced before.”

After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Benyebka continued to play regularly and compete in men’s open tournaments throughout the region, where he is currently ranked No. 2. However, a recent injury has given Benyebka more time to devote to his volunteer work with the USTA Diversity Council.

Recently, he helped secure grant funding to get buses for talented St. Paul players to travel to tournaments outside of the area.

“There’s very good talent in the area that can’t afford to travel anywhere,” Benyebka said. “Being able to have to that exposure to other players does a lot to help improve their games in the long run.”

Benyebka said several players that have participated in programs put on by the USTA Diversity Council over the years have gone on to play tennis in universities across the country.

“We include everybody in our programs, from American Indians to different sexual orientations,” he said. “There have been a lot of great success stories that have come out of it.”