Who: President of Korff Enterprises, a sports and event marketing company; United States Tennis Association director at large.

Current Residence: New York, New York

Spotlight: John Korff claims that his favorite book is Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo, and it’s easy to see why. Fed up with the stuffy pro-tennis scene, the recently elected director at large of the United States Tennis Association made it his mission to put the love back in love sets by founding and organizing the Mahwah, New Jersey A&P Tennis Classic. An annual women’s pro tournament with the atmosphere of a three-ring circus, the A&P is perhaps the only occasion where you can watch Jennifer Capriati tear it up, then stick around after the match for a concert or a chili cook-off (sponsored by Pepcid AC, natch). Korff’s tennis-fans-just-wanna-have-fun approach has allowed his little U.S. Open warm-up to balloon into a 70,000-spectator event. And speaking of ballooning, here's another event powered by Korff: The Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, which takes off July 28, 29 and 30. Korff also organizes the Honolulu Triathalon and consults for NYC2012, the committee that hopes to bring the 2012 Olympics to the Big Apple. Engerizer Bunny-shaped hot air balloons at the Olympics, anyone?

Giving Back: Korff guest lectures at his alma mater and the business schools at Columbia and NYU, and he coaches a marathon team for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program (which, incidentally, is how he met his wife, Leslie Eisenberg).

Double Dare: Korff’s idea of what constitutes county-fair-style fun is a tad unconventional. A Huey Lewis and the News concert? A little incongruous with a tennis match, but something everything can enjoy. A corn-eating contest? Nothing we haven’t seen before. But a 1999 pre-match diaper-changing competition reportedly got a little out of hand. To be fair, Korff would never expect his patrons to do anything he wouldn’t do. This is a man who clocked a sleek 12:10 in the annual Empire State Building Run-Up competition and who once ate glass stemware as part of a bet. The speed-diaper-changers got off easy.

Friends: Does it count if you are paying Steffi Graf to record your answering machine message?

Frenemies: Anna Kournikova may not have been too thrilled with Korff for instructing the disc jockey at the A&P a few years back to trumpet her arrival on the court with “The Stripper,” but he compromised the next year with something slightly more decorous: “Short Shorts."

Call on me: Give Korff a ring on his cell phone, and everyone in his immediate proximity will be treated to a rousing, beep-filled rendition of "Surf City."

In his words: "I know tennis likes to think of itself as a self-selling sport. But Ai Sugiyama against Mary Pierce isn't always going to cut it. On the other hand, people might come if there's a Village People concert after the match." -Korff sums up his philosophy on the mass appeal of our politest sport in Sports Illustrated.

Sources:
Sports Illustrated
Star Bulletin
USTA