ITF

Blockbuster Wednesday Mardy Fish Schedule Starts at 9:00 AM!

Randy Walker · April 26, 2023 · Leave a Comment

All 16 main draw singles matches as well as five qualifying singles finals make up for a blockbuster Wednesday schedule at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club.

Play was again affected by rain Tuesday and caused for play to be eventually cancelled for the day in the mid-afternoon. The final five qualifying finals will be completed at 9:00 am Wednesday, highlighted by Sea Oaks tennis pro Ching Wang playing Benedikt Henning of Germany at the John’s Island Real Estate Bowl. Watch Wang’s post-match interview after his first-round win with Randy Walker here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R71OEMXqEzw

Play on the Stadium Court will begin at 10 am with two-time Mardy Fish finalist and all-time leading Venezuelan Davis Cupper Ricardo Rodriguez takes on Liam Krall of Bronxville, N.Y., who just led SMU to the American Conference title in Orlando on Sunday and who competed in the main draw of the ATP Tour’s Dallas Open earlier this year. The second Stadium Court match will feature No. 3 seed and former Florida Gator Duarte Vale of Portugal, the 2021 Mardy Fish doubles champion who two weeks ago played in the ATP Tour’s Estoril Open with Ben Shelton, will face Matthew Segura of Apopka, Florida, the four-time Mardy Fish “Wild Card” champion and the great nephew of Hall of Famer Pancho Segura.

Top seed and Romanian Davis Cupper Adrian Boitan will play third on Stadium Court against 15-year-old upstart American Kaylan Bigun of West Hollywood, Calif.

The final Stadium Court match will feature No. 5 seed Peter Bertran, a Davis Cup player from the Dominican Republic, facing 18-year-old Nico Godsick, the reigning USTA National Boys’ 18 champion and son of tennis legend Mary Joe Fernandez and famed tennis agent Tony Godsick.

Other matches of interest Wednesday include No. 2 seed and former Florida Gator Andres Andrade of Ecuador taking on 42-year-old former Stanford standout Ryan Haviland in the third match on the John’s Island Bowl, following the match there featuring 18-year-old Florida Gator commit Aidan Kim against former University of Miami standout Dan Martin.

Roy Horovitz, a 15-year-old main draw wild card, will play a qualifier on a court and time to be assigned.

Doubles will not be played until Thursday.

The full schedule for Wednesday can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2023-pro-circuit/20230424_verobeach_m15/OP.pdf

Read the coverage of Tuesday’s action here: https://tennisverobeach.com/index.php/2023/04/26/rain-makes-tuesday-a-good-day-for-fish-at-mardy-fish-tennis/

Rain Makes Tuesday A Good Day For Fish At Mardy Fish Tennis

Randy Walker · April 26, 2023 · Leave a Comment

By Harvey Fialkov

VERO BEACH – An afternoon downpour on Tuesday turned the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships into an indoor game fest as the players battled it out indoors on the chess board and poker table.

The rain held off long enough for Chilean Miguel Angel Cabrera, who possesses the exact moniker as the legendary Detroit Tigers superstar, to eke out a three-hour 5-7, 6-4, (10-7) victory over Timothy Phung of Bradenton, Fla., at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club at Timber Ridge to earn a berth into the 32-player main draw of the ITF/USTA $15,000 Pro Circuit Futures event.

“Every time I say my name people get confused and say, ‘Oh, the baseball player,’ ‘’ smiled Cabrera, a 22-year-old who played four years at The University of Texas at Arlington before turning pro last year. Even my second name is the same as his.”

Unfortunately, Cabrera doesn’t receive the cherubic superstar’s mail or paychecks, but he hopes to add to his one ATP ranking point earned after a first-round win in a Dominican Republic $15,000 Futures tournament last November.

Cabrera was down 5-6 in the 10-point decisive Super Tiebreaker when an argument ensued over a ball struck by Phung. Cabrera was sure the ball was out, but the on-site umpire didn’t agree on the mark. Cabrera debated the call for so long that USTA tournament supervisor David Littlefield was called to the court to assist. Eventually, the call went Phung’s way, and he led 7-5 in the breaker.

However, a fired-up Cabrera won the next four points to set up match point. A 30-stroke rally ensued as a torrential downpour fell. Somehow, Cabrera returned Phung’s rain-soaked drop shot with one of his own to end the marathon.

“Maybe the long discussion changed the rhythm of the match, but I didn’t intend to do it,’’ said Cabrera, who lives in Miami where he trains with Juan Carlos Saez, once ranked No. 230 on the ATP Tour. “But if I won that point it would’ve been 6-all. I’ve been playing very good in the Super Tiebreakers over the last couple of weeks, so I came with more intensity. You’re playing to get into the main draw, so the pressure is great.”

Cabrera, who grew up cheering for Chilean countryman Fernando Gonzalez, once ranked No. 5, hopes to break through in Vero Beach.

“My big dream to get better results, especially I feel better on the clay, and get to the Top 100 and make a living playing tennis,’’ he said.

If he does make it, perhaps he can call his namesake for financial advice. After all, the future Hall of Fame Venezuelan has made more than $400 million over his sterling 21-year career.

Before rain delayed the afternoon matches for more than two hours, local Vero Beach teaching pro Ching Wang continued his unlikely journey into possibly the main draw of the singles and doubles events.

Wang, 25, who spends most days feeding balls to members of the Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club, entered the respective singles and doubles wild card events on a lark.

But after outlasting Matthew Vos, 7-5 in a one-hour, 39-minute first set, the former Division II Lees-McRae College (NC) standout wore out the Texas native 6-0 in the second, his final-round qualifying match against Benedikt Henning of Germany was rained out, to resume Wednesday morning at 9 am. Wang was also scheduled to play his doubles match Tuesday evening with 53-year-old Vero Beach resident James Bragg, after the unlikely duo won last week’s doubles wild-card event at Timber Ridge where they received a bye and a walkover into the finals. However, all first-round doubles matches were cancelled as another rainstorm hit at 3:25 p.m.

Wang entered the week as the second alternate for a qualifying round wild card after he reached the semifinals of the Mardy Fish Wild Card event at his club Sea Oaks in February. The winner of that tournament was Matthew Segura of Apopka, Fla., who has won it four times, but he ended up not needing the wild card for entry due to his improved ATP ranking. When Azariah Rusher of Delray Beach, first alternate from the event for a qualifying wild card, pulled out, the spot opened up for Wang.

“The wild cards, you just never know, you just have to be there,’’ Wang, a China native, said of his good fortune. “After long hours of coaching you don’t feel two hours out there are too much. I want to thank the Sea Oaks members for their support and pushing me to keep fighting.

“After trailing 1-4, I was able to grind out the first set and I felt like he didn’t have the stamina in the second set, so I kept adding pressure and was able to get the win in this beautiful tournament.”

In a second-round qualifying match, teenager Stiles Brockett of College Park, Md., fell to Alexander del Corral of Doral, 7-6 (4), 0-6 (10-4). Also joining Cabrera and del Corral into the main draw is Peruvian Jorge Cavero.

The all-teenage doubles match featuring Nico Godsick and Aidan Kim, heading to Stanford and Florida respectively, against 16-year-olds Americans Kaylan Bigun and Roy Horovitz, was rained out. However, Godsick, with mother/coach Mary Joe Fernandez, former No. 4 in the world and renowned ESPN tennis analyst, close by, was the big winner in Texas Hold ‘em.

Ching Wang at Mardy Fish Tennis (Photo by John Pearse)

Ching Wang, Sebastian Mendoza Slide Into Mardy Fish Qualifying Draw, Play Monday at Timber Ridge

Randy Walker · April 24, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Ching Wang, the tennis teaching professional from Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club in Vero Beach, will play the featured evening match at the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships Monday at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club after receiving a last-second wild card entry into the qualifying rounds of the event.

Wang will play Matthew Vos of Plano, Texas at 5:30 pm in the featured match on Stadium Court. Play begins at 11 am Monday and another Vero Beach local and last minute wild card entry, Sebastian Mendoza of the 2022 Vero Beach High School tennis team, will play the featured day match at Noon against Isaac Nortey, a Davis Cup player from Ghana.

Wang was a semifinalist and fourth-place finisher at the Mardy Fish “Wild Card” singles tournament at Sea Oaks in February and was granted the second alternate spot for a qualifying wild card and a third alternate for a main draw wild card. However, Matthew Segura, who won the Mardy Fish Sea Oaks tournament for a fourth time, was able to slide into the main draw field on his own Sunday night with his No. 1,234 ATP ranking after several players withdrew. With Segura no longer needing the wild card to enter the main draw, his main draw wild card was then given to event runner-up Ryan Haviland, who was to Segura in the Sea Oaks final 6-7(5), 7-5 (10-8). Haviland, as the runner-up, was guaranteed a qualifying round wild card, but since he graduated to a main draw wild card, his qualifying wild card was bounced down to the third place finisher at Sea Oaks, Asariah Rusher of New Hampshire. However, Rusher, was unable to play in Vero Beach due a family commitment and thus the next player in the “pecking order” was Wang, the fourth place finisher at the Sea Oaks event, losing by walkover due to injury to Rusher in the third-place match.

Wang will also compete in the main draw of doubles on Tuesday alongside 53-year-old James Bragg, with whom he won the Mardy Fish doubles wild card tournament.

Mendoza was fortunate to receive a wild card entry into the Mardy Fish qualifying as he was one of the highest American players not directly accepted into the event and was awarded a wild card by the USTA and the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation.

The full schedule for Monday can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2023-pro-circuit/20230424_verobeach_m15/OP.pdf

The qualifying round draw can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2023-pro-circuit/20230424_verobeach_m15/QS.pdf

Players must win two qualifying matches to earn a spot in the main draw of the competition.

The qualifying finals will take place starting at 11 am on Tuesday, followed by the start of the doubles competition. The main draw of singles will begin on Wednesday.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at www.VeroBeachTennisTickets.com On site offerings include the Tasteful Express Food Truck, American Icon Bar Service, Yami’s Ice Cream Shop, Fisher’s Island Spiked Lemonade as well as other local vendors and artists.

The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships has been held in Vero Beach since 1995 and, since 2016, has benefitted the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, the non-profit foundation benefiting children named for Vero Beach native son Mardy Fish, a former top 10 tennis star, U.S. Davis Cup hero and silver medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games.

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, 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist Denis Shapovalov, 2022 U.S. Open semifinalist France Tiafoe, 2023 Australian Open semifinalist Tommy Paul and new rising star and 2022 NCAA singles champion Ben Shelton. Former Vero Beach competitors have combined to win 19 titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at Grand Slam tournaments. Eight former Vero Beach players have gone on to play Davis Cup for the United States – Roddick, Fish, Taylor Dent, Jared Palmer, Donald Young, Ryan Harrison, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul.

Affectionately known as “Timber Ridge” to locals, the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club has been a staple in the community for over 30 years and has been owned and run since 2016 by James and Joseph van Deinse. The club boasts 14 Har-Tru tennis courts, a pickleball court, pool and clubhouse with fitness center and bar. The facility previously hosted a $25,000 women’s USTA Pro circuit event in 2014 that featured future major tournament champions Naomi Osaka and Sofia Kenin, future top 10 star Jennifer Brady and future major doubles champions Nicole Melichar, Laura Siegemund and Gaby Dabrowski. The club is also the original home of the “King of the Hill” tennis competition, hosting the first seven editions of Vero Beach’s popular doubles competition from 1996 to 2002. The Vero Beach Fitness & Tennis Club will be the third different venue to host the tournament after being held at Grand Harbor Club for 17 years from 1995 to 2009 and in 2017 and 2018 and at The Boulevard where it was held for 11 years from 2010 to 2016 and from 2019 to 2022.

Founded in 2007, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation (www.MardyFishChildrensFoundation.org and @MardyFishFound on Twitter) currently supports over 2,400 children in 15 elementary schools, six middle schools, and several other community organizations in Indian River County, Florida by funding after-school exercise, nutritional and enrichment programs in a safe environment to prepare them for healthy, productive and successful lives. The Foundation introduced the “Six Healthy Habits” in 2012 which are Get Sleep; Drink Water; Exercise Daily, Eat Healthy; Brush and Floss; Make Friends.

Leading tournament sponsors for 2023 include Presenting Sponsor PNC Bank, Grand Slam Sponsor: John’s Island Real Estate, Scoreboard Sponsor Tara Layne Alex MacWilliam Real Estate, Hat Sponsor: The Roberts Family Foundation and additional event sponsors Cliff Norris Real Estate, Tom Collins Insurance Agency, Hazel House, Antle Foundation, Gene Simonsen, Kathie and Michael Pierce, Maureen and Peter Lee, Bob and Emilie Burr, Daniel Holman, Lynn Southerly, John and Sara Marshall, John and Marie McConnell, Peter and Ellen Kendall, Shirley Becker, Jaime Yordan, Steve and Karen Rubin, Katherine Cerullo, Pene Chambers, Willem and Marion de Vogel, M&M Realty, Foglia Contracting Corp, Hazelton Marketing Group, Block and Scarpa, Attorneys at Law, Center Court Tennis Outfitters, Publix, Kitchens By Design, Orchid Island Realty, Joe and Barbara Price, Charlie and Este Brashears, Rob and Mickey Stein, Evelyn’s Plant Care, Vero Marine Center, Boston Retail Solutions and Minuteman Press.

Top Junior Nico Godsick, ATP Dallas Open Player Liam Krall Added To Mardy Fish Tennis Field

Randy Walker · April 20, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Nico Godsick, one of the world’s top junior players who reached the second round of doubles at the 2022 U.S. Open, and Liam Krall, a main draw participant at this year’s ATP Tour Dallas Open, have been added to the singles field at the 2023 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships April 24-30 at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club at Timber Ridge.

Godsick entered the event via a special “junior reserve” position, set aside for the world’s top junior player to gain entry into ITF World Tennis Tour U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit events. Godsick is the son of two-time Olympic gold medalist and ESPN television commentator Mary Joe Fernandez and Tony Godsick, the agent of Roger Federer and the co-founder of the Laver Cup competition. Godsick won the USTA National Boy’s 18s doubles championship last year with Ethan Quinn, last year’s Mardy Fish singles finalist, and with Quinn reached the second round of the main draw in doubles at the U.S. Open, losing to former Wimbledon, U.S. and Australian Open doubles champions Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic. Godsick, who has signed to go to Stanford University next year, also played last year in Vero Beach, losing in the first round of singles and the quarterfinals of doubles.

Krall impressed the pro tennis community in February at the ATP Tour Dallas Open where he nearly upset world former top 40 pro Radu Albot in the first round as a wild card entry, falling by a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 scoreline. Krall, from Bronxville, N.Y., is a junior at Southern Methodist University where he plays No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles for the Mustangs. Krall received a main draw wild card into the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Association by the USTA.

Bruno Kuzuhara, the 2022 Australian Open junior champion, withdrew from the event this week and will not compete this year in Vero Beach.

Play at the 2023 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships begins Monday, April 24 at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club with the start of the two-round singles qualifying event. The main draw of doubles will start on Tuesday and the main draw of singles will start on Wednesday. Play begins each day at 11 am through Friday, April 28 with a feature match each evening at 5:30 pm.

James Bragg, 53, To Be One Of Oldest Ever Pro Competitors After Qualifying For Mardy Fish Futures In Doubles

Randy Walker · April 19, 2023 · Leave a Comment

James Bragg of Vero Beach earned the opportunity to be a part of pro tennis history on the ITF World Tennis Tour and U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit.

The 53-year-old paired with Sea Oaks teaching pro Ching Wang to win the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships “Wild Card” doubles tournament on Monday and earn an invitation to compete in the $15,000 entry-level professional tournament April 24-30 at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club at Timber Ridge.

Bragg and Wang defeated fellow Vero Beach residents Christian Docter and Joseph Van Deinse 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the “Wild Card” doubles tournament at Timber Ridge that awards a main draw doubles invitation to the winning team. At age 53, Bragg will be one of the oldest men to ever compete at an official pro tennis tournament.

“Playing at any level of pro tennis over the age of 50 is extremely rare,” said Greg Sharko of the ATP Tour’s communications department. “Certainly, James would be among the oldest players to ever play an official pro tennis match.”

Bragg, who plays out of The Boulevard Club in Vero Beach, will be scheduled to play his opening round doubles match on Tuesday afternoon, April 25. A former varsity player for Dartmouth, Bragg last year reached the semifinals in singles of the USTA National Men’s 50 Clay Court Championships.

Wang, a first-year teaching professional at the Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club in Vero Beach, is a former NCAA Division II player at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina. He competed in a limited number of ITF World Tennis Tour events in 2018 in the United States, Spain and Hong Kong.

Bragg and Ching spoke of their Wild Card tournament victory and their goals at the Mardy Fish tournament playing against ATP-ranked players from around the world here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQUEEt5XoZc

In the singles final of the Mardy Fish “pre-qualifying” tournament that determined a wild card entry into the qualifying event, Jose Galvez of Atlanta, defeated Aldiyar Azbahn of Plantation, Fla., 7-5, 6-3 in the final to earn only his second career entry into an ITF World Tennis Tour qualifying draw. The persistent baseline game of Galvez enabled him to win the title without losing a set and defeated Vero Beach locals Sebastian Mendoza 7-6(5), 7-5 in the quarterfinals and James Van Deinse 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals.

Galvez, a former standout at Kennesaw State University, was playing in his first competitive tournament since 2020 at Timber Ridge and was inspired to give competitive tennis another try after being inspired by his girlfriend, as he discusses here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQNqThUaj4o

Earlier this year, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation awarded other performance-based main draw tournament wild cards to the doubles team of James Van Deinse and Tyler Rios of Port St. Lucie by virtue of their finishes as the winner and runner-up, respectively, at Vero Beach’s annual “King of the Hill” competition and to Matthew Segura of Apopka, Fla., by virtue of his victory at the wild card singles tournament at Sea Oaks in February. By reaching the final of the Sea Oaks wild card event, Ryan Haviland of Greenville, S.C., earned a qualifying round wild card.

Daily, weekly and reserved seating tickets for the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships can be purchased at MardyFishChildrensFoundation.org or at the front gate at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club during the event.