EDWARDSVILLE - Presley Thieneman won the Pro Wildcard Challenge on Friday, while the playoffs after group play were held in the Doubles Shootout Saturday for the Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament, presented by The EGHM Foundation, over the weekend at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
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The Futures tournament is set to begin Monday at the Center and will conclude with the singles final on July 31. It's one of the most highly-anticipated events of the summer sporting season in Edwardsville.
The Wildcard Challenge, presented by Lewis Brisbois, was played Thursday and Friday. In the first round of the tournament, played on Thursday, Thieneman and Noah Hernandez received byes into the quarterfinals. In matches played, Nishanth Basavereddy defeated Emillen Burnal 6-4, 6-4, Muhammad Dossani won over Edwardsville's Erik Weller 6-2, 6-1, Josh Portnoy defeated Danny Radke 6-3, 6-2, Gus Tettamble won over Reed Crocker 6-4, 7-6 (7-1 in the tiebreaker), Mujtaba Ali-Khan defeated Graydon Lair 6-0, 6-1 and Eric Perkowski advanced over Ammar Wazir 6-4, 6-4.
In the quarterfinals, Thieneman won over Basavereddy 6-3, 7-5, it was Portnoy over Dossani 7-5, 6-2, Ali-Kahn won over Tettamble 6-7, 6-3, 10-5 and Hernandez advanced when Perkowski was forced to retire due to injury after Hernandez took a 3-0 lead in the first set.
The semifinals on Friday saw Thieneman win over Portnoy 6-3, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreaker) and Hernandez defeat Ali-Khan 6-3, 6-1. In the final Thieneman won the wildcard entry for the main draw with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Hernandez.
In the group stage of the Doubles Shootout, presented by Jeb and Ginger Blasingame of Keller Williams Marquee Realty and played on Saturday, Group A's top two finishers were the Basavereddy brothers and the team of Hernandez and Immink and the teams of Tettamble and Bernal and Dynka and Simeunovic topped Group B, with the top two of the group set to meet in the playoffs for the right to advance into the wildcard doubles spot.
The winners in both events earn wildcard spots in the qualifying tournament, which begins the Futures tournament this week.
