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DELRAY BEACH ITC News, Notes and Information
3 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Scoop
The Celsius “Tennis on the Ave” event this Friday (Feb. 18) will kick off the 2011 Delray Beach ITC and is presented by the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). The second annual event begins at 5:30 pm and will have Grand Slam champions and Hall of Famers John McEnroe and Mats Wilander playing a match in the middle of Atlantic Avenue. Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie will be in the umpire chair and WJNO hosts Jim Edwards and Brian Mudd will be going live on site. The event, which is free to the public, will showcase Atlantic Avenue’s restaurants, art galleries and boutiques as well as Delray Beach business opportunities. Anyone collecting a receipt from a Delray Beach business on Friday can exchange it at the Tennis Center for 20% off tickets for the tournament’s opening matches that evening (up to 4 tickets per receipt).
Champions Tour
Following Celsius “Tennis on the Ave,” the Delray Beach ITC’s opening ATP Champions Tour matches begin at the Tennis Center with Todd Martin playing Jimmy Arias at 7:00 pm and Mark Philippoussis meeting Pat Cash in the 9:00 pm nightcap.
The eight ATP Champions Tour players will play a round robin in two groups of four players. Each player plays three matches and the top player in each group meets for the final at 7:15 pm Tuesday (Feb. 22). The 3rd/4th playoff will be played during the day session Tuesday.
McEnroe will open his Delray Beach play on Saturday (Feb. 19) night against Arias at 9:00 pm. He plays Martin on Sunday (Feb. 20) at 7:30 pm and Boca Raton’s Aaron Krickstein Monday (Feb. 21) at 7:15 pm.
ATP World Tour
The ITC’s ATP World Tour main draw will be made on Friday, Feb. 18 @ 3:00 pm with Monday’s (Feb. 21) marquee matches announced at that time.
The third and final Delray Beach ITC qualifying tournament wildcard went to US Open Junior champion Jack Sock of Overland Park, KS. Sock, an 18-year-old high school senior, will be returning to Delray Beach where he won last year’s singles and doubles titles at the USTA Boys 18’s National Clay Court Championships hosted by the City of Delray. The first two wildcards were earned in the ITC’s Survivor Series pre-qualifying tournaments by Eric Hechtman, a former University of Miami star, and Stefano Ianni of Italy. Also expected to play in the qualies is 18-year-old up-and-coming Australian Bernard Tomic, who reached the third round of the Australian Open in January.
The ITC qualifying tournament begins Saturday (Feb. 19) at 10:00 am at the Tennis Center with the second round Sunday (Feb. 20) and final round Monday (Feb. 21). The top four players in the 32-player qualifying draw reach the ATP main draw.
Top-seeded Andy Roddick will be playing his first Delray Beach match on Tuesday (Feb. 21) at 9:00 pm following the ATP Champions Tour final. Only a handful of reserved seats remain for Tuesday’s night session.
The 2011 Delray Beach ITC singles winner will receive keys to a 2011 Porsche 911 Carrera in addition to the $75,000 winners check. The tournament’s ATP World Tour prize money totals $500,000 and including ATP Champions Tour compensation, the total player payout exceeds $1 million.
ETC….
A limited number of reserved seats/box seats remain for the Buy-One-Get One Free Senior Day promotion for Monday (Feb. 21), Wednesday (Feb. 23) and Thursday (Feb. 24) day sessions.
Grandstand seats are free on Monday (Feb. 21) and Tuesday (Feb. 22) during the day sessions for anyone bringing in eight non-perishable food items OR a usable tennis racquet. The food drive is presented by Porsche (the goal is to fill up one of its display cars!) and all donations go to the Community Food Pantry while the racquets are used in community tennis programs.
The Ladies Day Luncheons on Wednesday (Feb. 23) and Thursday (Feb. 24) are sold out.
Fresh off of releasing his new album titled “Otra Vez” last week, Jon Secada will sing the national anthem for the ATP World Tour finals on Sunday (Feb.27).
Co-tournament founder Fred Stolle, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, will be honored on Friday (Feb. 25) before the night’s 7:15 pm match and receive his International Tennis Hall of Fame ring. Stolle lives in Aventura, FL.
Miss Florida USA 2011 Lissette Garcia and Jessica Rafalowski, Miss Florida 2008 and 2011 Beach Bunny swimwear Super Model of the Year, will be presenting the Charity Pro Am Awards on behalf of the Tico Torres Children’s Foundation. The Charity Pro Am is on Sunday (Feb. 20).
ATP #18 Sam Querrey has accepted a wildcard into the Delray Beach main draw which already is loaded with Milos Raonic, Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, Juan Martin Del Potro, James Blake and John Isner among the outstanding field.
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Mitch · February 15, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Is Gulbis not defending his title?
Richard Pagliaro · February 16, 2011 at 12:04 am
It’s a great field and looking forward to it. Plan to watch the senior matches this weekend – if anyone is going and wants to hit a few balls let me know. I believe our own Dan C. Weil will be there and he and I are always up for doubles.
Dan Markowitz · February 16, 2011 at 3:01 am
Amazing, Mitch, isn’t it, that Gulbis would not come back to Delray to defend his title. But wondering if Nishikori came back to defend his. I think with Roddick, Del Potro, Fish and Tipsarevic in the field, unlikely Gulbis could’ve done well.
What about Nishikori and Harrison both going down in qualis of this week’s event. Not panning out so well for both these phenoms. Be interesting to see which one of them has the better future. Of course, Kei is far ahead of Ryan at this point in time.