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EDWARDSVILLE – A big summer of tennis in the Edwardsville area got under way over the weekend with a very successful staging of the Edwardsville Open Tennis Tournament.
Carson Haskins of Ballwin, Mo., who has won the last two Missouri Class 2 singles championships paying for Parkway South in west St. Louis County, had arguably the biggest weekend of all the entrants in the competitions as he won the men's singles title and an automatic spot in the USTA Edwardsville Futures tournament that gets under way July 25, defeating Dylan Steffens of High Ridge, Mo., 6-4, 6-1 after dropping the opening three games of the first set.
Haskins also teamed up with recently graduated Edwardsville girls standout Callaghan Adams as the duo won the mixed-doubles crown with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 triumph over the Edwardsville brother/sister duo of Jack and Grace Desse.
Other winners on the day included Raquel Allen of Edwardsville, the tennis coach at McKendree University in Lebanon, take the women's singles title over Ashley Bonine of Kirkwood, Mo., by a 6-3, 6-0 score; former Edwardsville standout Chris Cottone, now living in Columbia, Mo., winning both the singles and doubles title in the men's 3.5 draw, Cottone defeating Edwardsville's Jason Pan 6-3, 6-2 and then teaming with Edwardsville's Logan Kuhns to defeat Jason and Yangdon Pan of Edwardsville 6-4, 6-4 in the finale; Steffens and Michael Peters of St. Louis took the men's doubles with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Cincinnati's Asher Hirsch and Homer Glen, Ill.'s Kristopher Ortega; and Ilona Cowulich and Jennifer Melchar, both of Swansea, won all four of their matches in a round-robin format to take the women's doubles crown.
“I love seeing the good players (who take part in the tournament); I think seeing the families out here and the family environment is really cool,” said Edwardsville High tennis coach and tournament director Dave Lipe. “There's a lot on the line with the wild-card tournament (which leads to the Edwardsville Futures tournament, but the players are great. We couldn't do this without the (United States Tennis Association's) help,” as well as the tournament's sponsors.
“It's amazing,” Haskins, who still has two years left with the Patriots, said. “I think I'm actually going to play in the Futures tournament, so that'll be fun. It'll be a good experience.”
Getting the chance to play older players provides, in his belief, some good experience for Haskins. “I've learned a lot from all these matches I've played,” Haskins said. “I've played top juniors before, but I'll get to play some of the best people (in the Futures tournament).”
As far as the match against Steffens went, “I got down 3-0, so that really didn't help,” Haskins said. “I got off to a slow start, but I decided to try to hit the ball really deep, try to keep the long rallies going because I feel I can last a pretty long time out there.”
“Jack and Grace are great players, obviously,” Adams said following the mixed-doubles championship win, “and all three of us have grown up together, so it was fun to play them.”
“It's a different type of pressure,” Haskins said of playing in the tournament as compared to some of the competitions he has played previously.
“It was a hard-fought match all the way through,” Jack Desse said. “I knew we'd have our hands full, and I was right; it was hot out there, but we fought all the way through. We couldn't quite put it away (after taking a 3-0 lead in the final set with a 40-love lead in Game 4 of the set); whenever you lose a game like that, it kind of gives you a blow, regardless of the kind of lead you had, so I think that had a factor in it.”
“I knew (Adams) was going to be a tough competitor,” Grace Desse – who has played on the Tigers with Adams – said. “We knew we were going to have a tough challenge (with Adams and Haskins teaming together); we fought pretty well.”
“It was nice,” Allen, a native of Campinas, Brazil, said about the conditions during her women's singles final win. “It was good competition for sure and Ashley was a good player, so it's really good to play somebody is at a good level of tennis.
“I haven't played since college (where she played at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne), so it's exciting to come back here and play a little bit. Dave did a really good job (as tournament director); for the guys, it's a chance to get a wild card for a Futures (tournament).”
“It's a lot of fun to come home,” Cottone said of his double win and playing before the hometown folks. “It's a great event; Dave always puts on a great tournament here and there's a lot of wonderful people who come out to play. It's a lot of fun to be here and with old friends and the whole family here, it's a great time.”
Tournament sponsors included Market Basket, Good Sports, the LaQuinta Inn in Pontoon Beach, the Hampton Inn in Glen Carbon, BJ's Printables; the Mitch 'n Friends organization came out Saturday night and supplied hot dogs and bratwursts to all in attendance.
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