Jonas Luetjen, a 25-year old German who played college tennis at the University of Mississippi, won both the singles and doubles titles at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships Sunday at The Boulevard Tennis Club.
Luetjen won the first pro singles title of his career defeating 21-year old Latvian Davis Cupper Martins Podzus 7-6(4), 6-3 in front of a crowd of over 300 enthusiastic and appreciative fans. After 45 minutes of rest, he then partnered 16-year old Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic to win the doubles title over the No. 1 seeds Deiton Baughman of Carson, Calif., and Anderson Reed of Daphne, Ala., a 10-point tiebreaker deciding the 6-1, 5-7, {10-8} decision.
“It’s obviously a great feeling…it’s a very special day for me,” said Luetjen, ranked No. 912 in the ATP World Tour singles rankings.
The Schessel, Germany native became only third player in the 21-year history of the Vero Beach event to win the singles and doubles titles in the same year, joining Australian John-Patrick Smith in 2012 and American Doug Flach in 1996.
The singles final started off very tight as the first two games lasted 26 points.
“I got actually really lucky in the first set to stay in it. He started so well,” said Luetjen, who had to fight off five break points in his first service game.
The rest of the set was mostly straightforward from there as only two more games went to deuce, and the set had to be decided by a tiebreak.
Luetjen raced out to a 3-0 lead in the tie-breaker and didn’t look back. He would go up 6-2 before Podzus made a mini-comeback to get the score back to 6-4, but that would not be enough as the German won the next point to take the set.
Podzus, ranked No. 632 in the ATP World Tour rankings, showed some more fight early in the second set as he earned a break to go up 2-1. Luetjen, though, was able to break at love in the next game to get back on serve and everything went his way from that point on. Another break at love in Podzus’ next service game gave Luetjen a 4-2 lead and he would eventually go on to serve out the match at 5-3 for the win.
Luetjen essentially called his shot this week, as he told a German-born Vero Beach resident Henry Doehla after his first-round win that he felt like he could go all the way and win the title.
“I came here and first day I practiced on clay I had a great feeling,” said Luetjen.“I always have a positive mindset.”
That positive mindset earned Luetjen his first professional singles title and will see his amount of ATP ranking points more than double as he earned 18 ranking points for the title and he came into the week with only 17.
“It also gives me a great confident boost,” said Luetjen, who will be playing in another USTA Pro Circuit Futures level tournament in Tampa next week.
“First set, maybe I could beat him, but in the second, no chance. He played so good,” said Podzus, who was looking to extract revenge on Luetjen who beat him in the doubles tournament in Vero Beach, as well as in a Futures level qualifying match back in 2011.
“Unbelievable shots everywhere,” said Podzus of Luetjen’s performance. “I’m very tired now.”
In the post-match presentation ceremony after the singles final, Tom Fish, the co-tournament director and the chairman of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, the new organizers of the event, unveiled the Mike Rahaley Cup trophy, named for the event’s founder, who retired from running the event last year. The trophy features all the singles champions at the event since its first year in 1995 and will be soon be fitted with Luetjen’s name.
The doubles final was also an exciting affair decided by a margin of only two points.
“I enjoyed a little sandwich and just carried the momentum,” said Luetjen, of his break between the singles and doubles final.
After an easy first set for the Europeans, the Americans fought back in the second set and won three deciding points in a row late in the set (a sudden-death point played a deuce, which is a feature now in professional doubles matches) to force a deciding 10-point tie-breaker played in lieu of a third set to determine the championship.
In that third set tiebreak, everything went the way of the server in the beginning before Baughman and Reed won a return point to get a mini-break. Kecmanovic and Luetjen quickly answered right back with a mini-break of their own to get back on serve at 5-5, and would later win three points in a row to open up an 8-6 lead. The Americans could not fight their way back from that deficit, as Kecmanovic and Luetjen won the tiebreaker 10-8.
Luetjen was happy with the doubles title, but was happier for his partner Kecmanovic as it was his first professional title, earning him his first ATP doubles points.
“I’m so happy for him to get his first title, he’s so young,” said Luetjen of Kecmanovic, who won the prestigious Orange Bowl junior title late last year. “I’m sure he’ll have many of those through his career.”
Said Kecmanovic, “I played really good. We both played really good in tough points and I’m just happy to get the win today.”
Baughman, the 20-year old American who played in the main draw doubles tournament at the U.S. Open in 2015, gave a lot of praise to Kecmanovic and Luetjen.
“Credit to them today,” he said. “Obviously Jonas was playing well all week. He came up clutch when he needed to and Miomir was playing insane. They made us work and it was a great doubles match.”
Many of the players praised the organization of the event and the facility at The Boulevard Village and Tennis Club as the tournament came to a close.
“This week is very awesome, awesome crowd, very nice tournament,” said Podzus. Added Luetjen, “It’s a very nice facility, I love it here.”
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