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Home , Sam Querrey

y JO H N KELLE Y

t’s become the

social event of the year in Ph oto b the Sarasota area . . . The annual Singles Champion Sam Querrey Iat the Longboat Key Club & Resort. The amount of details to make the event flow smoothly by delegat- ing jobs to qualified volunteers is a Well Played! daunting task. Under the leadership of Director Tony Driscoll, this year’s event was bigger and better than ever. Players are now competing for $100,000. All seats are now shad- ed with awnings, except for courts 8 and 9. Radar times the speed of the serves which are displayed at each end of the court along with the players’ names and scores. And for the first time this year, some of the best women players in the world y JO H N KELLE Y also competed in their own draw. y CARMEN The field gets stronger every year. won the Title Ph oto b

in 2008. This year he lost in the Ph oto S b first round. Finalist Champion Alexandra Stevenson Finalist Paolo Lorenzi and and Finalist Gabriella Dabrowski Champion Sam Querrey

Players rave about the event. match between Blake and Denis This year’s winner Sam Querrey was Kudla from the Ukraine. By the quoted as saying, “I have played time the lights came back on, a lot of Challenger events in Kudla lost his momentum and America, and this is probably the the 32-year old Blake caught his best one I have ever played.” breath and came back to win the 2,000 fans watched the excit- 3rd set, 7-5. ing three-set final. Querrey beat Italian Alexandra Stevenson (bas- retriever Paolo Lorenzi, who ousted ketball legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving’s defending champ in daughter) beat 16-year-old Da- the quarter-finals. Querrey’s first set sha Sharapova (cousin of Maria against Lorenzi (6-1) was near-perfect, Sharapova) in straight sets. She but Lorenzi held fast in set 2 winning went on to win the tournament over 7-6. In the 3rd set, Querrey delivered Gabriella Dabrowski. serves that were out of reach even for Way to go Sam Querrey! the unshakable Italian. Way to go Longboat Key Club & This year’s event was not with- Resort! Excellent job out its challenges. If last year’s finals volunteers, ball kids,

y CARMEN were bedeviled by love-bugs, this umpires, and staff! Way year’s enemy was the wind. Players to go Sarasota! were amazingly stoic as Mother Na-

Ph oto S b ture got the ultimate say on where Ray Collins owns a Doubles Champions Izak Van Doubles Finalists Martin the shots would land. Sarasota-based media der Merwe (net) and Johan Emmrich (back) and Andreas Club staff also scrambled when company. Details at www. Brunstrom (back) Siljestrom (net) the lights went out during the night RayCollinsMedia.com.

Totally Tennis Junel 2012 13