Profile Patrick M. Rost

Local resident discovers his ‘fountain of youth’ keeping in shape to rank high in the competitive world of senior tournament tennis

By Arthur Lightbourn

Patrick Rost is convinced that the fountain of youth can be found in exercise, and not in a doctor’s office or a pharmacy.
And he’s practicing what he preaches.
At 47, besides running a couple of businesses, he is ranked No. 2 “men’s 40 singles’ tennis player” in San Diego County and No. 20 in the national ranking “Age 40 and Over” division of the United States Tennis Association—with a tennis serve recently clocked at 125 mph.
We interviewed the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Rost in his home the day before he left for Palm Desert to play in the Babolat World Championships which began on Jan. 27. He was seeded fifth in the tournament, won two rounds and lost in the quarter finals.
A lawyer by profession and entrepreneur by choice, Rost is the founder and CEO of Del Mar-based PMR and Associates, LLC, a consulting service to senior management of public and private companies in areas of corporate finance, mergers, acquisitions, business development and investor relations.
He is also the founder of the start-up International Stem Cell Network, an industry forum established in 2008 for the support and advancement of the stem cell industry.
“Private investment is an essential component of developing these technologies,” he said, “along with government grants and philanthropy.”

Divorced, Rost shares his home with his three young sons, Ryan, Andrew, and Bradley, ages 15, 14, and 12, respectively, in a shared custody arrangement.
The second of six children, Rost was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, where his father was studying medicine at the University of South Dakota.
“We lived here in Escondido until I was 7, and that’s where I started playing tennis.”
His father had been a high school tennis champion in South Dakota who continued playing as an adult.
“I would go and watch him play and he’d hit with me for five minutes after he was done,” Rost recalled of the beginnings of his passion for tennis.
He attended the Ray Love Tennis Academy in Escondido before the family re-located to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he was ranked first and second in junior play up until he was about 14 and 15. “But I didn’t perform very well nationally. I was being beaten in the early rounds of national tournaments.”
To sharpen his game, he moved to Tampa, Florida, where he attended the Harry Hopman International Tennis Academy. “I lived there for approximately a year-plus and when I came back to South Dakota, I started to do extremely well in the national level and got in a top 15 ranking in the country.”
He was advised to go on the professional tour, but, at 17 and feeling a little homesick, he decided to postpone going pro and instead returned home to finish his junior career in South Dakota and subsequently accepted a tennis scholarship at the University of San Diego where he played for two years before turning pro.
He played as a pro for a year and a half before deciding to resume his university studies.
“I always like to say if I would have had a graphite racket, my game would have been different because I played wood rackets my whole career…You can’t bomb 140-mile serves with a Jack Kramer wood racket. Whereas now, guys are hitting 130/135-mile-an-hour howitzers…
“The equipment has changed the game and historically big, tall, lanky guys [like Rost] didn’t have much of an advantage back in the old days [as they do today].”
Initially, thinking he would follow his father into medicine, he earned a pre-med degree from Augustana College in Sioux Falls in 1984, before deciding in his senior year he would be better suited to the study of law.
As a student, he had worked in the state legislature.
He earned his law degree from the Catholic University of America’s Columbia School of Law in Washington, D.C. in 1987 and was admitted to the California Bar in 1988.
He practiced law in San Diego for several years until he founded PMR and Associates.
After a hiatus from serious tennis for 15 years, when he was 42, he began watching senior level matches and concluded: “I can do that.”
Easier said than done.
After his first tournament match, he recalled: “The next morning I woke up in absolute physical agony. I could hardly get out of bed, I was so sore. But it inspired me to get back in decent physical condition.”
When he’s not preparing for or playing in tennis tournaments, he plays a lot of basketball “to help my body recover from the effects of the tennis tournaments.”
In addition, to maintain a consistent and competitive fitness level, he practices a support regimen of running, lifting weights and yoga.
“I love the sport,” he said. “I love the competition; I love the intrigue and the commitment to fitness it requires … and the fact that you can compete throughout your entire life.”
In tennis, he said, you focus on the end result, and you play point by point, “but ultimately, you have to strategize over the ultimate objective. Not every point is important. Not every game is important. Not every shot is important.
“So you can’t have the mindset where you have to try absolutely your hardest every single second. You have to pace yourself and judge when to apply the pressure to you opponent…
“In order to be successful in tennis, you have to do a lot of analysis on the court … and ultimately the smarter player will prevail …It’s a real chess match.
“You’re the one who has to hit the shot. You can’t share the blame and you don’t really share the glory….when it comes right down to it, if you lose, it’s because of the way you played and if you win, it’s for the same reason.”