ALTON - Top-seeded Blake Strode of St. Louis won the men's open singles title, while unseeded Courtney Clayton, also of St. Louis, upset second-seeded Elizabeth Barlow of St. Louis to win the women's open singles, while Strode and Gus Tettamble won the men's open doubles and Barlow and Sophie McClellan took the women's open doubles on the final day of the 40th Bud Simpson Open, held Sunday at the Bud Simpson Tennis Center in Gordon Moore Park and at Alton High School.
In the other draws, Timothy Flatt of West Frankfort won the men's 55-and-over singles and Trish Arreazola of Janesville, Wisc. took the women's 55-and-over singles.
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In the men's open singles, Strode won his Round of 16 match on Saturday over Dylan Faulkenberg of Troy 6-0, 6-0, then won his quarterfinal match over Jonas Samuelsson of Rolla, Mo., 6-0, 6-0. In the semifinals on Sunday, Strode won over Cole Davis of Ballwin, Mo. 6-2, 6-4, while defending champion and second seed Tettamble lost to Evan Erb of St. Louis 4-6, 6-2, 10-8. In the final, Strode took the championship with a 6-2. 6-2 win over Erb.
In the women's open singles on Saturday, in a feature match between two Edwardsville players in the quarterfinals, Chloe Koons, the 2021 champion, defeated Katie Woods 6-0, 6-0, while Clayton defeated Mia McIssac of Fairview Heights 6-0, 6-0. In Sunday's semifinals, Clayton won over Koons 6-0, 6-0, while Barlow won over Arreazola 6-0, 6-0. In the final, Clayton defeated Barlow 6-2, 6-2.
In the men's open doubles, in the quarterfinals on Saturday, Tettamble and Strode won over Gavin Sohn and Evan Potter of O'Fallon 6-3, 6-0, while Edwardsville's Jade Dynamic and Jesse Hattrup defeated Alex Boker of Granite City and Chris Griesedieck of Springfield, Mo. 6-2, 6-0. In the semifinals, Tettamble and Strode eliminated Dynamic and Hattrup 6-0, 6-1 and Davis and Milos Vuckovic of St. Louis won over Eric and Evan Erb of St. Louis 6-0, 6-3. Tettamble and Strode won the final over Davis and Vuckovic 7-6 (7-3 in the tiebreak), 7-5 in a closely contested match.
In the women's open doubles, which was a round-robin format played on Saturday, Barlow and McClellan won both of their matches to win the title, defeating Alyssa Wise and Sophie Byron of Edwardsville 6-1, 6-0, then won over Koons and Zoe Byron, also of Edwardsville 6-1, 7-5. In the men's 55-and-over singles, which was also in a round-robin format, Flatt took the title with a 3-0 record. defeating Mike Anderson of Glen Carbon 6-0, 6-0, Jeff Jackson of House Springs, Mo. 6-4, 6-2 and Yangdong Pan of Edwardsville 6-0, 6-0.
In the women's 55-and-over singles, which was also played in a round-robin, Arreazola won both of her matches to win the championship, defeating Laurie Burke of St. Louis 6-1, 6-0 and Kathryn Claywell of Alton 6-3, 6-1.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
