LOCAL TENNIS TOURNEYS FEATURE TOP TALENT

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The clay courts at the Mt. Lebanon Tennis Center aren’t exactly Roland
Garros, home of the French Open, but this week, they could be playing
host to a future Grand Slam tennis champion. The National Collegiate
Clay Court Championships/West Penn Amateur and the main draw for the
UBS Men’s Futures of Pittsburgh tournament run today-Sunday on the
Mt. Lebanon Tennis Center’s clay courts. The Men’s Futures tournament,
which began Saturday with a three-round, 64-player qualifier, is
part of the United States Tennis Association professional circuit,
where some of the world’s top 20 players, including Andy Roddick,
James Blake, Andy Murray and David Nalbandian, got their starts.

This week’s field will compete for a $10,000 prize purse and points
that count toward eventually playing on the Association of Tennis
Professionals World Tour, where the likes of Roddick, Rafael Nadal
and Roger Federer compete. "It’s world-class tennis in Pittsburgh,"
tournament director Dan Hackett said. "There are three levels of men’s
professional tennis – Futures, Challenger and then the ATP Tour, and
that’s Andy Roddick, that’s Wimbledon. "Players come to see if they
have any game at the professional level, if they can dominate other
players. They learn how to play and travel, and that’s what the USTA
Pro Circuit provides. It gives them a chance to test their game."

Also beginning today are the men’s and women’s National Collegiate
Clay Court Championships/West Penn Amateur event, an event sponsored
by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association that draws top local and
national college and high school players. Latrobe’s Michaela Kissell,
now at Miami (Fla.), won the women’s tournament last year, and Peters
Township’s Ali Riske, who will play at Vanderbilt in the fall, won
in 2007. Some players in the Futures tournament have earned a world
ranking, such as 21-year old Miami native Jean-Yves Aubone, who just
finished his junior year at Florida State. He’s the highest-ranked
college player in the ATP World Rankings at No. 481.

Armenia’s Tigran Martirosyan is the tournament’s highest-ranked
player at No. 398. Other ranked players in the Futures field include
21-year old Marcus Fugate, of Fairport, N.Y., at No. 756 and 18-year
old Knoxville, Tenn., native Rhyne Williams, who won this tournament
in 2007 when he was 16, is No. 862. "(Aubone) is a good player, man,"
Hackett said. "(The rankings) might be 600 or something, but that’s
in the world. These guys can play. They’re very good Division-I
college players." And they’ll be playing on clay, a slower surface
that favors skill over sheer power. "It takes longer to construct a
point, and it’s harder to hit outright winners," Hackett said. "Even
a club player can follow and see that it takes longer to win a point."

Admission is free, and today and Wednesday’s competition runs all
day. The Futures semifinals start at 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by
the amateur finals. The Futures doubles finals are at 11 a.m. Sunday,
and the singles finals are at 1 p.m. "It’s the best men’s tennis that
comes to Pittsburgh all year," Hackett said. "It’s good stuff."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress