Tennis Verobeach

Mardy Fish Children's Foundation

US Open

Cooper Williams Winning Aussie Open Boys’ Doubles Title Gives 2023 Mardy Fish Competitors Three Junior Boys’ Doubles Majors

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American junior tennis players who played in the 2022 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships are getting this Grand Slam junior boys doubles title thing down.

Cooper Williams, the 17-year-old from New York who reached the second round of the 2022 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, became the third straight player from the 2022 Vero Beach event to win a Grand Slam tournament junior doubles title when he and partner Learner Tien won the junior boys’ doubles title at the Australian Open. Williams and Tien defeated top seeds Alexander Blockx of Belgium and Joao Fonseca of Brazil 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

Williams joins his fellow Vero Beach tournament competitors from April of 2022, Nishesh Basavareddy of Carmel, Indiana and Alex Michelsen of Aliso Viejo, California, as junior doubles winners at Grand Slams since playing in Vero Beach.

Michelsen, who lost in the first round of singles in Vero Beach to eventual champion Sekou Bangoura, won the Wimbledon junior doubles title with Sebastian Gorzny. Michelsen paired with Williams in doubles in Vero Beach, losing in the first round.

Basavareddy won the junior boys doubles title at the U.S. Open with Ozan Baris, before heading off to play for Stanford University. Basavareddy lost in the first round of singles in Vero Beach in 2022, but, as a wild card entry, won the doubles title with Vero Beach fan favorite Ricardo Rodriguez.

The 2023 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships will be held April 24-30 at a new location, the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club at Timber Ridge.

Junior boys doubles winners at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open (clockwise)

Frances Tiafoe: From Vero Beach In 2014 To U.S. Open Hero In 2022

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Frances Tiafoe, who dazzled crowds with his breakthrough performance in reaching the semifinals of the 2022 U.S. Open, is one of the many great players who have played in the Vero Beach USTA Pro Circuit event, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships.

In 2014, Tiafoe competed in Vero Beach at The Boulevard in his first year of playing professional tournaments while still a junior tennis player. At the age of 16, playing in only his fourth pro level tournament and ranked No. 1296 on the ATP Rankings, Tiafoe reached the second round in Vero Beach, losing to former University of Florida standout Greg Ouellette. The 2014 edition of the tournament also featured American stars Tommy Paul, who earned his first career ATP ranking point in Vero Beach, and Reilly Opelka, both of whom played in the qualifying rounds of the tournament.

Tiafoe’s first career match at a pro tournament, interesting enough, was earlier in 2014 at a USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Florida where he lost 6-0, 6-0 in the first round to Sekou Bangoura, the 2022 singles champion in Vero Beach.

Read of Frances (who was mistakenly had his name spelled “Francis” in draws and news reports) from 2014 in Vero Beach here http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/10487 and from the Washington Post here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2014/05/17/an-improbable-tennis-prodigy/

Tiafoe staged one of the greatest wins by an American man at the U.S. Open in the last 20 years when he defeated 22-time major winner Rafael Nadal in the fourth round on Labor Day Monday. He followed up the victory with a win over Andrey Rublev of Russia before falling in a dramatic and entertaining semifinal to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.

Frances Tiafoe on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open in 2022 (left) and Frances Tiafoe on Court 4 at The Boulevard in Vero Beach at the 2014 version of the modern-day Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships

Doubles Titles In Vero Beach, US Open Junior Doubles For Nishesh Basavareddy

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Nishesh Basvareddy is pretty good with “pick up” doubles partners.

Four months after winning the doubles title at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships in Vero Beach for his first pro-level doubles title with pick-up partner Ricardo Rodriguez, Basavareddy picked up another late partner to win the 2022 U.S. Open junior boys doubles title.

Basavareddy, from Carmel, Indiana and an incoming freshman at Stanford University, decided to pair with fellow Midwesterner Ozan Baris at the U.S. Open juniors earlier in the summer. Although the two grew up together and played with an against each other since the 10-and-unders, they had not played with each other in four years. The pair quickly gelled again and dominated the U.S. Open junior boys final winning 6-1, 6-1 against Switzerland’s Dylan Dietrich and Bolivia’s Juan Carlos Prado Angelo.

In Vero Beach in April of 2022, Basavareddy was paired blindly with popular Vero Beach participant Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela by tournament director Randy Walker, granted a wild card entry into the event, and the two ended up winning the title, the first ever pro title for Basavareddy.

Watch Basavareddy and Rodriguez be interviewed after their semifinal win in Vero Beach here  https://youtu.be/OuxnOxkWWrk The post-match trophy presentation and speeches from the doubles final in Vero Beach can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR4ya55sJbc

Basavareddy will now enroll as a freshman at Stanford University and play for coach Paul Goldstein and the legendary Cardinal tennis program, which has produced such players as John and Patrick McEnroe, Bob and Mike Bryan, Roscoe Tanner, Tim Mayotte among others.

“I’m starting school next week. I go to Stanford next week,” said Basavareddy while holding a post-match press conference in the main interview room at the U.S. Open. “I just want to continue to improve there, play tournaments while I’m there, play college tennis. Hopefully in a few years’ time I’m ready to make the jump to pro tennis, move up the rankings. That’s my ultimate goal. Just continue to improve. I’ll probably play a few junior events next year because I have one more year of eligibility. As far as our future, maybe play some doubles tournaments in the future, and maybe in the summers for now.”

Nishesh Basavareddy won doubles titles in 2022 in Vero Beach at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships (top) and in New York at the 2022 U.S. Open Junior Championships.

From Vero Beach To The U.S. Open – Ben Shelton, Ethan Quinn and Nico Godsick Shine In New York

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Ben Shelton, Ethan Quinn and Nico Godsick, who all competed in Vero Beach at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships within the last year, also shined in the U.S. Open spotlight. Shelton, who was the doubles runner-up and singles quarterfinalist at the special October of 2021 edition of the tournament, competed in the main draw in singles and doubles at the 2022 U.S. Open, where he officially announced that he was turning pro after winning the 2022 NCAA singles title for the University of Florida. Shelton lost a tough five-set match in the first round to Nuno Borges of Portugal. He and partner Chris Eubanks beat 2021 French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas and his brother Petros in the first round of doubles before losing in the second round.

Quinn, who was the 2022 singles runner-up in Vero Beach in April, paired in the main draw of doubles with his Vero Beach doubles partner Nico Godsick, the son of former Olympic doubles gold medal winner and ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez and Roger Federer and Coco Gauff’s agent Tony Godsick. Quinn and Godsick beat former world No. 16 Nikoloz Basilashvili and  Hans Hach Verdugo in the first round before losing to 2021 Wimbledon and Olympic champions Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic in the second round. Junior Wimbledon doubles champion Alex Michelsen and our 2020 singles champion Diego Hidalgo were also among the recent Vero Beach competitors who competed in the main draw of doubles at the 2022 U.S. Open.

Ethan Quinn and Nico Godsick after losing to 2021 Wimbledon and Olympic champions Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektik

Recent Mardy Fish Tennis Competitors Ben Shelton, Ethan Quinn and Nico Godsick To Play 2022 U.S. Open Main Draw

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From Stadium Court at The Boulevard in Vero Beach to the main draw of the 2022 U.S. Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

That’s the scenario for three recent competitors at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour USTA Pro Circuit tennis tournament.

Ben Shelton, Ethan Quinn and Nico Godsick, who thrilled fans in Vero Beach within the last year at the Fall and Spring events at The Boulevard, will all be competing in the main draw of the 2022 U.S. Open.

Shelton will be competing in the main draw of singles, by virtue of his NCAA singles title win in May for the University of Florida, and Quinn and Godsick will be competing in the main draw in doubles, by virtue of their win in doubles at the USTA National Boy’s 18 Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan last week. Quinn will also be competing in the qualifying rounds for the U.S. Open in singles, by virtue of reaching the singles final in Kalamazoo.

Shelton competed in Vero Beach at the special October edition of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships in 2021 where he reached the quarterfinals in singles and finished as the doubles runner-up. Since he played in Vero Beach, he not only won the NCAA singles title, but moved his ATP singles ranking to No. 229.

Quinn, who was a redshirt freshman at the University of Georgia, was the singles runner-up in Vero Beach in April, falling to Sekou Bangoura 6-4, 6-3. He continued to excel on the ITF World Tennis Tour over the summer, moving his ATP singles ranking to No. 501, making him the No. 4 ranking American teenager in the ATP rankings.

Godsick drew the No. 1 seed in the first round of singles and doubles in Vero Beach last April, but he and Quinn reached the quarterfinals in the doubles competition. He is the son of former two-time Olympic gold medalist Mary Joe Fernandez and tennis agent Tony Godsick.

The 2023 edition of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships is tentatively set for April 24-30, 2023. For sponsorship and box seat and cabana ticket information, contact Lynn Southerly at Lsouth1072@gmail.com or 202-438-5225

Ben Shelton and Nico Godsick and Ethan Quinn