EDWARDSVILLE - The doubles team of Tyler Bowers and Gabriellus Gusauskas defeated Daniel Prado and Jefferson Nino in straight sets to win the Doubles Shootout, presented by Jeb and Ginger Blasingame of Keller Williams Marquee real estate, and qualified for this coming week's Edwardsville Futures on Saturday afternoon at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
The Shootout is the final wild card tournament before the Futures, presented by the EGHM Foundation, which is slated to start on Monday at the ETC. The winner of the shootout, as well as the Pro Wildcard Challenge, which was held Thursday and Friday, qualified for a wild card spot into the main draw.
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The team of Bowers and Guzaukas went 2-0 In the group stage, winning their matches in Group A over Erik Weller of Edwardsville and Shayan Najam 8-1, then defeated Muren and Birchmeier 8-2 to sweep the group and advance to the playoff. In Group B, Prado and Nino won over Thomas Nelson and Kevin Kruzel 8-4 and Edwardsville duo Paul Stuart and Kirk Schlueter 8-1 to move on to the playoff. In that playoff to determine who would win the wildcard spot, Bowers and Guzaukas won over Prado and Nino 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), 6-1 to qualify for the main draw.
The Futures begin Monday with the first-round matches in both singles and doubles and continues through the singles final, which will be played on July 30. The doubles finals are set for Friday evening at 6 p.m., with the singles semifinals set for Saturday afternoon and finals on Sunday.
Tournament Director Dave Lipe said the Pro Wildcard doubles shootout sponsored by Keller Williams Blasingame Group was “fantastic.”
“It was an event with fans watching great tennis,” he said of the Pro Wildcard Tournament. “The level of play is pretty much what you see in the first round of the Futures. It has been great."
Lipe thanked Keller Williams Marquee Blasingame for their sponsorship of the event.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
