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EDWARDSVILLE – The field for the qualifying tournament for the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament presented by the EGHM Foundation is down to the final matches; following Monday’s matches at the Edwardsville High School tennis center, the final eight entries in the 32-player main draw will be determined. Main-draw play commenced Tuesday morning in both the singles and doubles competitions, with the doubles final set for Friday evening and the singles final set for Sunday.
“It was great,” tournament director Dave Lipe said of Sunday’s play at the EHS tennis center. “We had one player who was in the doubles final – Maxime Cressy (of France) – in Decatur after winning the doubles in Champaign; he was on his way back here to play in his qualifying match (Cressy won the championship in Decatur).
“Everything has gone smoothly; Kirk Schlueter and Emily Cimarolli (the associate tournament directors) are both working really hard and we’ve got an amazing intern staff – a great staff overall – that makes it run as smoothly as possible; that’s the key to success is an amazing staff.”
Among Sunday’s highlights included top seed Vasil Kirkoff of the USA eliminating Sid Donarski of Montreal by a 6-3, 6-2 score; Kyle Johnson of Charlotte, who reached the quarterfinals of the Pro Wildcard Challenge, advanced into a final match with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Ben Rosen of the USA; American Alexander Lebdev advanced with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win over A.trice Pickens of the USA; Cressy advanced into a match today after winning the Decatur doubles title with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Gabriel Evans; and American Kris Ortega fell to Duarte Vail of Portugal 6-4, 7-6 (7-1).
The schedule for Monday’s matches, with the winners advancing into the Futures main draw beginning Tuesday, looks like this: Trent Bryde (USA) vs. S. Hernandez Ramirez (Colombia), Vasil Kirkov (USA) vs. Gage Brymer (USA); Matic Spec (Slovenia) vs. Alfredo Perez (USA); Alexander Brown (USA) vs. Alexander Lebdev (USA); Jorge Montero (Chile) vs. Alex Blumenberg (Brazil); Andres Andrade (USA) vs. Kyle Johnson (USA); Duarte Vale (Portugal) vs. Sean Sculley (USA); and Charles Broom (Great Britain) vs. Maxime Cressy (France). The first four matches listed will begin at 8:30 a.m., while the second four matches listed will not begin before 9:30 a.m.
The main draw for the Futures will be announced Monday evening and will be posted at www.edwardsvillefutures.com and the International Tennis Federation site (www.itftennis.com). Play will get underway Tuesday morning.
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