Eighteen-year American Ethan Quinn joined the top three tournament seeds in the semifinals of the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships a after rain-delayed and blustery Friday day of quarterfinal matches.
Top seed Liam Draxl of Canada defeated his doubles partner and University of Kentucky college teammate Millen Hurrion 6-2, 6-2 and will face former Saddlebrook Academy training partner Sekou Bangoura in Saturday’s semifinals. Bangoura, the No. 3 seed, defeated his third teenager in a row in his 6-2, 6-0 win over 19-year-old Kholo Montsi of South Africa Friday night.
John McNally, the No. 2 seed, advanced by beating Emil Reinberg of Atlanta, Georgia 6-3, 6-3.
Quinn, who is red-shirting his freshman year at the University of Georgia, defeated qualifier Jakub Wojcik of Delray Beach, Florida 7-5, 6-3.
Quinn has reached the semifinals of this second ITF World Tennis Tour USTA Pro Circuit event of the year after reaching the semifinals in the $25,000 event in Bakersfield, California earlier this year. He also reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open junior doubles event last summer alongside Nico Godsick, with whom he reached the quarterfinals of doubles with this week. Quinn is being tutored on-site this week by Godsick’s mother, two-time Olympic gold medalist Mary Joe Fernandez, who has also been the U.S. Fed Cup captain and Olympic women’s tennis coach.
Watch Quinn’s post-match on-court interview with Randy Walker here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tOzAUxqJNs
Less than a week ago, Draxl and Hurrion shared the heartbreak of losing the SEC championship match to the University of Florida, but this week in Vero Beach, Draxl, 20, showed no mercy to his 22-year-old buddy in a 6-2, 6-2 victory to advance to the semifinals. It marks the second straight year Draxl has reached the semifinals in Vero Beach. Draxl, ranked No. 360 by the ATP, was beaten by Ben Shelton in the SEC final last week in Athens, Georgia after beating Shelton in this tournament last year before losing a semifinal match to eventual champion Jerry Shang.
McNally, 23, a first-team All-Big 10 for four years running at Ohio State, made short work of Reinberg, a former University of Georgia standout, winning 6-3, 6-3. McNally, who won his lone pro ITF ($25,000) title on his OSU campus last year, fired eight aces while winning 85 percent of his first serves. He converted 5-of-10 break points. Ranked No. 581 by the ATP, McNally in the older brother of WTA doubles star Caty McNally.
Play begins at Noon on Saturday with doubles as you can see on the schedule here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2022-pro-circuit/20220425_vero_beach_m15/OP.pdf
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