He's not quite Roger Federer. But Jonathan Pastel, a 34-year-old equity analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, still competes in ATP events. His practice partner? John McEnroe
Jonathan Pastel hustled out of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. office in New York on July 9, picked up three newly strung tennis rackets and drove to the Yale Summer Championships in New Haven, Connecticut.
“When I arrived at the tournament I was shocked at how young everyone looked,” said Pastel, 34, who changed into his tennis outfit in his car 30 minutes before his first match. “I remember asking myself ‘What the hell am I doing here?'”
Two days later, the father of two had won the title and a place in the qualifying round of the ATP World Tour's Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale tournament in New Haven, the main tune-up event for the U.S. Open, which concludes this weekend in New York. The Bernstein vice president of equity research sales prepared for his first match in eight years on the main men's tennis circuit by hitting with John McEnroe, a seven-time Grand Slam singles title winner. The two have practiced together for years.
“I'm glad I had a chance to hit with him,” McEnroe, a four-time U.S. Open champion, said in an interview. “He's a great guy, and I'm happy he had a chance to have some fun.”
Pastel found himself in the qualifying draw for the Pilot Pen tournament alongside players including Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, who reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open last year, and Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia, who lost to top seed Rafael Nadal of Spain in the opening round of the U.S. Open on Aug. 31.
Pastel, whose highest world ranking was 718th on March 5, 1999, exited Pilot Pen qualifying in his first match, losing 6- 3, 6-1 to Ivo Klec, a 29-year-old Slovak who has been on tour for more than a decade.
Testing Himself
A native of Old Lyme, Connecticut, who now lives 78 miles (125 kilometers) away in Greenwich, Pastel played professionally for four years after graduating from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, in 1998 with a political science degree. He joined Bernstein in 2006 and entered the Yale Summer Championships this year because “I felt like testing myself again.”
“I never thought in a million years that I'd have an opportunity to play an event like this again,” Pastel said in a telephone interview before the Pilot Pen.
Pastel won the 1997 Yale Summer Championships and made the second qualifying round at the Pilot Pen that year.
While he said the discipline needed to become a tennis professional has helped him in his Wall Street career, his work has also altered the way he now approaches tennis.
“When I was on tour I always felt pressure to win matches, to make money,” Pastel said. “Now that I'm not doing this full time I can think more clearly and play more freely.”
Top NY Player
Gog Boonswang, who played at Princeton University and is a hitting partner of Pastel's, said he didn't think there were many players of that caliber in New York.
“If you had a men's open tournament in the city, not just for guys on Wall Street, I don't know if anyone else would qualify for the Pilot Pen,” Boonswang said. “Pastel works, has two kids and stays in shape. He has another level.”
Kyle Kliegerman, a senior analyst at New York-based money manager EnTrust Capital Inc. who played two years on the minor tours after graduating from Princeton in 2001, said a tennis background helped him in business.
“A lot of the skills you learn playing tennis are conducive to a competitive industry like Wall Street,” Kliegerman said in a telephone interview. “You learn to be calm under pressure and to avoid letting what's happened in the past affect your next decision.”
Tennis to Finance
Boonswang said his years playing tournament tennis in France helped him become a managing director for private wealth management at JPMorgan Chase & Co in New York.
“Tennis teaches you the discipline of managing your time, your schedule, your fitness and understanding how to lose a lot,” he said. “Playing on tour is not like playing the guy from Yale. You are losing way more than you are winning.”
In a 1998 match against Tulane University, Pastel beat the No. 2 player in the country. Two weeks later, he beat the No. 5 player. Pastel was the first Wildcat to advance to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament and graduated as Davidson's only two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year.
“I'm definitely not surprised that he qualified for an ATP tournament at the age of 34,” Judson Sutherland, a college teammate, said in a telephone interview. “If you called me in 10 years and told me a similar story, I wouldn't even be surprised then.”
Pastel, Boonswang and Kliegerman play often, usually for 20 minutes of hitting followed by a competitive set.
“Everyone I know who played on tour or competitively in college regressed to the same level,” Boonswang said. “We are all at maybe 60 percent of our college/touring bodies. Pastel is at 130 percent. It's a freak phenomenon.”
