“We hope we never see you here again,” was the refrain to Mexico’s Daniel Garza from Mike Rahaley, tournament director of the $10,000 Warren Insurance Vero Beach USTA Futures at The Boulevard.
While sounding quite rude and harsh, it’s meant to be a positive.
Rahaley hopes that the Mexican Davis Cupper – and all players in his tournament – will no longer need to play in events like the USTA Futures event in Vero Beach as they hopefully progress from the lowest level of professional tennis up to potentially the ATP Tour level.
After three years playing at the USTA Futures event in Vero Beach, Garza was able to net the singles title Sunday with a 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-1 victory over high school senior Mitchell Frank of Annandale, Virginia.
Garza, seeded No. 4, earned $1,300 and ranking points that will move him from his singles ranking of No. 444 to inside the top 400.
“I played really well today,” said the 26-year-old Garza in broken English. “I am very happy.”
The first set was highlighted by many jerking baseline rallies as the scrappy Frank withstood the slices, drop shots – and even a between-the-legs “tweener” from Garza. After an early exchange of service breaks, a tie-breaker decided the first stanza. Garza jumped to a 5-1 lead and held on to take the tie-breaker 7-3.
In the second set, a most unusual circumstance caused for a major shift in momentum. Serving at 1-2, 0-30, Garza benefitted from Frank breaking a string in his racquet, which forced an error. On the very next point at 15-30, Frank again broke a string in his new racquet, but sliced a few balls back into play and was able to hit a forehand slice passing shot to remarkably win the point and give him two break points. Losing the point flustered Garza – compounded by losing the next point to lose serve after Frank put away a forehand volley to take a 3-1 lead. A discouraged Garza more or less tanked the rest of the set to draw the match even at one set apiece.
Frank continued his momentum – and could have taken full control of the match – by breaking Garza to open the third set, and taking a 30-0 lead in the second game. However, the 18-year-old seemed to lose concentration after Garza took a long time inbetween points dusting the clay off of his legs and clothes. Two unforced errors and two double-faults later and Garza broke back for 1-1. From there, Garza took full control of the match as Frank began to tire and wilt under the Florida sun, Garza rolling through the last six games of the match.
Frank, who will attend the University of Virginia next fall, won eight singles matches in ten days, including four matches in the qualifying tournament.
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