The Sea Oaks Tennis Club in Vero Beach, Florida will once again host a main draw singles wild card tournament for the The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event, Wednesday February 23 to Friday, February 25, 2022.
World-ranked players will compete in the event where the winner will receive a direct entry into the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event to be held April 25-May 1 2022 at The Boulevard tennis club. This marks the fourth time that Sea Oaks has hosted this special wild card tournament. In 2018, Matthew Segura, the 17-year-old great nephew of Hall of Fame tennis legend Pancho Segura, won the event defeating fellow American Jack Vance in the final. In 2019, Segura repeated as champion, defeating 18-year-old Perry Gregg of Chicago in the final. In 2020, Segura made it a three-peat at Sea Oaks defeating Emmett Ward in the final. The event was not held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Players can enter the event on the UTR platform here: https://app.universaltennis.com/events/80708?_ref=randywal270&shared=true Matches will be best-of-three set matches with a 10-point Match Tiebreaker played in lieu of a third set. The entry deadline is February 20. Admission is free. Donations to the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation are encouraged!
The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships is the USTA’s $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour tournament played in Vero Beach since 1995 and is regarded as one of the best entry-level professional tennis tournaments in the world. Proceeds from the event benefit the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, the non-profit tennis foundation benefiting children, named for Vero Beach native son Mardy Fish, the former top 10 tennis star and the current U.S. Davis Cup captain.
Tournament tickets and sponsorships for the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships are now on sale and can be purchased at www.MardyFishChildrensFoundation.org Fans can follow news and developments on the tournament on Facebook and on Twitter at @VeroFutures. Detailed sponsorship information can be obtained by emailing Lynn Southerly at Lsouth1072@gmail.com, Tom Fish at Ttfish10s@aol.com or Randy Walker at RWalker@NewChapterMedia.com
Some of the past competitors at the USTA Vero Beach Futures have gone on to succeed at the highest levels of professional tennis, winning major singles and doubles titles, Olympic medals and Davis Cup championships and earning No. 1 world rankings. Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion who attained the world No. 1 ranking and helped the United States win the Davis Cup in 2007, competed in Vero Beach in 1999. Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who reached the second round of the Vero Beach Futures in 1995, won the Australian Open seven years later in 2002. Nicolas Massu, the 1998 singles runner-up in Vero Beach, won the singles and doubles gold medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, beating Fish in the gold medal singles match. Kyle Edmund, the 2013 champion in Vero Beach, helped Great Britain to the Davis Cup title in 2015. Other notable former competitors in Vero Beach include former world No. 2 Magnus Norman, former world No. 4 Tim Henman, 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic and most recently world No. 50 player and teen sensation Denis Shapovalov, who played in Vero Beach in 2016. Former Vero Beach competitors have combined to win 19 titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at Grand Slam tournaments. Seven former Vero Beach players have gone on to play Davis Cup for the United States – Roddick, Fish, Taylor Dent, Jared Palmer, Donald Young, Ryan Harrison and Frances Tiafoe.
Founded in 2007, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation (www.MardyFishFoundationChildrensFoundation.org and @MardyFishFound on Twitter)
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