Vero Beach

Sekou Bangoura Sweeps Last Six Games To Set Up Friday Night Match-Up With Montsi at Mardy Fish Tennis at The Boulevard

Randy Walker · April 29, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Sekou Bangoura Sweeps Last Six Games To Set Up Friday Night Match-Up With Montsi at Mardy Fish Tennis at The Boulevard

Sekou Bangoura, a 30-year-old pro tennis veteran, rallied from 0-3 down in the third set to sweep the final six games of the match from 16-year-old Cooper Williams to advance into Friday night’s 6 pm feature quarterfinal match at the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at The Boulevard.

Bangoura’s 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3 win over Williams advances him into the quarterfinals to face Kholo Montsi, the diminutive but powerful South African who defeated American Mwenwa Mbithi, who was forced to retire with a groin injury after losing the first set 6-2.

Bangoura’s brief post-match interview with Randy Walker on the cold and blustery night can be found here: https://youtu.be/FdVY9L9aPgA

John McNally, the older brother of WTA star Caty McNally, beat Texas A&M’s No. 1 player Noah Schachter 6-1, 6-3 in the noon opener on Stadium Thursday and will face former University of Georgia standout Emil Reinberg again at noon on Friday in the quarterfinals. Reinberg defeated 2015 NCAA singles champion Ryan Shane 6-3, 6-2 and also took the time to answer questions after the match with young students in Miss B’s Learning Bees, one of the programs that receives funding from the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation. Ethan Quinn, who is red-shirting this season this year at the University of Georgia, advanced into the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Luxembourg Davis Cupper Alex Knaff 6-3, 6-2. Quinn’s first day of college on the Athens, Georgia campus was the night the Bulldogs won the national football championship.

The University of Kentucky is also represented with two players in the quarterfinals as No. 1 seed Liam Draxl advanced with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over former Texas A&M standout A.J. Catanzariti and Millen Hurrion defeated Nathan Ponwith 7-5, 6-3. Draxl and Hurrion are also in the semifinals of the doubles competition.

Crowd favorites Quinn and Nick Godsick, the son of Mary Joe Fernandez and Tony Godsick, were defeated in the doubles quarterfinals to Nishesh Basavareddy of Carmel, Ind., and Venezuela’s Ricardo Rodriguez 6-3, 6-2. The win came on a special day for Rodriguez, his 29^th birthday!

Read Harvey Fialkov’s TCPalm story on John McNally and Cooper Williams here: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/sports/2022/04/28/tennis-john-mcnally-making-most-decision-turn-pro/9575610002/

The Friday schedule of play can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/OP.pdf

The updated singles draw can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDS.pdf

The updated doubles draw can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDD.pdf

Sekou Bangoura and Cooper Williams before their second match at the Mardy Fish Futures

Cooper Williams, Andy Murray’s Florida Practice Partner, Earns First ATP Ranking Point In Vero Beach

Randy Walker · April 28, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Cooper Williams, the 17-year-old New Yorker and a recent practice partner of Andy Murray in Orlando, will face No. 3 seed Sekou Bangoura in Thursday’s 6 pm night match in the second round of the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at The Boulevard.

Williams had a memorable Wednesday evening in Vero Beach, defeating Alejandro Franco of Ecuador 7-6 (1), 6-0 to earn his career ATP ranking point. To boot, there to watch the hallmark event was Vero Beach resident and tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl, who now coaches Murray and oversaw the practice sessions with Williams in Orlando.

For Bangoura, his match with Williams will mark his second straight match against an teenage American after beating reigning Easter Bowl champion Alex Mickelsen 4-6 6-3 6-0 in Wednesday’s first round. Bangoura is a former standout at the University of Florida who competed in the main draw of doubles at the U.S. Open in 2010. Bangoura was a singles and doubles finalist at The Boulevard back in 2019.

While Williams was earning his first ATP point on the Grandstand court at The Boulevard with Lendl watching on, two other tennis legends, two-time Olympic gold medalist Mary Joe Fernandez and Roger Federer’s agent Tony Godsick were watching their 17-year-old son Nico play against top-seed Liam Draxl of Canada. Despite being up an early service break, Godsick was unable stage the upset, falling 6-4, 6-3.

Godsick, however, is still alive in doubles with partner Ethan Quinn and will play their doubles quarterfinal not before 3 pm Thursday. Quinn, who is undergoing a redshirt freshman year at the University of Georgia, plays Alex Knaff, a Davis Cup player from Luxembourg, in the second match on Grandstand Thursday. Ryan Shane, the 2015 NCAA singles champion for the University of Virginia, plays former University of Georgia player Emil Reinberg third on stadium Thursday.

Read Harvey Fialkov’s TCPalm story “Vero Beach pros make strong impression at Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships” here https://www.tcpalm.com/story/sports/2022/04/27/vero-beach-tennis-pros-make-strong-impression-mardy-fish-tourney/9559448002/

View Thursday’s schedule here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/OP.pdf

View the updated singles draw here https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDS.pdf

View the updated doubles draw here

https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDD.pdf

Nico Godsick, Son of Mary Joe Fernandez, Faces Top Seed Liam Draxl 6 pm Wednesday at Mardy Fish Tennis at The Boulevard

Randy Walker · April 27, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Vero Beach Locals Perez-Blanco, Hamza Fall In Close First-Round Doubles Match

Nico Godsick, the son of American tennis legend Mary Joe Fernandez and Roger Federer’s agent Tony Godsick, will see if he can knock off his second No. 1 seed in two days at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships Wednesday night at 6 pm against top-seed Liam Draxl of Canada.

Godsick and doubles partner Ethan Quinn upset the No. 1 seeds Alejandro Franco of Colombia and Antonia March of Ecuador 7-6 (2), 2-6, 10-6 on Tuesday in the highly-entertaining first round match in doubles. He will go for the double sweep of the No. 1 seeds in the tournament against Draxl, the top player from the University of Kentucky who just on Sunday played in the Southeastern Conference team championship match in Athens, Georgia. Fernandez, the two-time Olympic gold medalist in doubles and a singles finalist at the French and Australian Opens, was in attendance at The Boulevard on Tuesday, along with her husband, also known as the co-creator of the Laver Cup team competition. Godsick was also the one-time agent for Mardy Fish during his pro career.

John McNally will start off the tennis “family affair” theme on Stadium Court at noon against a “lucky loser” who will replace Blu Baker, who withdrew with an arm injury after his doubles match Tuesday. McNally is the brother of Caty McNally, a doubles player on the WTA Tour who plays with Coco Gauff.

The full schedule of all 16 first round matches can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/OP.pdf

The updated doubles draw can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDD.pdf

The singles draw can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDS.pdf

The most anticipated match of the 2022 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships came on Tuesday night when approximately 500 fans came to support local teaching pros Chase Perez Blanco of the Quail Valley Club and Slim Hamza of The Moorings Club. The two received the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation automatic wild card for the winner and runner-up of the annual “King of the Hill” competition, benefitting Youth Guidance, won by Perez-Blanco. The dup faced Joshua Sheehy of Arlington, Texas and Jakub Wojcik of Delray Beach, Florida and had two set points at 6-4 in the first-set tiebreaker, but lost 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.

The post-match on-court interview with Sheehy and Wojcik can be found here https://youtu.be/f3VHGDcxbX8

The post-match on-court interviews with Hamza and Perez-Blanco can be found here: https://youtu.be/xkkR0Mv8r-k

Harvey Fialkov’s story from the early final-round qualifying matches from Tuesday can be found here:

Jesse Flores, Blaise Bicknell Wave Their National Flags At Mardy Fish Tennis

Nico Godsick and Ethan Quinn at Mardy Fish Tennis

Jesse Flores, Blaise Bicknell Wave Their National Flags At Mardy Fish Tennis

Randy Walker · April 27, 2022 · Leave a Comment

By Harvey Fialkov

Not everyone could be a Carlos Alcaraz, the teenage phenom from Spain, who at 18 has already cracked the Top 10 after winning Rio and Barcelona, two ATP 500 events, and the Miami Open Masters 1000 tournament last month.

Most 18 to 20-somethings are toiling in the minor leagues of tennis, traversing the globe on a shoestring budget in search of valuable ranking points that would allow them direct entry into ATP events and Grand Slams where the big money is.

Most never make it in a highly competitive sport that hasn’t seen an American win a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick captured the US Open in 2003 at 21. So why even attempt to qualify at this week’s Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at The Boulevard Village and Tennis Club, an $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour Pro Circuit event?

Not every player set their goal to be No. 1 in the world or win majors. They simply love the game and relish playing for their country.

“This is my first full season on Tour and I love it,’’ said Jesse Armando Flores Knowles after defeating Abraham Asaba of Ghana, 6-3, 6-3 in qualifying to make it into the 32-main singles draw which begins on Wednesday. “I love the travel; I love the whole lifestyle, meeting new people, seeing the cultures. It’s the best part of the job.”

Flores, ranked 1080 in singles, is a native of Canada who switched his nationality to his parents’ native country of Costa Rica after high school graduation partly to take advantage of the federation’s ongoing financial support. The Canadians are loaded with Top 50 players, such as 16^th-ranked Denis Shapovalov, who Flores claims he’s 3-3 against when they were juniors.

“I was four years older but even then, you could see Denis had the ‘it’ factor,’’ Flores said.

Flores’ dreams don’t necessarily include winning the US Open but rather to represent his country in Davis Cup and the 2024 Olympics. He has already done the former, wearing his country’s flag colors (blue, white and red) in a Davis Cup tie against Bulgaria, a 4-1 loss in March 2020.

“In order to get into the Group 3 of Davis Cup I had to play 12 matches, singles and doubles, in six days,’’ said Flores, who lost two tight singles matches to Bulgarians ranked 537 or lower; but did win his doubles match.

“That was the greatest weekend of my life representing Costa Rica at home, especially the doubles match which I won on match point (12-10) in the third-set tiebreaker with a diving lob winner. I was five feet off the ground. My dream of playing in the Olympics is alive and it goes without saying that’s the highest honor for any athlete.”

Flores is also an unofficial Floridian, spending summers from 14-17 training at camps run by renowned coach Nick Saviano at Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation. He played college tennis at the University of Miami, finishing in the top 20 in doubles with a win over No. 1 Wake Forest.

Flores lives in Fort Lauderdale and trains with his coach Levar Harper-Griffith, who grew up with Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick in Boca Raton. In fact, Harper-Griffith, once ranked 224 in singles and 184^th in doubles, played doubles with both and won a first-round doubles match with Roddick at the 1999 US Open. Flores patterns his serve and forehand after Roddick, the last American to be ranked No. 1.

Asaba, 24, who played for Virginia Tech and is currently No. 1 in Ghana, not a hotbed for tennis pros, also played Davis Cup and is ranked a respectable 718 in doubles, having won the ITF Orange Park Futures doubles title last week with Sekou Bangoura, the runner-up here in singles and doubles in 2019.

Slim Hamza, assistant pro at The Moorings, who’s playing in Tuesday night’s featured doubles match, also had the patriotic honor of playing Davis Cup for Tunisia.

Blaise Bicknell, 20, who made it into the 32-player singles draw with a 5-0 win over xxx, who retired with a forearm injury, is a proud No. 1 from Kingston, Jamaica, where the most well-known tennis player was Dustin Brown, 37, who was ranked 64^th in 2016.

The blonde-haired Jamaican, ranked 1076, had the thrill of representing Jamaica — more known for track stars than tennis stars — in a recent Davis Cup tie against Greece, where more than 1,000 fans were screaming for his opponent, Petros Tsitsipas, the younger brother of world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas. However, Bicknell prevailed 6-3, 7-5 over the 808^th-ranked Greek, before losing his next singles match to Thanos Aristotelis, 6-4. 6-4, as Greece won 4-1.

“We surprised everyone on the first day coming out with 2-0 lead,’’ Bicknell said. “It was extremely loud. There’s nothing like playing for your country.”

Bicknell, who did get into the Junior US Open, a few years ago, is hoping to win the year-ending Slam, but for now, he will proudly play for Jamaican pride.

“I’m the No. 1 player in my country so I have something to prove,’’ said Bicknell, who won a national championship with Florida last year before transferring to Tennessee.

Jesse Flores with coach Levar Harper-Griffith

Perez-Blanco and Hamza Ready For Tuesday Night Mardy Fish Clash, Mendoza Nearly Pulls Big Upset In ITF Tour Debut

Randy Walker · April 26, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Most of the players in this week’s annual Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at The Boulevard Village and Tennis Club are still chasing their dream to be among the sport’s elite.

There’s Sekou Bangoura of Bradenton, Florida, 30, who has notched wins over the likes of No. 17-ranked Reilly Opelka, No. 16-ranked Denis Shapovalov and No. 35-ranked Tommy Paul in their formative years. Or Ryan Shane of Falls Church, Va., who won the 2015 NCAA singles title for the University of Virginia. Or 28-year-old Ricardo Rodriguez, the all-time winning Davis Cup player from Venezuela and a finalist in Vero Beach in 2018 and 2021.

Then there are a couple of local teaching tennis pros like Chase Perez-Blanco and Slim Hamza, who gave up their dreams of playing on the ATP Tour after solid college careers at University of Florida and University of Utah (and University of Las Vegas), respectively. But they are quite content teaching juniors and adults in Vero Beach.

However, the two will get their chance against a field of ATP-ranked professional players when they compete in the main draw of the doubles competition of this $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event that is part of the U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit. Perez-Blanco, a teaching pro at Vero Beach’s Quail Valley Club, and Hamza, who works at The Moorings Club, will play their first-round match in the featured evening match on Tuesday not before 6 pm. The two earned their position in the doubles tournament by finishing first and second, respectively, via Vero Beach’s annual “King of the Hill” competition, featuring local tennis talent.

“We’re obviously excited to play,’’ said the 26-year-old Perez-Blanco. “There’s not a lot of pressure on us to win the tournament or the match. We’re just excited to go out and play competitive tennis, which we don’t do very often anymore. It’ll be fun for the tennis community of Vero Beach. That’s why we love to do it, to see everyone out there cheering. It brings two different clubs together, The Moorings and Quail, all rooting for one team. We just hope we put on a good show.”

Perez-Blanco, a Miami native who had an outstanding high school and college career, with his highlight in Gainesville being part of the 2016 SEC championship Gators squad. He’s ranked sixth all-time in Gators history for most combined singles and doubles victories.

Perez-Blanco, who’s just 5-8 but has a, “scary forehand,’’ according to Hamza, has won the “King of the Hill” tournament the last three years it was held. He only played the Fish event in 2019 when he and his brother-in-law Andrew Butz lost a third-set tiebreaker (10-8) to the ATP-ranked doubles team of Andrew Watson and Paul Oosterbaan. Perez-Blanco skipped the 2020 event because he had just got married to Christiana Butz and decided to, “party instead of training.”

“I played some Futures, but I knew once I graduated that would be the end of competitive tennis, and it would be time to move on to start a new chapter,’’ he said.

Hamza, 29, who played Davis Cup for Tunisia, was once ranked as high as No. 69 in the ITF World Junior rankings. However, serious knee and back injuries punctuated an outstanding college career (No. 34^th in singles, two-time PAC Player of the Week), and all but dashed his professional aspirations.

“That was the dream, but my body let me down,’’ said the 6-foot Hamza, who earned three ATP singles ranking points after winning three matches in three Futures events in Tunisia in 2010 and ’14. “It was very hard coming from a small country that doesn’t give much financial aid. …I left competition behind and am a tennis pro at The Moorings. My priority on Tuesday is to entertain the people.”

To prove Hamza’s point, the highest-ranked Tunisian in men’s tennis is Aziz Dougas at No. 418. However, Ons Jabeur is ranked 10^th in the WTA and is the first Arab to win a title (the pre-Wimbledon event in Birmingham, England last year) and first to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam tournament. Also, in the pre-Open Era, Hall of Famer Nicola Pietrangeli, who played for Italy but was born in Tunisia, won 44 titles, including two French Opens (1959 and ’60).

“We have nothing to lose, just go out there, swing freely and if it goes our way we’ll take it,’’ Hamza smiled. “Then Roland Garros. Don’t get me dreaming!”

Segura Stars In Qualifying Win, Mendoza In Qualifying Loss

Many of the first round qualifying matches in singles Monday were one-sided, but one of the more exciting matches featured Vero Beach’s Sebastian Mendoza, who briefly threatened to pull off a major upset. Playing in his first ever match on the professional ITF World Tennis Tour, Mendoza, who was the No. 1 player on Vero Beach High School’s team in 2021, lost 6-1, 7-5 to No. 1214-ranked Joao Loureiro of Brazil, nearly extending the match to a match-deciding 10-point match tiebreaker, which is the format for qualifying round matches at this level of professional tennis. Mendoza, who is taking a year off before deciding on where to play college tennis, actually served for the second set at 5-4 against his much more accomplished opponent, before losing. However, the loss proved a valuable experience for Mendoza and his confidence, proving that he can compete against professional competition as he explained in this post-match video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeP9a-A9W_E

James Van Deinse, the co-owner of the Vero Beach Tennis Club and the boys’ coach at Vero Beach High School, was defeated by Hernando Escurra, a member of Paraguay’s Davis Cup team, 6-1, 6-1.

Matthew Segura, the three-time champion of the Mardy Fish “Wild Card” event at Sea Oaks, successfully won his first round qualifying match beating 15-year-old Meecah Bigun 6-3, 6-4

Blaise Bicknell, a member of Jamaica’s Davis Cup team, capped his 6-0, 6-0 win over Michael Defelice with an under-hand ace.

The match schedule for Tuesday can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/OP.pdf

The updated qualifying draw can be found here:

https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/QS.pdf

The main draw for doubles can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDD.pdf

The main draw for singles can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/MDS.pdf

The DRAW CEREMONY for singles can be found here: https://youtu.be/23Yrp9bOxpc

MONDAY AGATE SCORES – FIRST ROUND QUALIFYING

Blaise BICKNELL (JAM) [2] def. Michael DEFELICE (USA) 6-0 6-0

Alvaro GUILLENMEZA (ECU) [1] def. Jakub OSTAJEWSKI (USA) 6-1 6-2

Jakub WOJCIK (USA) [4] def. Tom DYNKA (CAN) 3-6 6-1 [10-4]

Drew VAN ORDERLAIN(USA) [16] def. Andy ZHU (CAN) 6-1 6-4

Noah SCHACHTER (USA) [6] def. Caleb STROTHER (USA) 6-1 6-0

Kaylan BIGUN(USA) def. Fabian HANSCH MAURITZSON (SWE) [12] 6-1 6-1

Stefan SIMEUNOVIC (CAN) [13] def. Rodrigo RAMOS CODES (ESP) 6-1 6-0

Hernando Jose ESCURRA ISNARDI (PAR) [15] def. James VAN DEINSE (USA) 6-1 6-1

Joao Victor Couto LOUREIRO (BRA) [5] def. Sebastian Mendoza (USA) 6-2 7-5

Joshua SHEEHY (USA) [7] def. Codrin MILLER (USA) 6-3 6-2

Jesse FLORES (CRC) [3] def. Rihirt SAUNDANKAR (USA) 6-0 6-0

Abraham ASABA (GHA) [14] def. Yuki IKEDA (JPN) 6-4 6-1

Kevin MAJOR (BAH) [10] def. Jake KRUG (USA) 6-3 6-3

Hillel ROUSSEAU (HAI) [11] def. Varun JAYARAM (USA) 6-3 6-1

MatthewSEGURA (USA) [8] def. Meecah BIGUN (USA) 6-3 6-4

Nikolay SYSOEV (RUS) [9] def. Luca- Julian HOTZE (USA) 7-6(6) 7-6(2)