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Mardy Fish Children's Foundation

Mardy Fish

Mardy Fish (And Mike Bryan) Highlight MFCF Golf Fundraiser at Windsor Monday, January 17

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U.S. Davis Cup captain and Vero Beach native son Mardy Fish, along with several former star pro athletes, highlight the field of celebrities who will play in the 2022 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Charity Golf Fundraiser to be played Monday, January 17 at The Windsor Club in Vero Beach, Florida

The event is headlined by Fish, the current U.S. Davis Cup captain former Top 10 tennis star and 2004 Olympic silver medalist. Also participating in the event will be Fish’s former Davis Cup teammate Mike Bryan, half of the “Bryan Brothers,” the greatest doubles team of all time, former standout Major League Baseball pitcher Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox, former top tennis professionals Mikael Pernfors, the 1986 French Open finalist and Vero Beach resident, former European Ryder Cup player and captain Paul McGinley and former ATP player and Harvard University tennis star Thomas Blake.

Fish has been described by six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus as “the best non-professional golfer that I have ever seen play” and has translated his talents on the celebrity golf tour. Fish will be gearing up to attempt to win the celebrity title at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club  for a fourth time just days after appearing at this event. Fish also won the prestigious American Century Celebrity Golf Championships at Lake Tahoe in 2020.

Golfers interested in participating in the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Golf Fundraiser should email Mardy Fish’s father, Tom, the President of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, at Tfish@aol.com or Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Executive Director Lynn Southerly at Lsouth1072@gmail.com. Paid positions for a tax deductible contribution of $500 are available. Non-golfers are also encouraged to attend for the same price and receive a VIP experience on the 17th hole at Windsor, where Fish will be playing the hole with each participating foursomes, along with breakfast and for the awards lunch. Registration and breakfast begin at 8:00 am with an 9:00 am shot-gun start, followed by a 1 pm luncheon and awards presentation. PNC Bank, a long-time supporter of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, is the presenting sponsor of the event.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., the 18-hole links style course at Windsor is a masterpiece in traditional golf course architecture. The par 72 course features an undulating panorama of native trees that border gentle rolling fairways, unobstructed by houses.

The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation (www.MardyFishChildrensFoundation.org) was founded in 2007 and currently supports over 2,200 children in 15 elementary schools, six middle schools and two after school centers 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.

The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation also hosts an entry-level U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit event April 25 – May 1, The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, that will be held at The Boulevard club in Vero Beach. Sponsorships, box-seats, tickets and pro-am spots are available for the event by emailing Fish or Southerly.

Mardy Fish and Paul McGinley
Mardy Fish, the U.S. Davis Cup Captain, with Paul McGinley, the former European Ryder Cup Captain, at the 2020 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Golf Fundraise at Windsor

Sixteen-year-old Jerry Shang Wins 2021 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships

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Youth prevailed over experience when 16-year-old Shang Juncheng of China, the No. 1 junior player in the world, defeated No. 3 seed Ricardo Rodriguez, a 28-year-old tour veteran from Venezuela, to capture the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships title with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 win on Sunday.

The victory at The Boulevard Tennis Club marked the third pro title for the Chinese teen at an International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour event, which is also part of the U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit tournament.

Shang, who currently ranks No. 1008 on the ATP computer, impressively won his first pro event at a $15,000 event in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and again at the same level event in Naples, Florida just last week. He will move inside the top 900 in the world by earning 10 ATP singles ranking points with the tournament victory.

“It feels really good for me,” Shang said after victory. “I’m really happy especially these last two weeks which have been back-to-back wins. It’s really special for me to do in the pros. I’m playing really confident the last two weeks. I’m not thinking so much about the shots but just really going for it. And I’m really relaxed and finding a rhythm in my matches.”

Watch Shang’s post-match presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlqqP8-BaB8

The No. 613 ranked Rodriguez credited his opponent for a match well played.

“I think the key of the match was he was better than me at the important points,” Rodriguez said. “I had a set point in the first set, and I had a few break points, and he played them all well.

“Honestly, I have no regrets because generally I played a very professional match today that didn’t go my way.”

Watch Rodriguez’s post-match presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHrM9vQX9qE

The Beijing native, who goes by the name Jerry, lives with his father in the United States for the past five years, and currently trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Shang says he comes by his athletic prowess from his parents, who were both international sports stars in their sport of choice.

His father, Shang Yi, who sat court side watching the teen win the Vero Beach title, was a pro soccer midfielder who played for Beijing Guoan for most of his career. The elder Shang did play internationally – for Xerex in Spain – during the 2003-04 season. His most notable achievement in Spain was scoring a goal against Cadiz CF, a rival team of Xerex.

After retiring from soccer, Shang Yi became a commentator for the Beijing TV Sports Channel before accompanying his son to Florida.

His mother,  Wu Na, who remains in Beijing and visits Florida, is a former international table tennis star. She won a bronze medal in singles and gold medal in mixed doubles in the 1997 World Table Tennis Championships, and a bronze medal at the same event in women’s doubles in 1995.

“My dad played football, soccer, and mom played table tennis so, for me, they chose a sport something in the middle,” said Shang, laughing. “They chose not the big ball though, but the small ball for me.”

Finding a path in tennis rather than either soccer or table tennis seems to have been a smart choice for Shang, which he proved again on Sunday.

The first set of the final was a nip-and-tuck affair that went down to a deciding tiebreaker.

Both players scored two mini-breaks by the time the score was 4-4 in the tiebreaker. Rodriguez missed out on the one set point he had at 6-5, and two points later mishit a forehand to allow Shang to notch the opening set.

Rodriguez also held a break point on Shang’s serve at 5-5 in the first set, but failed to take the advantage when he missed backhand return.

The two players, who actually warmed each other up just hours before the final, exchanged early service breaks in the second set.

At 3-3, Shang rallied to take a lasting lead in the second set. He set up a 15-40 break point opportunity with a winning forehand passing shot. He went on to break serve for a 4-3 lead with a backhand crosscourt winner.

Shang served out the 1 hour, 54 minute match at love, taking the title with a scorching forehand winner down the line.

At this point, Shang believes his junior days have come to a conclusion and he’ll be concentrating on playing these lower level pro events to work his way up the ATP rankings. His junior career climaxed this year with a quarterfinal showing at the French Open, semifinals at Wimbledon and final appearance at the US Open last month.

In the last 25 years, only two former junior world No. 1s – Roger Federer of Switzerland and Andy Roddick of the United States – went on to become world No. 1s on the main men’s ATP Tour.

Undoubtedly, Shang will be hoping to replicate Federer and Roddick’s feat of translating No. 1 status in the juniors to being the best player in the world. If he could achieve that distinction it certainly would make him a superstar back home in China.

While Li Na won two Grand Slam singles titles and reached a career high ranking of No. 2 in the world in the women’s game, no Chinese man has ever even journeyed into the top 100 in the men’s ATP rankings.

“I think that is a big goal because I’m only 16 right now,” Shang said. “But that’s something I’ll look for in the future hopefully, but it’s important to take one step at a time right now.”

Rodriguez believes the future ahead is very bright for Shang, who played a mature and structured match against him.

“What I experienced today was how good he manages important moments and how good he is that his pulse doesn’t shake whenever there are tight moments in the match,” Rodriguez said. “That makes him special, especially with his being so young.”

As Shang’s likely to discover when you’re a professional tennis player you learn to live a life where a different hotel room becomes where you live each week. Taking that into account, players tend to find tournaments they enjoy playing, a feeling which is often bolstered by having success at a locale.

That’s just what’s happened for Rodriguez, who has favored playing at Vero Beach, which is just a short road trip up I-95 from his home in Ft. Lauderdale.

This marked Rodriguez’s second time in the Mardy Fish tournament final. He lost out to Juan Benitez of Colombia 7-5, 2-6, 6-4  in the 2018 championship match.

In 2017, he reached the quarterfinals and last year he reached the quarterfinals of the UTR event hosted by Vero Beach tournament organizers.

“Ever since I came here for the first time, I think in 2017, you guys have treated me as one of you, as family,” Rodriguez said in a post-match on-court interview this week. “This is one of my favorite places to come and play. Whenever I do my schedule Vero  is always a priority for me. You are one of my greatest friends.”

Rodriguez, who reached a career high ranking of No. 282 in June 2014, has been stalwart for Venezuela in Davis Cup, a high-level international team competition, during his career. He’s played in 18 Davis Cup ties since 2012 for a 22-9 record.

Most recently, Davis Cup provided Rodriguez with a special opportunity to play at the Westside Tennis Club in Forest Hills, NY, which hosted the prestigious US National/US Open for an overall 60 years (1915 to 1920 and 1924 through 1977).

In September, Venezuela lost to South Africa 4-0 in a World Group II Davis Cup tie that was hosted on neutral ground at Forest Hills.

“About a month ago I got the opportunity to play in Forest Hills and that was such a great experience for me,” Rodriguez said. I played 18 times Davis Cup but none of them in such an historic place. That’s little bit of the (payoff) for the hard work and sacrifice.”

In Saturday’s late doubles final, Florida Gator teammates Duarte Vale of Portugal and Johannes Ingildsen of Denmark defeated Ben Shelton, also a Florida Gator, and Liam Draxl of Canada and the University of Kentucky 6-3, 6-4.

Jerry Shang
Jerry Shang

Shang, Rodriguez To Play For Mardy Fish Singles Title

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Jerry Shang of China, the world’s No. 1-ranked junior tennis player, booked his ticket into another ITF event final with a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 6 seed Liam Draxl of Canada Saturday at The Boulevard Tennis Club..

“I feel like today I closed it out really well and I’m just happy to be in the final,” said Shang, who lives in Bradenton, Florida and trains at the IMG Academy. “I was growing up watching him (Draxl) play when I was around 13. He’s a great player. “I’m just playing really confident. I’ll hopefully be in the same place tomorrow.”

Shang will face Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela in Sunday’s 1 pm final. Rodriguez, the all-time leading Davis Cup player from Venezuela and the 2018 singles finalist at this event. defeated Ezekiel Clark of Tulsa, Oklahoma 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in two hours and 31 minutes.

Shang’s top junior ranking on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) computer comes off of stellar results this year with appearances in the junior Roland Garros quarterfinal and Wimbledon semifinal, and was bolstered by his appearance in the recent US Open junior boys’ final where he lost to Daniel Rincon of Spain. Since then, Shang has won ITF World Tennis Tour titles in Fayetteville, Arkansas and Naples, Florida.

After a two-hour rain delay, Shang and Draxl stayed neck-and-neck to the latter stages of the opening set when the Chinese teen broke to 5-4 with a chance to serve out the set in the next game. A talented lefty, he pounded inside out forehands from the baseline to gain the first set advantage over the Canadian.

After finding himself at deuce following two set points at 40-15 and 40-30, Shang successfully served out the set by winning off of two ferocious forehands.

Shang immediately broke serve in the opening game of the second set, but Draxl rebounded to earn the break back. However, the Canadian served up a flurry of unforced errors to allow Shang to break again for a 2-1 lead off of a backhand volley winner.

Having fallen behind 1-3 in the second set, Draxl began admonishing himself on court for his less than stellar semifinal performance. He started talking out loud, saying, “Let’s gooooo – Come on. You are better than this guy. Not today.”

Draxl’s self-berating strategy clearly had a beneficial temporary effect as the Canadian broke back to 3-3. But in the next game Draxl missed a short forehand into the net to, once again, allow Shang to break his serve.

Shang had to save a break point in the eighth game before going ahead 5-3 off of a forehand winner.

After failing to take advantage of four match points on Draxl’s serve in the ninth game, Shang nailed down his final berth on what was his seventh match point when Draxl missed a backhand return off of a first serve.

Shang is hoping to become the best Chinese man in history to play tennis, joining former women’s player Li Na as a tennis powerhouse for the nation.

Li captured two Grand Slam singles trophies during her career – the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open, and reached a career high ranking of No. 2 in February 2014 following her Australian Open title run.

The Chinese men, however, have yet to crack the top 100 ATP rankings with Zhang Zhizhen achieving the best ranking for his country at No. 136 in February 2020. He is currently the highest ranked Chinese man at No. 235.

Wu Di is the second best Chinese player in history having once ranked No. 140 in April 2016, but he’s now fallen to No. 696 in the world.

To be fair to Draxl, his lagging performance wasn’t all that surprising considering he suffered from serious cramping on Friday after ousting doubles partner and University of Florida sophomore, Ben Shelton, in a tough three-set quarterfinal.

In fact, Draxl admitted that he nearly pulled out of the doubles semifinal on Friday because of cramps, and that he actually fell on the ground screaming from a leg cramp in the parking lot of a Chipotle fast-food restaurant prior to the doubles match. After drinking pickle juice and water, he decided to play, which resulted in he and Shelton reaching the doubles final.

Draxl’s semifinal showing equals that of fellow Canadian and current world No. 15 Denis Shapovalov, who reached the Vero Beach semifinal in 2016, also at the Boulevard Club.

“Tennis in Canada is definitely making a push,” Draxl said.  “We have Leyla (Fernandez) and Bianca (Andreescu) on the women’s side. Just seeing Denis (Shapovalov) and Felix (Auger Aliassime) up and the young group – the “Next Gen” of Canadian players coming up.

“Just seeing Denis and Felix doing so well on the pro tour, so young, makes me think I can do it too. I’m definitely inspired by them and I’m trying to follow in their footsteps.”

The 19-year-old Draxl, who was the ITA National Player of the Year and the top seed at the NCAA singles championships last season, is taking a semester off from college to play in as many Futures events as

“I love college tennis so much – I love the atmosphere and getting pumped up,” Draxl said. “I had a good year last year and took a lot of good players out. I’m just excited to go back in January and do it all again.

“But in the meantime I’m playing as many Futures as I can to get the ranking up.”

In Saturday’s doubles final, Duarte Vale of Portugal and Johannes Ingildsen of Denmark defeated Draxl and Ben Shelton of Gainesville, Florida 6-3, 6-4.

Jerry Shang
Jerry Shang

Canada’s Liam Draxl Reaches Singles Semis, Doubles Final At Mardy Fish Futures

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Liam Draxl of Canada advanced into the singles semifinals and doubles final at the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships Saturday, beating Ben Shelton in the singles quarterfinals, then pairing with Shelton in the doubles semifinals.

Draxl, a junior at the University of Kentucky, started the day with a thrilling 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-4 singles win over Shelton, a University of Florida sophomore. The two then beat Junior Ore and Ben Kittay 3-6 6-4 [10-5] to reach the doubles final.

In Saturday’s noon semifinal, the 19-year-old Draxl, who’s No. 477 in the ATP rankings, will face China’s Jerry Shang, the current No. 1. junior in the ITF world rankings. Shang, who’s only 16 and is hoping to notch his third ITF Futures title this season, outlasted eighth-seeded Duarte Vale of Portugal and also from the University of Florida 6-3, 7-6 (2). Shang also took out Vale in last week’s final of the ITF $15,000 Futures in Naples, almost with the same score, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Vale was on last season’s Gators NCAA championship team with Shelton, so it was a rough day all around for the Gators. Shang, who has been training at IMG Academy in Bradenton since 2019 under the tutelage of former touring pros Jimmy Arias and Martin Damm, said it helped to be familiar with Vale’s game.

“It was like the same as last week,’’ Shang said. “He’s a fighter and isn’t going to give you anything. I reset in the tiebreak and got the match done. I’ve known [Draxl] since I was 14, watching him play in juniors when I was little. It’s going to be fun.”

In other quarterfinal action, Venezuelan Davis Cup legend Ricardo Rodriguez, the No. 3 seed, defeated 26-year-old Juan Benitez of Colombia, a winner here in 2018 who received a wild card into the qualifying event here, 6-2, 6-2.

After snapping a nine-match losing streak earlier this week, the top-seeded, wild-card entrant Donald Young, who reached 38th in the world in 2012 before injuries and the pandemic derailed his career, the 32 year old’s comeback sustained another speed-bump in a 6-3, 4-0 loss to wild-card entrant Matthew Segura late Thursday.

Young, who has dropped to 451 and relegated to playing in the minor leagues of pro tennis, sustained an injury to his left leg and was forced to retire from his second-round match. After two first-round ousters at this tournament, Segura, 21, the great nephew of late tennis Hall of Famer Pancho Segura, has reached the quarterfinals for the first time but fell to baseline basher Ezekiel Clark, the seventh seed from Tulsa, Okla. 7-5, 6-4.

Clark, 23 and ranked 779, achieved his best result in an ITF $15,000 Futures in Norman, Okla., in 2019 when he made it to the final. Clark, who’s only 5-9 and recently played for the University of Illinois, is a huge fan of former Spaniard great David Ferrer. Despite his smallish 5-9 stature, Ferrer’s tenacious baseline grinding enabled him to No. 3 in the world in 2013 and he won 27 singles titles while earning more than $31 million.

Segura knew that Young had several big-time notches on his racket, posting victories over Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Tommy Haas, Kevin Anderson as well as wins in Challengers events against Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev when the current second- and fourth-ranked players respectively were teenagers just breaking into pro tennis.

“In all due respect I just went out there and trusted my ability and my game,’’ said Segura, 21, who grew up in Southern California but lives in nearby Orlando. “I think it’s a great achievement especially against someone who was in the Top 40. He’s beaten a lot of good players. Every year has been a learning opportunity for me. The last two times I lost in the first round, but I learned lessons from it and how to [compete]. I decided the third time I wanted to go for it.’’

The ambidextrous Segura can hit serves with either hand and features two-fisted ground strokes like his great Uncle Pancho did. Pancho was only 5-foot-6 but managed to win 66 titles and unofficially reached No. 1 in 1950. Although the diminutive Ecuadorian died at 96 in 2017, he imparted his vast knowledge of tennis to Matthew, who stands 6-1.

“Every time I would hit a winning shot or get a good win, he would say, ‘Thata boy!’, so I feel him saying that to me,” Segura said. “I think he’s still coaching my heart.’’

Segura earned his first ATP point after his first-round win on Wednesday and now has a chance to add a few more. He has won three ‘Wild Card’ events for this tournament from 2018-20 at Sea Oaks Tennis Club, but this is by far his best ITF Pro Circuit tournament.

Draxl hopes to join a contingent of exciting Canadian stars on both tours, including No. 12-ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 15t-ranked Denis Shapovalov (who reached the semis here in Vero Beach in 2016), , t

Milos Raonic (once ranked as high as No. 3), Vasek Pospisil (career-high 25 in 2014); and on the WTA Tour, Bianca Andreescu (U.S Open champion in 2019), Leylah Fernandez (recent U.S. Open finalist), Genie Bouchard (Wimbledon finalist in 2016) and even U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu was born in Toronto before settling in Great Britain.

“When you see the next gen, young players like Felix and Denis coming up and doing so well on the Tour it makes me feel like I can do it. I’m inspired by them and am trying to follow in their footsteps,” Draxl said.

The hard-serving left-handed Shelton got off to a slow start, possibly feeling the effects of his tough three-set victory over former Gators’ teammate Blaise Bicknell on Thursday, but stormed back to gut out a second-set tiebreaker. The turning point of the match came with Shelton serving at 2-2, 15-40 in the third set when Draxl smacked a highly angled crosscourt forehand passing shot past the net-charging Shelton for a critical break.

However, with Draxl serving for the match at 5-3, Shelton, 19, saved a match point as Draxl’s forehand just missed the clay baseline. Shelton broke back and held for 4-5.

A fired-up Draxl, normally a baseliner, won two points by serving and volleying to go up 40-15 for match point No. 2. An error by Draxl gave Shelton an opening. but the University of Kentucky Wildcat sealed the 2-hour, 47-minute battle when Shelton’s backhand flew over the baseline.

“A great match to my doubles partner this week,’’ said Draxl, who was seeded No. 1 in last year’s NCAA singles tournament. “I knew it was going to be a battle today. I was pumped to squeak it out at the end.  “When you beat a player like that 6-1, you know it’s not going to be 6-1 in the second set. I knew he was going to fight back and grind. I knew I had to elevate my game, be more aggressive. I returned a couple of his bombs and without that I don’t break him.”

“I love college tennis so much; I love the energy, love the atmosphere, love getting pumped up and the team aspect to it,’’ added Draxl, who was named the school’s first ITA National Player of the Year, going 25-3 in singles. “I’m excited to get back in January and do it over again.”

Draxl is riding a wave of confidence after eaching the semifinals of another ITF $15,000 tournament in Naples last week. Draxl also held his own in an ATP qualifying match in the Canada Masters 1000 event last August, barely falling to the No. 56-ranked Tommy Paul, 7-6 (0), 6-4. He also lost a close one to former Top 40 player Ryan Harrison 7-6 in the third at a Challenger event in Cary in July.

Liam Draxl
Liam Draxl

Matthew Segura Advances Past Donald Young at Mardy Fish Futures

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Vero Beach is Matthew Segura’s kinda town.

The great nephew of tennis Hall of Famer Pancho Segura advanced into the quarterfinals of the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships Thursday night at The Boulevard, defeating former U.S. Olympian and Davis Cupper Donald Young after leading 6-3, 4-0, with Young abandoning the match with a left hamstring injury.

The win puts Segura into the quarterfinals of an ITF World Tennis Tour event for the first time in his career. His first-round win over 16-year-old Cooper Williams earned Segura his first career ATP ranking point. Segura’s run this week marks another chapter in his run of success through the years in Vero Beach. He is a three-time winner of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation annual “Wild Card” tournament at Sea Oaks, where the tournament awards a main draw wild card into this event. Segura lost in the first round of this event in 2018 and 2019 after winning the “wild card” event but last year when the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships was held as a Universal Tennis event (not awarding ATP ranking points) Segura was the singles runner-up. Since Segura won the 2020 wild card event but was unable to cash in on his “free entry” at the 2020 tournament (since any player can enter at Universal Tennis event and there is not cut-off), Mardy Fish Championships tournament directors Tom Fish and Randy Walker saved the wild card for Segura to be used for the 2021 event, where he would need help to get in the tournament since he had no ATP ranking.

“Each year was a learning experience for me,” said Segura in his post-match interview that you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fK9iGbD4QA&t=22s

His win over the top-seeded Young, the 32-year-old who reached the fourth of the U.S. Open twice, but now ranked No. 425, is his best win in his career to date.

“I just went out there and trusted my ability and my game,” said Segura after the win, that was highlighted by many wicked double-and-single-fisted winners from the baseline that had Young a bit shell-shocked.

Segura will next face former University of Illinois standout Ezekial Clark, the No. 7 seed from Tulsa Oklahoma, who defeated 17-year-old Michael Zheng of Montville, N.J. Thursday.

The match of the day on Thursday came when Ben Shelton, seeded No. 4 in Vero Beach this week, registered a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Blaise Bicknell of Jamaica. There seemed to be no love lost between the former teammates at the University of Florida. Despite winning an NCAA national team championship together under the guidance of Shelton‘s coach/father Bryan Shelton, Bicknell,  who went 32-0 in singles last year for Florida, transferred to Tennessee. Both players loudly celebrated winning shots as if it were playing against a hated rival in a heated college tennis match.. The slugfest turned early in the third said when Bicknell called for the trainer  to treat a thigh injury with a heavy wrap after losing his serve in the first game of the set. Shelton kept his composure against an injured for and closed out the match.

“It was definitely a good match,” said Shelton in his post-match press conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oonrh9t4osQ

“We played on the same court a lot together. It was a tough battle. I knew coming in it was going to be a battle. I’m glad I was able to make it through to the next round.”

Next up for the left-handed Shelton in the quarterfinals at Noon Friday will be fellow 19 year old, the sixth-seeded Liam Drexl of Canada, who eked out a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Loris Pourroy of France and Florida State University. The No. 477th-ranked Drexl attends the University of Kentucky, where he was last year’s top seed in the NCAA singles championship. Draxl and Shelton are also in the semifinals of doubles as a team.

Friday’s feature 6 pm night match will feature a rematch of the 2018 Mardy Fish final where Juan Benitez of Colombia defeated Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela. Benitez, who was given a wild card into the qualifying rounds of this tournament by Fish and Walker, defeated No. 5 seed Juan Galarza of Argentina 7-5, 6-4 while Rodriguez defeated Ben Kittay of Potomac, Md., 6-4, 6-4. Benitez and Rodriguez also played in the quarterfinals of last year’s Mardy Fish Universal Tennis event with Benitez registering a stirring comeback over Rodriquez 7-6 (5), 0-6, 7-6 (5) in three hours and 15 minutes that was actually 45 minutes longer than when they played in an epic final of this event in 2018, also won by Benitez 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. In that match Benitez trailed Rodriguez 5-1 in the final set and appeared resigned to defeat after losing 11 of the next 12 games after winning a first-set tiebreaker. Rodriguez, the all-time leading Davis Cup player for Venezuela, however, was not able to close out Benitez, despite serving for the match at 5-2 and 5-4 in the final set and holding a 4-1 lead in the final-set tiebreaker. Benitez also saved a match point at 3-5 in the final set, losing the point before with a whiffed overhead.

Watch Ricardo Rodriguez talk about his affection for Vero Beach here: https://youtu.be/PB7eu9NdNRg

The world’s leading junior player Juncheng Shang of China defeated William Bushamuka 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 39 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals where he will face No. 8 seed Duarte Vale, who beat qualifier Diogo Marques 6-3, 6-3 in an all-Portuguese battle.  Watch Walker interview Shang here:https://youtu.be/KYew7eOFtTI