EDWARDSVILLE - Top qualifying seed Mikael Arsenault, Nicolas Ian Kotzen, Si Montsi, Braden Shick, Nick Steigelhner, and Marko Miladonovic were among the winners in the final round of qualifying, and advanced to the main singles draw on day three of the $25,000 Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament, presented by The EGHM Foundation, on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
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In addition, a few matches in both the main draw of both the singles and doubles were played, with the rest of the main draw matches in both competitions set for today and tonight. A brief rain delay early in the morning, plus a heat delay later on in the afternoon, pushed the matches back but all were played.
Scores weren't available for the final round of qualifying, but Arsenault defeated Pablo Paternostro, Kotzen eliminated Tygan Goldammer, Miladonovic won over Liam Krall, and Steigelhner knocked out Kelly Giese in the upper half of the bracket. In the lower half of the draw, Shick won over Devon Moskowitz, Oliver Ojakaar eliminated William Manning, Jonah Braswell won over Adam Farag-Cao, and Montsi eliminated Hunter Heck to advance to the main draw.
In main draw first round matches played on Tuesday in the singles, Alexander Razeghi of the United States won over fellow American Kaylan Bigun 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, it was Kyle Kang of the USA winning over Victor Lilov, also of the USA, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, in an all-USA match, sixth seed Aiden Kim eliminated Karl Poling 5-7. 7-5, 6-2, and Leo Vithootien of Japan won over Adhithya Ganesani of the United States 7-6 (7-2 in the tiebreak), 3-6, 6-4.
In the opening double main draw matches, Ryan Fishback and Steigelhner, both of the United States, won over Moskowitz and Nick Shirley, also of the USA, 6-2, 6-4, American players Spencer Johnson and Kotzen defeated Jayson and Michael Blando of the USA 1-6, 6-3, 10-5, and in another all-American match-up, Manning and Shick knocked out Evan Bynoe and Paternostro 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
On Wednesday's schedule, top seed Tyler Zink of the United States opens his campaign against Taha Baadi of Morocco among the top early matches, starting at 8 a.m., while Montsi, of South Africa, meets Steigelhner, American player Nathan Ponwith meet Alan Magadan of Mexico, and Arsenault, from Canada, takes on Johnson. In the 9:30 a.m. matches, Shick meet Kotzen, Ojakaar, from Estonia, plays against the USA's Zeke Clark, and in a match featuring two players from Great Britain, Oliver Okonkwo plays third seeded Aiden McHugh.
In the opening round of the doubles, at 12 noon, Henry Barrett of the United States and Vladislav Melnic of Romania goes against Alex Brown and Krall, both from the USA, Hank and Jake Trondson of the United States meet Magadan and American Karl Poling, and Abraham Asaba of Ghana, and Vithootien. In a match scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m., it'll be Okonkwo and Matt Shearer of New Zealand meeting Heck of the United States and Japan's Kenta Miyoshi, and at 6 p.m., Arsenault and Farag-Cao, both of Canada, plays against Americans Bruno Kuzuhara and Ponwith.
Wednesday will also be Diversity Day, presented by McConnell And Associates, with a clinic for minority players at Liberty Middle School, followed by a luncheon program at the Jon Davis Wrestling Center at 11:30 a.m., with guest speakers.
