In July of 2000, Christian Vinck of Germany was experiencing perhaps the high point of his professional tennis career, playing a five-set match against a top ten player on Centre Court at Wimbledon. A month later, Magnus Johnson was born.
Friday these two tennis players will meet in the pre-qualifying tournament final of the $25,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at The Boulevard tennis club in Vero Beach.
The winner of this 4 p.m. singles final between the 18-year-old Johnson, the No. 1 seed, and the 43-year-old Vinck, the No. 2 seed, will earn a “wild card” or tournament entry into the qualifying rounds of this International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour that is part of the U.S. Tennis Association’s Competitive Pathway.
For Vinck, playing against much younger players is now common to him. Following his five-set loss to No. 8 seed Thomas Enqvist of Sweden on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 2000, Vinck played three more years of professional tennis, but turned tennis from a job to a hobby. He became a businessman and a management consultant but continued to play competitive tennis when he could, in team and club matches in Germany while also playing in the qualifying rounds of lower-level pro tournaments like the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships.
“It happens all the time that I play against the players who weren’t even born yet when I competed on the biggest tennis stages,” said Vinck Thursday following a 6-2, 6-1 win over another 18-year-old Tommi Carnevale-Miino of Italy in the semifinals. “I’m practicing with the youngsters and play team tennis and in the open events. It is nothing new for me.”
Johnson advanced into the final in torrid fashion, losing only six games in four matches on Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday, Johnson beat Jack Vance of Las Vegas 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals and Chris Rosensteel of East Windsor, N.J. 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinal. A resident of Naples, Florida, Johnson is one of the top junior players in the United States and earlier this week, verbally committed to play college tennis next year at the University of Central Florida with head coach John Roddick, the older brother of 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick.
“I’m excited,” said Johnson of his future at UCF.” They have an excellent program and a young team and I think they are doing a lot of great things out there. John Roddick had some good stories about working with his brother Andy, that’s always fun to hear.”
The most talked about and dramatic match at The Boulevard Thursday was the quarterfinal between Vinck and former Michigan State All-American John Mullane, as both players engaged in a hotly contested match, featuring verbal barbs, contested calls and Mullane suffering severe cramps at the end of the match, preventing him from serving overhead or moving. Vinck led 6-0, 4-1 before Mullane’s go-for-broke style began to payoff and he was able to square the second set at 5-5. Tensions ran high as close line-calls were challenged, causing a screaming match between to the highly-competitive athletes. As Mullane fought back into the match, he began to deteriorate physically, showing signs of cramping and he began to ask fans and fellow players for bananas to help prevent the cramping. With Vinck leading 6-5 in the second set, Mullane’s cramping became so bad that he was unable to walk and was forced to serve the last game underhanded from six feet behind the baseline. Vinck was then able to easily break’s Mullane’s serve to win the match.
“When you see an injured player who is cramping on the other side of the net, you think it is good for your game but you don’t want anybody to have pain, especially since I know how it feels,” said Vinck.
Earlier in the day in the quarterfinals, James van Deinse of the Vero Beach Tennis Club and the tennis coach at Vero Beach High School, was narrowly defeated by Rosensteel 4-6, 6-4, (13-11 in the match tiebreaker.) Van Deinse fought out of a triple-match-point deficit at 6-9 in the decisive match tiebreaker and held a match point at 11-10 before falling. On Wednesday night, Van Deinse won what he described as “the best ever win in a tournament” in upsetting former top 100 ATP doubles player and No. 3 seed Brian Battistone 6-3, 7-5.
Friday’s schedule will also feature doubles quarterfinal, semifinal and final matches starting at 3 pm, before the 4 pm singles final. Van Deinse and his younger brother Joseph will compete at 3 pm in the doubles quarterfinals. The doubles semifinals will be played at about 5 pm and the doubles final at about 7 pm. Doubles matches feature “Fast 4” matches – first to four games with no-ad scoring, a tiebreaker at 3-3 and a 10-point match tiebreaker for a third set.
Friday Schedule
3 pm – Doubles Quarterfinals
James and Joseph van Deinse vs. Olavo Neto / Vitor Jordao
John Mullane /. Jericho Grollman vs. Juan Mateus / Chris Rosensteel
4 pm – Singles Final
Christian Vinck vs. Magnus Johnson
Approx. 4:30 pm – Doubles Semifinals
John Mullane / Jericho Grollman /// Juan Mateus / Chris Rosensteel WINNER vs. Hayden and Quinn Snyder
James and Joseph van Deinse /// Olavo Neto / Vitor Jordao WINNER vs. Colin Tavares / Gabriel Diaz
Approx. 6:30 pm – Doubles Final
THURSDAY RESULTS
Quarterfinals
Chris Rosensteel (East Windsor, NJ) def. James Van Deinse (Vero Beach, FL) 4-6, 6-4, (13-11)
Christian Vinck (Germany) def. John Mullane (White Lake, Mich.) 6-0, 7-5
Magnus Johnson (Naples, Fla..) def. Jack Vance (Las Vegas, Nev.) 6-1, 6-2
Tommi Carnevale-Miino (Italy) def. Juan Mateus (Edmond, Okla.) 6-2, 7-6 (4)
Semifinals
Magnus Johnson def. Chris Rosensteel 6-2, 6-0
Christian Vinck def. Tommi Carnevale-Miino 6-1, 6-2
Doubles Quarterfinals
Quinn Snyder and Hayden Snyder def. Ernani Neto / Thiago Negrao 4-0, 3-4(6), 10-7
Colin Tavares and Diaz def. Jack Vance and Jaime Vance 4-0, 4-2
Doubles First Round
Colin Tavares / Gabriel Diaz def. Bernardo Costa / Gui Jasmin 4-2, 4-2
John Mullane and Jericho Grollman def. Mike Hickey and Andrew Harper 4-0, 4-0
WEDNESDAY RESULTS
FIRST ROUND SINGLES
John Mullane (White Lake, Mich) def. Peyton Hickman (Bay Minette, Ala.) 6-0, 6-0
Jack Vance (Las Vegas) def. Ryan Isjett (Perry, Ga.) 6-1, 6-0
Brian Battistone (Las Vegas) def. Gabriel Diaz (Rockledge, Fla.) 6-3, 6-2
Viju George (Boca Raton, Fla.) def. Charlie Dossetter (Great Britain) 6-4, 6-1
Tommi Carnevale-Miino (Italy) def. Lazar Markovic (Locust Valley, N.Y.) 6-2, 6-3
Juan Mateus (Edmond, Okla.) def. Jaime Vance (Las Vegas) 6-4, 6-1
Kyle Johnson (Charlotte, N.C.) def. Masaki Posey (Union City, Ga.) 6-4, 2-6, 10-7
Daniel Botti (Hilton Head, SC) def. Jericho Grollman (Orlando, Fla.) 6-4, 1-6, 10-6
Magnus Johnson (Naples, Fla.) def. Eric Oncins (Montverde, Fla.) 6-1, 6-0
Bernado Costa (Montverde, Fla.) def. Joseph van Deinse (Vero Beach, Fla.) 6-2, 6-2
Christian Vinck (Germany) def. Vitor Jordao (Montverde, Fla.) 6-0, 6-2
Colin Tavares (Titusville, Fla.) def. Olavo Neto (Montvedre, Fla.) 6-3, 6-4
Bruno Nunes (Monteverde, Fla.) def. Bill Lachlan (Winter Park, Fla.) W/O
Quinn Snyder (Delran, N.J.) def. Thiago Negrao (Montverde, Fla.) 6-0, 6-1
Chris Rosensteel (East Windsor, N.J.) def. Brian Boggs (Columbus, Ga.) 6-0, 6-2
James van Deinse (Vero Beach, Fla.) def. Sebastian Flores (Orlando) 6-1, 6-3
SECOND ROUND SINGLES
Jack Vance d Viju George 6-4, 6-2
Juan Mateus d. Kyle Johnson 1-6, 7-6 (2), 13-11
John Mullane d. Bruno Nunes 6-2, 6-0
Tommi Carnevale Miino d. Bernardo Costa 6-0, 6-1
Chris Rosensteel d. Quinn Snyder 6-7 (7), 6-2, 10-5
Magnus Johnson d. Chris Botti 6-0, 6-0
James van Deinse d. Brian Battistone 6-3, 7-5
Christian Vinck d. Colin Tavares 6-1, 6-2
Leave a Reply