Tennis In The Community...
Stephen Watson Jr. and Tayjhon McGee- players in Orlando along with the FTT Tournament Director, Dennis Turner.
Florida Tennis Tour’ s 3rd Annual African American Tennis Open.
Orlando, Florida:
Nearly 50 players participated in the Florida Tennis Tour’ s 3rd Annual African American Tennis Open this year. Players came from not only all over Florida, but also around the world representing Germany, Brazil, Aruba, Chile, Colombia, and the USA. The prize money event was open to anyone of any race, age, gender, or skill level. Most of the players did have a professional ranking. The event was sponsored by the City of Orlando and Commissioner Regina I. Hill, and held at the city’ s iconic Orlando Tennis Center.
There are so many worthy athletes deserving of the spotlight, and we hope this event will give them some much deserved attention”, said Commissioner Regina Hill. The event also hosted a free tennis camp and competition for the inner city rec center kids. OrlandoTennisNews. com Man of the Year Tom Sweitzer ran the free camp and numerous prizes were donated to the kids during the tournaments
In the men’ s open, Patrick Sydow of Aruba defeated fellow Aruba pro Kyle Frankel 6-2 before Frankel retired in the 2nd set from a back injury. Defending champion Stephen Watson Jr. of Pine Hills defeated Deland’ s Kurt
Collis 6-0, 6-1 in his semi. Prophetess Gray defeated Special Olympics World Champion Brittany Tagliareni to get to her finals against Head.
The men’ s finals was thrilling with numerous lead changes as both players were evenly matched. Watson took the 1st set 7-5, Sydow took the 2nd set 7-6( 7-4 tie-break), which forced a super-tiebreak to decide the 3rd set. It was Sydow’ s day as he won 10-5 in the super tie-break. Sydow, who trains at the Jaime Oncins Academy in Montverde, won $ 500 for his efforts and will have his name forever engraved on the championship trophy which is held on display at the Orlando Tennis Center all year around. The ladies finals also saw the match go to the 3rd set super tie-break with 12 year old Nyzah Head defeating the 14 year old Gray to become the youngest woman to win the prestigious title. The Doubles finals was won by Jericho Grollman and Kaptan Kasper who narrowly defeated Stephen Watson and Tayjhon McGee 9-8( 11-9 tie break).
Gainesville, Florida:
Orlando’ s Stephen Watson of the Orlando Tennis Center clashed with # 1 Florida Tennis Tour Ranked Giancarlo“ Dominican Express” Escotto for the FTT Masters title hosted by Newdash Tennis at the Jonesville Tennis Center September 24-25. A strong field of 16 players traveled from Bradenton, Orlando, Monteverde, Jacksonville, Deland, and all over Gainesville for the prestigious title. The event also awarded UTR Universal Tennis Rating points to the players.
Watson( L) and Tayjhon McGee( R),, Watson and McGee also won the FTT Masters Doubles division taking home two paydays for the weekend. They defeated Brad Feussner / Juan-Carlos Asse in the finals. The win should put Watson into the FTT Top 20 Singles Rankings as well as the FTT Doubles Rankings.
NFL pros Ron Dixon of NY Giants and Lee Paige of Tampa Buccs joined the kids instructed by tennis hall of famer Tom Sweitzer and pro instructor Kurt Collis during a training session.