Matthew Segura, the great nephew of Hall of Famer Pancho Segura, leads the field of entries for the 2023 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Sea Oaks “Wild Card” Championships at the Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club Feb. 22-24.
Segura has competed and won this special event at Sea Oaks three previous times – in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – each time winning the event and earning a wild card entry into the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour USTA Pro Circuit event, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships.
Segura is ranked No. 1,281 on the ATP Tour rankings this week, but still has trouble getting direct entries into the main draw of $15,000 events with that ranking. At the 2021 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships at The Boulevard, Segura upset former U.S. Davis Cupper and Olympic team member Donald Young en route to the quarterfinals of the event. In 2020, when the Mardy Fish tournament was a non-ATP or ITF sanctioned Universal Tennis (UTR) event, he reached the singles final falling to Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador.
The 2023 wild card event at Sea Oaks featured a record 29 entries. Azariah Rusher of Delray Beach, Florida and a commit to Florida State University’s tennis team, is the No. 2 seed. The No. 3 seed is former Stanford University standout Ryan Haviland, who won the modern-day Mardy Fish doubles event in 2003. At 42 years old, Haviland runs a tennis academy in Greenville, South Carolina but still dabbles in playing competitive tennis. Vero Beach high school standout Mason Cisco as well as Sea Oaks teaching pros Ching Wang and Christian Docter are also in the field.
Play starts Tuesday at 4 pm at Sea Oaks with play also starting on Wednesday at 11:30 and including the traditional Sea Oaks Wednesday feature match at 4:30. The quarterfinals will be held on Thursday at 1 pm. The semifinals will be held at 10 am on Friday and the final at 4 pm on Friday.
The winner will receive a main draw wild card into the Mardy Fish Futures and the runner-up will receive a qualifying round wild card. The main event will be held April 24-30 at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club at Timber Ridge.
The full draws and schedule can be round here:
https://app.universaltennis.com/events/136050?d=2d99070e-5779-4e94-af9c-39e365c1ce65&t=3
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