Defending Champ Tettamble, Top Seed Strode Advance, Clayton Goes Through In Women's Open Singles, Other Players Advance

ALTON - Defending champion Gus Tettamble and top seed Blake Strode won their first round matches in the men's open singles, while Courtney Clayton of St. Louis won the opening match in the women's open singles on the first day of the 40th annual Bud Simpson Open tennis tournament at the Bud Simpson Tennis Center in Gordon Moore Park and at the courts of Alton High School.

The weather was almost perfect --- sunny and rather warm, but good conditions prevailed for the first day of the event.

In the men's open singles, Strode, from St. Louis and the number one seed, won over Edwardsville's Michael Karibean 6-0, 6-1, while Dylan Faulkenberg of Troy defeated James Halcomb of St. Louis 6-0, 6-1. Jonas Samuelsson the eighth seed from Rolla, Mo., won over Kyle Fisk of St. Louis 6-2, 6-2 and it was Riley Muren of O'Fallon winning over Jade Dynamic of Edwardsville 6-1, 2-6, 10-7. Fourth-seeded Cole Davis of Ballwin, Mo. defeated Eric Erb of Wellesley Hills, Mass. 6-3. 6-0 and Jordan Faulkenberg of Troy defeated Ethan Moeller of Belleville 6-4, 6-2. The number seven seed, Oscar Pacheco of St. Louis defeated Jan-Michael Jensen, also of St. Louis, 6-2, 6-1 and to complete the top half of the draw, Charles Vanvaulkenberg of Chesterfield, Mo. eliminated Rafay Cheema of O'Fallon, Mo. 2-6, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), 10-8.

To start the lower half of the draw, Alex Meyer of Lake St. Louis, Mo. defeated Stetson Isringhausen of Jerseyville 6-1, 6-0, while Michael Asplund of Bloomington, Ind., won over sixth-seeded Caden Lingenfelser of Willard, Mo. 6-4, 7-5. R.J.Miksell of Fairview Heights won over Alex Boker of Granite City 6-3, 6-0 and it was third-seeded Evan Erb of St. Louis defeating Alton's Parker Mayhew 6-0, 6-1. Colton Hulme of Edwardsville won over Alan Walker of St, Louis 6-3, 6-4 and fifth-seeded Erik Weller, also from Edwardsville, defeated John Black of Chesterfield, Mo. 6-3, 6-0. In the final two matches of the round, Jesse Hattrup of Edwardsville defeated Chris Griesedieck of Springfield, Mo. 6-1, 6-3 and Tettamble won over Gavin Sohn of O'Fallon 6-0, 6-2.

In the only match of the women's open singles, Clayton, from St. Louis, defeated Shannon Gordon-Carney of Elsah 6-0, 6-0. tn the round robin men's 55-and-over singles, Timothy Platt of West Frankfort won over Mike Anderson of Glen Carbon 6-0, 6-0 and Jeff Jackson of House Springs, Mo. defeated Yangdong Pan of Edwardsville 6-1, 6-1. In the opening match of the women's open doubles round robin, Elizabeth Barlow of St, Louis and Sophia McClellan, also of St. Louis, defeated Edwardsville's Chloe Koons and Zoe Byron 6-1, 7-5.

In the first round of the men's open doubles, Sohn and Evan Potter, also of O'Fallon, defeated Quinn Diamond and Logan Schultz of Jerseyville 6-0, 6-0, Boker and Griesedieck defeated Riley Muren of O'Fallon and Matthew Birchmeier of St. Louis 7-5, 6-3, Hattrup and Dynamic defeated the Faulkenbergs, Dylan and Jordan, 6-0, 6-1, Eric and Evan Erb eliminated Mayhew and Christian Freeman, also of Alton, 6-1, 6-0 and Langerfelser and Hulme got past Meyer and Karibean 4-6, 6-2. 10-5. Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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