At 95 years old, longtime Beverly Hills resident Dr. Robert Foran proved that age is just a number, winning his first singles championship at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) National Senior Men’s Hardcourt Tournament on May 19. Held at the Laguna Woods Tennis Club in Laguna Woods, California, the tournament included singles and doubles matchups for those aged 75, 80, 85, 90 and 95. While three people competed in the 95-and-older age division, “just the fact that there were any of us is something,” Foran told the Courier. “This is a brand-new category that the USTA established just this year for these age group divisions.”
Born in the San Bernardino area, Foran and his wife, Carole, moved to the Beverly Hills flats in 1971 and have been there ever since. The couple raised four children, all of whom graduated from Beverly Hills High School. Now a retired physician, Foran practiced for 42 years as a vascular surgeon and served as chief of the vascular surgery division and kidney transplant service at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
In 1963, Foran opened a vascular surgery practice in Beverly Hills with his friend Dr. Richard Treiman. Today, the two remain close and play bridge together several times a week. “We were the first people to do pure vascular surgery in the L.A. area,” Foran said.
In 1964, Foran provided surgical access for the first vascular access surgery for dialysis in the Los Angeles area at what was then Mount Sinai Hospital. Revered in his field for his many accomplishments, Foran was also one of the doctors who started the kidney transplant program and performed the first kidney transplants at Cedars of Lebanon and at Mount Sinai Hospital before the medical center was built.
Since he retired in 2005, Foran has occupied his days working on his tennis game and plays regularly at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club.
The trophy he won is called the Gold Ball, and it’s the first one ever awarded in the 95-and-older division. “So, I’m the only one in the world who has that ball,” Foran said proudly. Foran played tennis at Colton High School in Colton, California, but noted that he didn’t make the team at UCLA, where he received his undergraduate degree. “I’m a rank-and-file tennis player and have been fortunate to live longer than a lot of the better players that I had to compete against,” Foran told the Courier. “I struggled for some 30 years in tournament tennis trying to achieve one of these, and I was very happy to win it.”
Foran used to belong to the American Medical Tennis Association, and he and his wife traveled extensively with fellow tennis-playing physicians to participate in tournaments against other doctors. “It was fun,” Foran said. “We met a lot of wonderful people and saw some beautiful tennis facilities around the world.” His favorite tournament destination was Karlovy Vary, a town in the Czech Republic.
“My wife grew up in Beverly Hills, and she graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1951, so we have some roots in the community,” he added. “Having lived here for all these years, we’ve had many, many close friends here and neighbors on our street.”
