EDWARDSVILLE – Five local tennis players tried their hands Tuesday in the Edwardsville Futures Pro Wildcard Challenge Presented by THEBANK of Edwardsville at the high school tennis courts.
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Four of the five were unfortunately eliminated by the second round Tuesday afternoon. However, Dave Lipe, the Edwardsville Futures tourney director, and EHS head tennis coach, said the experience for the area players was "invaluable."
Lipe said with this draw of 32 players, the level of talent is very high for the Pro Wildcard Challenge.
"We have the former No. 1 player at Northwestern University Sam Shopshire," Lipe said. "It is also good for Andy Graf of Macoutah playing the No. 1 player from the University of Louisville in his draw Alex Gornett. Every player here will get to play tennis all three days because we have full consolation play for the players."
Lipe thanked THEBANK of Edwardsville for their presenting sponsorship in this tournament and assistance with the entire Edwardsville Futures event. He said none of this would be possible without the bank's sponsorship and he and the other tourney organizers very much appreciated the help.
Quarterfinal and semifinal matches in the event, in which the champion is awarded a wild-card spot in the main draw of next week's Edwardsville Futures Presented by the EGHM Foundation's 32-player main draw, began at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the EHS Tennis Center; the final is set for Thursday. The other three semifinalists are awarded wild-card spots in the Futures qualifying tournament, which begins Saturday and runs through Monday at the EHS courts and at SIU-Edwardsville's courts. The main draw in both singles and doubles play commences Aug. 8 and runs through Aug. 13.
Edwardsville's Erik Weller won his opening-round match over Drake Schreiber 6-2, 6-1 before falling to Stefan Frijanic 6-2, 6-2 in the second round, while Edwardsville's Seth Lipe dropped a 6-0, 6-1 decision to Joseph Bishop in the first round. Alex Gray, one of the Tigers' IHSA Class 2A doubles champions this past high school season with Zach Trimpe, fell in the first round 6-1, 7-6 to K.J. Stewart and Marquette Catholic's A.J. Bower was eliminated 6-0, 6-1 to Mandeep Yadav in the first round.
Wednesday's quarterfinal matches began at 8:30 a.m. and feature Joe Van Meter against Nicholas Shamma, Kris Ortega vs. Chris Haworth, Sam Shropshire vs. Frijanic and Alex Gornet vs. Toby Boyer; the semifinal matches were set for 12:30 p.m.
Here are Monday's full results:
FIRST ROUND
Ian Deiters def. Andy Graf 6-4, 6-4; Erik Weller def. Drake Schreiber 6-2, 6-1; Thiago Barbosa def. Christian Cowulich 6-1, 6-2; Vuk Budic def. Austin Holmes 6-0, 6-0; Joe Van Meter def. Max Skaer 6-1, 6-0; Joseph Bishop def. Seth Lipe 6-0, 6-1; K.J. Stewart def. Alex Gray 6-1, 7-6; Mandeep Yadav def. A.J. Bower 6-0, 6-1
SECOND ROUND
Sam Shropshire def. Deiters 6-1, 6-3; Stefan Frijanic def. Weller 6-2, 6-2; Alex Gornet def Barbosa 6-2, 6-2; Toby Boyer def. Budic 7-5, 6-4; Van Meter def. Vasilios Caripi 6-4, 5-7, 6-2; Nicholas Shamma def. Bishop 6-2, 6-3; Kris Ortega def. Stewart 6-3, 6-1; Chris Haworth def. Yadav 6-0, 6-2
Brent Feeney also contributed to this story.
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