By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Vero Beach, Florida is one of the best – if not the best – tennis town in the United States. I’m a bit biased, being a part-time Vero resident, but passing through the town on the east coast of Florida – for training or an event – may give you good fortune.
Just ask Kyle Edmund and Anastasija Sevastova, two of the break-out surprises at the 2016 US Open.
Edmund, who upset Richard Gasquet and John Isner to reach the US Open’s fourth round, came through Vero Beach in 2013 when he won the USTA Pro Circuit Futures event, now called the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships.
Sevastova, who upset French Open champion and No. 3 seed Garbine Muguruza also en route to the fourth round, spent 10 days training in Vero Beach this March at the Windsor Club. Sevastova’s coach and boyfriend Ronald Schmidt is a good friends with Jony Leitenbauer, the assistant tennis pro at Windsor and hosted the duo following the Miami Open last March.
“They really loved Vero Beach, but especially Windsor,” said Leitenbauer.
“We loved having them at Windsor,” said Tom Fish, the head tennis pro at Windsor and the father of Vero Beach’s favorite tennis pro Mardy Fish. “Anastasija is a delightful young woman and worked very hard during her stay with us. It’s nice to see all the hard work that she is putting in paying off with some high-profile success.”
Ranked No. 48, Sevastova registered the upset of the tournament so far with her win over Muguruza, who had a chance to take over the No. 1 ranking at the event. To Sevastova’s credit, she followed up the biggest win over her career with another solid win, taking out former US Open quarterfinalist Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4, 6-1 in the third round.
Edmund registered his best result in a major with his 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5) win over Isner, the top-ranked American player. Edmund, 21, is now ranked No. 84 in the world and played singles next to Andy Murray last year when Great Britain won the Davis Cup final against Belgium.
In 2013, Edmund came to Vero Beach to compete in the USTA Futures as an 18-year-old just getting his first taste of professional tennis. Former US Open runner-up Greg Rusedski was also in tow as a coaching consultant.
You can read Rusedski’s comments at the time, from the story that I wrote at the time here http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/9227 after his semifinal victory in Vero Beach and after winning the championship in this story entitled “Young Kyle Edmund May Provide Glimpse of the Future of British Tennis” here http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/9234
Perhaps the biggest Vero Beach presence at the 2016 U.S. Open is Ivan Lendl, who has returned to his coaching role with Andy Murray, the No. 2 seed. Since Lendl returned to coaching Murray, the Scot has won Wimbledon and the Olympics and has lost only one match – to Marin Cilic in the final of Cincinnati.
