Abhishek Thorat of Parrish, Florida and Matthew Segura of Apopka, Florida were declared co-champions of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships “Pre-Qualifying” tournament that was held April 16-18 at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club. After his 7-5, 6-3 semifinal win over Shamirul Das of Malaysia Friday, Segura learned that after some player pullouts, he moved from being an alternate into the qualifying tournament to getting into the 32-player field where eight players will emerge to play in the main draw of the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit event. Having qualified for the qualifying field, Segura did not need to play the pre-qualifying final against Thorat and with Segura already in the qualifying field, even if Segura beat Thorat, Thorat would inherit the qualifying wild card from Segura. Thus, both players qualified for the qualifying round so to play the final was a moot point.
Randy Walker discusses the scenario and speaks to both players here: https://youtu.be/9BN-WunuZL4?si=-yAvv_c7DtI5B8iv
Thorat, who will play college tennis at Columbia University starting in August, came just a few points short twice to previously receiving a tournament wild card, He lost 10-7 in a decisive match-tiebreaker in the Sea Oaks wild card semifinal to Ilija Palavestra in February and with partner Patrick Daciek, he lost 10-5 in the match tiebreaker in The Moorings wild card final to Aidan Borosko and Jovan Lubbe. Segura is the great nephew of Hall of Famer Pancho Segura and is the four-time champion at the annual Sea Oaks Mardy Fish wild card tournament.
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