By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Tennis is the sport of a lifetime. This can almost apply to a pro tennis event as well.
The recent Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships $15,000 U.S. Tennis Association International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour event held in Vero Beach, Florida featured players as young at 16 and as old as 53 in the main draw of singles or doubles and with every decade in between represented. It is believed to be the first event to have five decades of ages represented in the main draw of singles and doubles, certainly in the Open Era.
James Bragg of Vero Beach, a 53-year-old former Dartmouth varsity college player, qualified for the main draw in doubles at this entry-level pro event by winning a “wild card” doubles tournament for the event. He became the third-oldest player to play in a main draw at this level of pro tennis in the United States and the 17th oldest world-wide. He and his 25-year-old partner Ching Wang were defeated by Roberto Cid Subervi and Sathi Reddy 6-2, 6-0 in the first round, with the two games won by the wild cards being when the 53-year-old Bragg held serve twice! WATCH Bragg take the court here https://youtu.be/h7lnZ8eNWD8 and WATCH their post-match interview here: https://youtu.be/KeuDTGXrxGM
Also playing in the event was 42-year-old Ryan Haviland. A former standout at Stanford University, Haviland has endured 11 surgeries in his career but still has competitive juices flowing and plays in USTA Pro Circuit events when he is not running a tennis academy in Greenville, S.C. Haviland was able to qualify for the main draw in singles also by virtue of a wild card tournament. Haviland was first awarded a qualifying round wild card event by finishing as a runner-up in the Mardy Fish Sea Oaks Wild Card event, falling to Matthew Segura in the final in a 10-8 match tiebreaker. However, when Segura was able to secure a direct entry into the tournament, Haviland “inherited” the main draw wild card. He was defeated in the first round to No. 2 seed Andres Andrade 7-5, 6-3.
Thirty-somethings in the event included James Van Deinse of Vero Beach, 32, who also advanced into the main draw of doubles by winning the “King of the Hill” (KOTH) competition in Vero Beach. (WATCH to learn more about this event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfXUdD63BZg&t=318s) Van Deinse, also an owner of the event venue, the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club, lost with KOTH runner-up Tyler Rios 6-2, 6-1 to eventual champions Peter Bertran and Lorenzo Claverie. Ricardo Rodriguez, the all-time leading Davis Cup player from Venezuela, also turned 30-years-old during the event, where he lost in the second round of singles and the quarterfinals of doubles.
It’s no surprise that 90 percent of the players in this event were in their 20s, led by tournament singles champion Dan Martin, age 23, and singles runner-up Jaycer Lyeons, age 22. Teenagers in the main draw included Nico Godsick, 18, Sean Daryabeigi, 18, Aidan Kim, 18, Yi Zhou, 18, Kaylan Bigun, 16 and Roy Horovitz, 16. The youngest player in the draw was Horovitz, the youngest of the two 16-year-olds. He earned his first ever ATP ranking points at the event in reaching the second round of singles and the semifinals of doubles. Watch his post-match interview after clinching his ATP point here: https://youtu.be/1LrzRbacLf4
So there you have it, players in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s all in the same event. Tennis is indeed a sport of a lifetime.
