On the Appalachian Trail, Eliot Potvin was known as The Rambler.

In state tennis, Potvin was known as a two-time high school singles state champion while at Hampden Academy.

Eliot Potvin, who played at Hampden Academy and Georgia Tech, then spent a year as a touring tennis pro, said the Blakeman tournament is a high priority not just for him, but for many players in Maine. Photo courtesy The Racket and Fitness Center

This weekend he will attempt to add another title: Blakeman champ.

Potvin, 27, drew the top seed in a men’s singles field of 77 for the 27th annual Betty Blakeman Memorial Tournament this weekend, the highlight of the Maine Tennis Association’s summer season and a fixture of the Yarmouth Clam Festival.

“It’s definitely a top priority tournament for me,” said Potvin, who moved back to Maine in May with his wife, Lauren. “I only get to play about five a year and this is one that I think everybody in Maine puts on their calendar. It still has that draw and that special feeling to it.”

Potvin figures 12 years have passed since his initial Blakeman appearance, after his first year of high school, when he reached the quarterfinals.

He went on to win high school state titles in 2005 and 2006, was a four-year starter at Georgia Tech and spent a year on the American and Canadian professional tennis circuits, earning four ATP points.

“I spent a lot of money and reaggravated an elbow injury that I suffered right after college,” Potvin said. “So I went back and finished my degree (in history and sociology in the spring of 2013).”

Two days after graduation, Potvin and Lauren – who also played tennis at Hampden Academy – started walking back to Maine from Springer Mountain in Georgia along the Appalachian Trail.

“It took us just under six months,” he said. “We summited Katahdin in late October.”

After completing the 2,100-mile hike, Potvin accepted a job in Massachusetts at the New England Academy of Tennis. He remained there until this spring, when Stephan Woods, club manager and an owner of The Racket and Fitness Center in Portland, lured Potvin back to Maine.

“I wanted to find somebody from Maine who could coach not only the high level but also the younger kids,” Woods said. “I had been talking to Eliot for the last year and a half, trying to woo him back to Maine.”

Potvin’s stiffest competition this weekend may come from a co-worker, second-seeded Dana Parziale, director of adult tennis at The Racket and Fitness Center.

He was hired a few months before Potvin. Parziale, who won the Maine Tennis Association Open earlier this month in South Portland, grew up in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

“Both my parents are fantastic golfers,” he said, “but of the three kids, none of us play golf.”

Parziale, 24, played Division I tennis at Bryant College. His brother, Eric, 25, played at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. They won the MTA doubles title and are seeded first in a deep Blakeman doubles field.

“I think men’s doubles is fabulous,” tournament director Don Atkinson said of the field of 39 teams. “It’s probably the strongest overall field we’ve ever had.”

Potvin and Dana Parziale have played once, in the final of the Angell Open in April, with Potvin winning 6-3, 6-3 at The Racket and Fitness Center.

“I hope to play him again just because it’s a great experience,” Parziale said. “You hope to turn the tides and beat him, but you just go in and play your best and see what happens.”

In 26 years, the Blakeman has raised more than $200,000 to benefit cancer-related research and treatment. Last year’s event raised $20,000 for the Cancer Community Center.

The Blakeman is actually nine tournaments in one, with men’s and women’s singles and doubles, mixed doubles, 35-and-older women’s singles and doubles, and 55-and-older men’s singles and doubles.

In addition to Potvin, the men’s field includes two other former high school singles champions: Isaac Salas (2015) and Brian Mavor (1982). The women’s field of 11 also includes three high school singles champions: Julia Brogan (2016), Olivia Leavitt (2013 through 2015) and Karolina Pierko (1996 through 1999).

Play gets under way Friday morning and continues through Sunday, with the singles finals tentatively scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Sunday at Yarmouth High.

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