Matthew Segura, the great nephew of Hall of Famer Pancho Segura, will play the feature night match on the opening day Monday of the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships ITF World Tennis Tour U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit event at The Boulevard.
Segura will face off against 15-year-old Meecah Bigun of Phoenix, Arizona not before 6 pm on the Stadium Court at The Boulevard.
Segura has built a strong following in Vero Beach after winning the Mardy Fish “Wild Card” event at the Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club for three years in a row from 2018, 2019 and 2020. Segura, known for his ambidextrous playing style, also reached the final of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships in 2020 when it was held as a Universal Tennis (UTR) event. In 2021, Segura earned his first ATP ranking points in Vero Beach when he reached the quarterfinals, beating former U.S. Davis Cup and Olympic team member Donald Young en route.
Two Vero Beach local players, Juan Sebastian Mendoza and James van Deinse, were able to slide into the draw at the last minute via wild cards from the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation. Mendoza was the No. 1 player from Vero Beach High School’s boy’s tennis team in 2021 and is taking a year off before playing college tennis. Van Deinse is the owner and tennis pro at the Vero Beach Tennis Club and is the current tennis coach at Vero Beach High School. Mendoza will play second on the Grandstand Court on Monday (at approximately 1:30 pm) against Juan Victor Couto Lourierio of Brazil, ranked No. 1293 in the ATP rankings. Van Deinse will play the second match on Stadium (at approximately 1 pm) against Isnardi Escurra, a Davis Cup team member for Paraguay.
The third Stadium match for Monday will feature Jake Krug of Duke University, the grandson of famed ESPN College Basketball announcer Dick Vitale, playing Kevin Major, a Davis Cup player from The Bahamas.
The full schedule for Monday can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/OP.pdf
The qualifying singles draw can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/QS.pdf
Tuesday’s play will feature the final round of singles qualifying and the first round of doubles play. Main draw singles play will begin on Wednesday. The draws for main draw singles and doubles will be made Monday.
Leave a Reply