Patty Korkowski is the first to admit that she doesn’t have a classic tennis form. She swings at the ball with nonstandard strokes. Yet that can also work to her advantage when opponents don’t know where her shots are headed—as occasionally happened at this weekend's Sandy Dyer Open Tennis Tournament at LifeTime Fitness in Fridley.

Korkowski started playing tennis with her sister and never took any lessons. Yet her ranking has climbed in the 30 years she’s been playing. She played in nationals in 2010. After this past summer, her U.S. Tennis Association rating climbed from 4.0 to 4.5.

She now plays in two leagues, captaining one of the leagues.