EDWARDSVILLE – Former Edwardsville High School player Erik Weiler advanced to the quarterfinals before losing, while two other local players fell in the Round of 16, and former Edwardsville Open champion Carson Haskins advanced to the semifinals on the second day of the Pro Wildcard Challenge, presented by TheBANK of Edwardsville/Busey Bank Friday at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
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Play was graced by wall-to-wall sunshine and warm temperatures that reached the upper 80s, with very little, if any, breeze.
In the Round of 16 matches played Friday morning, Haskins advanced with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Kaden Vollmer of O’Fallon, while Adrian Chamdani of Santa Clara, Calif., won over Edwardsville’s Zach Trimpe 7-5, 6-3. Vimuktha De Alwis of White Plains, N.Y., defeated Ian Deiters 6-4, 6-1, while Weiler advanced with in a walkover over Vasilios Caripi of New York City, who withdrew.
In the lower half of the draw, Anand Saluja of Brookfield, Wis., won over Edwardsville’s Seth Lipe 6-1, 6-2, and Jason Kerst, who plays for the University of Iowa in Iowa City, won over Belleville’s Max Skaer 6-1, 6-1. In the final two matches, Lazar Markovic of Locust Valley, N.Y., won over Tom Bickel of Winnetka 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), 6-1 and Joshua Howard-Tripp of South Africa, who plays for the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, defeated Leonardo DaSilva of St. Louis 6-1, 6-1.
In the quarterfinal matches played in the afternoon, Haskins defeated Chamdani 6-2, 6-2, while Weiler lost to De Alwis 6-3, 6-2. In the other two quarterfinal matches, Kerst defeated Saluja, while Howard-Tripp won over Markovic to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
In the consolation bracket, Trimpe won over Mark Jansen of Washington, Mo, when Jansen was forced to retire with Trimpe leading 6-0, 3-0, while Lipe lost to Deiters 6-0, 6-2. In another consolation match, Bickel won over Drake Schreiber of Edwardsville 6-1, 6-3.
Lipe, Trimpe, and Schreiber will all play in the consolation bracket on the final day of the tournament Saturday, which begins at 9 a.m. In the semifinals, also starting at 9 a.m., Haskins will play against De Alwis, while Kerst takes on Howard-Tripp. The two winners will play for the championship and the wildcard spot in the Edwardsville Futures presented by The EGHM Foundation at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
