EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville Open tennis tournament begins at 3 p.m. today and runs through the weekend. The tournament features a strong field once again.
TheBANK of Edwardsville is the presenting sponsor and Tournament Director Dave Lipe said he couldn’t thank them enough for their support. Other sponsors are Goodsports, The Market Basket and Annie’s Frozen Custard.
The tourney offers singles, doubles and mixed doubles, competition. Lipe said men’s singles and doubles winners earn a wild card entry into the Edwardsville Futures Pro Tournament on Aug. 7-13. The second-place finishers will earn an entry in the Futures qualifying rounds on Aug. 5-6.
“It is great to have TheBANK of Edwardsville as the presenting sponsor in addition to our other sponsors Goodsports, The Market Basket and Annie’s Frozen Custard,” Lipe said. “Annie’s helps us out by sponsoring our Tiger Tennis camp for the week. The field is strong again this year. I like that we have a really strong field component for the wild card into our Futures Tournament and $1,500 cash prize for the Edwardsville Open Tournament.”
Lipe said Aleksandar Kovacevic of Boca Raton, Fla., is the tournament’s top singles seed.
“Alex is one of the top players at the University of Illinois and the No. 2 seed is Carson Haskins, of Ballwin, Mo., last year’s No. 1 seed,” Lipe said.
Lipe mentioned Blake Strode, now practicing law in St. Louis, and a former college sensation, will participate. Strode graduated from the prestigious Harvard Law School in 2015.
Emily Cimarolli, Erik Weiler and Paul Stuart are other local competitors entered.
Cimarolli and Kirk Schlueter are scheduled to play at 6 p.m. on Saturday in the mixed doubles event.
Rebecca McIsaac, of Fairview Heights, and Ashley Bonine are participating. Local favorites, Callaghan Adams, Morgan Colbert and Grace Deese will also take part.
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Adams is scheduled to play in the mixed open doubles event with Paul Stuart at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Colbert and Deese are scheduled to play at 5 p.m. on Saturday in women's open doubles.
Singles play begins at 3 p.m. Friday and singles continues Saturday morning. Men’s and women’s open doubles should finish Saturday afternoon and singles Sunday morning.
