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EDWARDSVILLE – The top seeds in the men's and women's singles, along with the men's and women's 4.0 division, won their opening matches in the first day of the Edwardsville Open tennis championships Friday afternoon and evening at the Edwardsville Tennis Complex on the campus of Edwardsville High School.
The men's two top seeds, Carson Haskins of Ballwin, Mo., and Kristopher Ortega of Homer Glen, Ill., won their second rounds matches in straight sets, as did women's top seeds Tamara Klimek of St. Louis and Chloe Trimpe of Edwardsville. There was a surprise in the men's 4.0 division, as top seed Nick Hobin of Edwardsville fell in three sets, but the number two seed, Edwardsville's Jimmy Hendricks, advanced to Saturday morning's semifinals. The top two seeds in the women's 4.0 division, Princess Imoukhuede of Champaign, Ill., and number two seed, Angela Reckelhoff of Troy, received byes into the semifinals.
Weather conditions started off very warm, but gradually cooled down as play progressed throughout the evening.
“The weather has cooperated,” said tournament director Dave Lipe. “It's sort of hot, but the players have dealt well with it. It's been very good, the competition has been good. We've got great players out here; several Division I players out here. The men's and women's draws are both very competitive, and it's been a good day of singles today, and we're looking forward to playing a little bit of singles in the morning, and a major portion of the doubles in the afternoon and the evening.”
Lipe also praised the quality of players from both the local area and around the Midwest who came to play this weekend.
“There's a lot of really great tennis,” Lipe said. “We've got players here from Cleveland State, the University of Indiana, Missouri Baptist. We've got players from Northern Illinois, a lot of Missouri players, and a lot of local players. A lot of players from Troy, Edwardsville, Belleville, O'Fallon and St. Louis. It's a good mix, it's a very manageable size, all the matches are played here at the high school, our beautiful high school tennis facility here, which is fantastic.”
In the upper half of the men's singles draw, local players did very well. Haskins, fourth seed K.J. Stewart of Bloomington, Ind., fifth seed Devan Faulkenberg of Troy and Jonathon Higham of Edwardsville all received byes into the second round. In the opening round matches, Kirk Schlueter defeated Adam Ruckman of Godfrey 6-4, 7-6, while Dylan Faulkenberg, also of Troy, shutout Travis Blair of Jerseyville 6-0, 6-0. Will Harness of St. Louis defeated Joe Pearce of Marion, Ill. 6-2, 6-2, and Drake Schreiber of Lebanon upended Trent Purnell of Marion 6-0, 7-5.
Meanwhile in the lower half, receiving byes were Ortega, third seed Joe Van Meter of Indianapolis, sixth seed Erik Weiler of Edwardsville and Lucas Lobao of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. First round results saw St. Louis' Michael Levan defeat Evan Uhl of Olney, Ill., 6-2, 6-2, Jordan Faulkenberg of Maryville defeat Riley Muren of O'Fallon 6-4, 6-2, Michael Lesko of Columbia defeat Kyle Shipman of Olney 7-6, 6-0, and Edwardsville's Seth Lipe eliminate Bram Blackwell of Dow, Ill. 6-2, 6-1.
In the second round, Haskins defeated Schlueter 6-0, 6-0, Higham defeated Dylan Faulkenberg 6-1, 6-1, Stewart defeated Harness 6-4, 6-2, and Devan Faulkenberg shut out Schreiber 6-0, 6-0 in the upper half. Meanwhile in the lower half, Weiler defeated Levan 6-2, 6-1, it was Van Meter over Jordan Faulkenberg 6-1, 6-0, Lobao over Lesko 6-1, 6-3 and Ortega over Lipe 6-2, 6-2.
There was only one first-round match in the women's draw, and that saw Sara Kreutztrager of Roxana upend Morgan Marshall of Glen Carbon 5-7, 6-1, 10-5 in a third set tiebreaker. In the quarterfinals, Klimek defeated Edwardsville's Alyssa Wilson 6-0, 6-0, Laurie Burke of St. Louis defeated Jessica Cordia East of O'Fallon, Mo., by an identical 6-0, 6-0 score, Madyson Schreiber of Lebanon over Hayley Earnhart of Edwardsville 6-4, 6-1, and Trimpe over Kreutztrager 6-2, 6-4.
Over in the men's 4.0 division, there was also one first-round match, and it was Evan Kroeker of Carbondale over Ethan Booker of Edwardsville 6-1, 6-3. In the quarterfinals, top-seeded Hobin fell to Tim Reinwald of Valley Park, Mo., 2-6, 6-4 and 10-8 in the tiebreaker, Bill Blythe of Vandalia defeated Ben Burke of Edwardsville 6-7, 6-0, 10-4 in another tiebreaker, Dave Snider of Collinsville upended Kroeker 0-6, 6-4, 10-3 in still another tiebreaker, and Hendricks defeated Tanner Pieri of Worden 6-0, 6-0.
In the quarterfinals of the women's 4.0, Cathleen Davidson of Troy defeated Isabelle Sitki of Edwardsville 6-1, 6-1 and in a match between two Edwardsville players, Emma Herman defeated Amanda Wickman 6-0, 6-1. In a semifinal match, it was Herman over Reckelhoff 7-5, 6-3.
Lipe thanked the tournament's presenting sponsor, TheBANK of Edwardsville, for helping out the tournament and providing prize money to the winners.
“Our presenting sponsor, TheBANK of Edwardsville, deserves a lot of credit for supporting this event and making it possible for us to give out $1,000 in prize money,” Lipe said, 'so TheBANK of Edwardsville is a tremendous partner, presenting both of our wild card events, both this and the Pro Wild Card Challenge in August. TheBANK of Edwardsville is a very, very solid partner for us to continue to have the Futures in Edwardsville.”
There's much more at stake as well. The winners of the men's singles and doubles will receive an automatic wild card bid into the main draw of the Futures tournament in August, while the runners-up receive a bid into the wild card tournament the week before.
“The winner of this gets a main draw wild card in singles and doubles for the men, obviously,” Lipe said, “and then the finalists also earn a wild card into the (qualifying tournament). So there's two wild cards at stake, one main draw, and one (qualifying) wild card. That's more important than the prize money for these guys, to be honest with you. That's what they're really shooting for, that's what they're trying to get to.”
As for the next two days, Lipe expects the tennis to be more competitive and exciting for both players and fans.
“I think the matches will get even more competitive,” Lipe said, “and it'll be great for these players to compete on these courts, and it's fun. We've got a fair amount of fans watching, and we've got players gaining valuable experience, and a lot of good tennis out here over the next two days.”
Play resumes Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., starting with the men's quarterfinals, featuring top-seeded Haskins meeting Higham and second seed Ortega going against Lobas. The women's semifinals are set for 9:30 a.m., with Trimpe vs. Schreiber and Klimak vs. Burke at 12:30 p.m. Doubles play, along with consolation bracket play, also begins on Saturday. The tournament concludes with championship matches on Sunday.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
