Ivan Yatsuk, the 6-foot-3, 16-year-old, Belarussian-born American from Bradenton, Fla., defeated Germany’s Joel Link 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and 14 minutes Thursday night at The Boulevard in the final of the Vero Beach “wild card” tournament for the 2017 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships.
By winning the final, Yatsuk will be awarded a “wild card” free entry into the 32-player singles field at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, the $15,000 U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit event that will be held April 21-30 at Grand Harbor Golf & Beach Club. Yatsuk will be seeking his first ATP ranking points when he competes again in Vero Beach in April.
“I’ve never been happier,” said Yatsuk after the tournament win Thursday night.
Yatsuk was born in Belarus, but moved with his family to the United States when he was three. His parents do not play tennis at all and he randomly picked the sport when he saw a tennis racquet as a young child. Armed with a huge first serve and strong groundstrokes, Yatsuk has pro aspirations and has played mostly in qualifying events on the USTA Pro Circuit as well as wild card tournaments and not playing in junior tournaments.
After losing the first set 6-4, in front of an interested crowd of approximately 100 fans at The Boulevard, Yatsuk became more aggressive to win the second set against his 19-year-old German opponent, who had beaten him in all four previous meetings, including a 12-and-under tournament in Florida years ago. In the third set, played in cooler temperatures and blustery winds, Yatsuk broke Link at 4-4, benefitting from Link serving three double faults to lose the game.
“I got a little lucky,” admitted Yatsuk of the double faults from Link.
The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships is the USTA’s $15,000 Futures-level tournament played in Vero Beach since 1995 and regarded as one of the best entry-level professional tennis tournaments in the world. Proceeds from the event benefit the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation (www.MardyFishFoundation.com), the non-profit tennis foundation benefiting children, named for Vero Beach native son Mardy Fish, the former top 10 tennis star and a U.S. Davis Cup standout.
Advance tickets – and sponsorships – for the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships are available at www.VeroBeachTennisTickets.com. Season tickets for all 10 days of the competition are available for $100. Daily by-one-get-one free tickets for the qualifying rounds April 21-24 are for sale for $10, with daily tickets for the main draw sessions April 25-30 for sale for $20. A special “Happy Hour” ticket is available for $10 after 5 pm for night sessions on Tuesday, April 25 – Friday, April 28 that includes a featured 7 pm night match. Admission for children 18 and under is free. Approximately 3,000 fans annually attend the event, which is seen as one of the best-attended events in the world on the “Futures” level of professional tennis tournaments. The 2016 event featured 13 players who played Davis Cup for their country and was won by Jonas Luetjen of Germany, who defeated Latvian Davis Cupper Martins Podzus in the final.
Some of the past competitors at the USTA Vero Beach Futures have gone on to succeed at the highest levels of professional tennis, winning major singles and doubles titles, Olympic medals and Davis Cup championships and earning No. 1 world rankings. Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion who attained the world No. 1 ranking and helped the United States win the Davis Cup in 2007, competed in Vero Beach in 1999. Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who reached the second round of the Vero Beach Futures in 1995, won the Australian Open seven years later in 2002. Nicolas Massu, the 1998 singles runner-up in Vero Beach, won the singles and doubles gold medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, beating Fish in the gold medal singles match. Kyle Edmund, the 2013 champion in Vero Beach, helped Great Britain to the Davis Cup title in 2015. Other notable former competitors in Vero Beach include former world No. 2 Magnus Norman, former world No. 4 Tim Henman, 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic among others. Former Vero Beach competitors have combined to win 19 titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at Grand Slam tournaments. Six former Vero Beach players have gone on to play Davis Cup for the United States – Roddick, Fish, Taylor Dent, Jared Palmer, Donald Young and Ryan Harrison.
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