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EDWARDSVILLE – The field for the Edwardsville Futures Pro Wildcard Challenge qualifying tournament presented by TheBANK of Edwardsville was reduced to the final four after Wednesday’s Day 2 play.
The semifinals, which will feature Alex Knight of Miami meeting Vuk Budic of Chicago and Sid Donarski of Montreal meeting Jibril Nettles of Detroit, will take place at 9 a.m. today, with the final set for 2 p.m. today; the winner gets a berth in the main draw of the Futures tournament next week, with the next top three players who are not yet in receiving spots in the qualifying tournament Saturday and Sunday.
“This is a really great field,” said tournament director Dave Lipe. “These quarterfinals going on right now are really high-quality tennis when you have guys out there right now playing at the level at which they’re playing, there’s not a big separation between this and a large portion of what’s going to happen in the (qualifying tournament) in the next couple of days.
“We are putting the finishing touches on our week ahead (the main draws of both the singles and doubles competitions at the Futures get under way Monday) and we are doing a good job with the players here.”
Tuesday’s weather was much better than it was on Monday, when rain forced a pair of opening matches to be pushed into Tuesday morning. “It’s moving right ahead,” Lipe said. “The players have been great, the level of play has been outstanding and the weather has really been great today; yesterday, we tried really hard to get those last two matches in. There were quite a few options and twice, we attempted to put it off and play it and both times, we were disappointed by rain.
“We gave players a lot of rest time between matches and treated them like professionals; the conditions are actually pretty favorable; all things considered, for this time of the year, things feel as what I would describe as temperate – today is a very pleasant day.”
Tuesday’s play got under way with the finish of two matches that had been interrupted by Monday’s showers; Scott Bickel of Winnetka, Ill., defeated Shayan Najam of Reston, Va., 6-3, 6-0, while Charlotte’s Kyle Johnson defeated Tom Bickel, also of Winnetka, 6-1, 7-5.
In the Round of 16 Tuesday morning, Knight advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Ian Deiters of Indianapolis; Ben Rosen of Port Washington, N.Y., defeated Jason Kerst of Ann Arbor, Mich., 6-3, 6-1; Vudic defeated Edwardsville’s Seth Lipe 6-0, 6-0; Fletcher Scott of Olathe, Kan., defeated Northern Illinois’ Kris Ortega of Homer Glen, Ill., 6-0, 7-5; Donarski eliminated Scott Bickel 6-2, 6-3; Johnson scored a 6-2, 6-4 win over Catalin Fifea of Bucarest, Romania; and Nettles defeated Andrew Cahn of West Bloomfield Township, Mich., 6-4, 6-4.
In Tuesday afternoon’s quarterfinal matches, Knight advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Rosen, Budic defeated Scott 6-2, 6-2; and Donarski defeated Johnson 6-3, 6-4.
In Tuesday’s consolation draw matches involving area players, Zach Trimpe defeated Jonathon Higham of Edwardsville by way of Nottingham, England, 7-5, 6-4; Harbour Acosta of Arlington, Tenn., defeated Andrew Bower of Alton 7-5, 6-1; Ethan Booker of Edwardsville dropped a 6-0, 6-0 decision to Najam; Erik Weller defaulted to Simon Kauppila of Chesterfield, Mo.; Belleville’s Max Skaer defeated O’Fallon’s Leo Da Silva 6-2, 2-6, 10-4; Tom Bickel defeated Lebanon’s Drake Schreiber 6-0, 6-0; and Trimpe reached the consolation semifinals with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Parker Hearne of Roscoe, Ill.
Backdraw play will also conclude today in addition to the main-draw semifinals and final matches. For more information on the upcoming Futures main draw, visit www.edwardsvillefutures.com.
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