Page 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17   DRAW     PHOTO ALBUM

This circuit is dedicated to promoting and putting together 1st class tennis events for open, Adult and junior players at most of the tennis clubs in the Valley.

 In this past year VegasTennis.com has broken numerous draw records, promoting the largest open doubles and singles draw in years at this fall's Spanish Trail tournament, and the largest junior District draw in over 30 years with The Stirling Club's Junior tennis circuit. There is no reason why Las Vegas tennis should not be the tennis center of the southwest, with Andre Agassi, Steffi Graff, David Pate, Marty Hennessy and many other's involved in the National and international tennis community. Las Vegas as the number one tourist destination of the world is a place everyone wants to come to play tennis. It is just a matter of putting together the infrastructure and events in which to accommodate their desires. This tennis circuit tournament is the first step.

I have witnessed numerous  players develop over the last year and the whole thing has been a blast. This tournament is a culmination of those efforts and will stand as a spring board into further and equally as satisfying days to come.

I have seen how this game not only brings a person into excellent physical shape, but inspires them to live new, healthier and whole lives.   Many in the medical community have used tennis to get patients and friends back into feeling right by being in shape and Wild Oats has been there to help them feel right by eating right. But more then the physical benefits, the principles discovered on the court apply in everything you do, whether it is "No quit", "paying attention to the point at hand" or dealing with situations with "patience, Honesty and respect for the truth." I see parents and adults taking on a whole new inspiration to live, spurned by the competition of tennis and the relationships that follow.

 This tournament draw  includes Las Vegas's number one male and female players. The number one junior seed and marquee player Lew Deleon, and the second seeded Christian and Catrina Thompson.  This event also has the top seeds in each age group already entered. Just like in professional tennis, I recruited the top seeds first, then, starting with this article, I promote to all the juniors in town.

On my birthday April 27th, Sunday.. many on the tournament committee, like Melissa Gibson, Tom Harper, John Baltas and Ronald Muhammad, along with their children, and friends, came out to fill  the addresses for the post cards which went out to as many junior players I have on my mailing list. Mrs. Garrett and her daughter Alexis also came out and they filled out more cards then anyone else, therefore winning a $25.00 gift card to Borders book shop.

Then after all the kids filled out the post cards, we all played singles and doubles at BALLY'S. This was an excellent day of afternoon tennis as we all played from 2:45 till about 5:30pm. The players that showed up were Jacquelyn  Tang, her mom Hanna, Gabrielle Gibson, Julia Baltas, Asia Muhammad, Ted Shively, Valerie Shively, Spencer Aguiar, Danielle, Danica and Danae Ingwaldson,  Alexis Garrett and myself. Spencer Aguiar won all his matches today, getting his toughest challenge from Julia Baltas. 

VegasTennis.com Mobile Medical Services BALLY'S CUP was so huge with 312 entries that  the doubles had to be done on a separate weekend.

 I wanted everyone at BALLY's instead of spreading everyone out over a number of sites, so I started the event on a Wednesday with starting times right after school. This schedule  allowed most the  players to be at BALLY'S and experience all that the sponsors are offering..FREE FOOD AND DRINKS, By WILD OATS, and PING PONG by GALYAN'S.

THE SPORTS AND OUTDOOR ADVENTURE STORE, sponsored the PING PONG TOURNAMENT.

The ping pong tournament was incredible, with "Table tennis" pro's showing up, whom at first were not satisfied with the outdoor and less then perfect tournament tables, yet when $50.00 prize money was thrown into the mix , they were all smiles. They should have been all smiles before the money too.

The junior ping pong draw winner got a box of professional tennis player trading cards..This was Aashish Daulat with Stan Breland and Jonathan Ribaste taking second. In the afternoon ping pong tournament Rishi Daulat took second to Tim Blinkeron. This tournament trophy was sponsored by the new trading card company NETPRO. Brian Kenyon won the junior ping pong tournament, which gave him two photo albums.. each inscribed with PATIENCE, HONESTY AND RESPECT... Three attributes which will stand to make any player tournament tough.

Saturday at BALLY's was packed with players and fans everywhere either playing ping pong, watching the open and junior matches , eating and drinking Wild Oats Food, or there to see the exhibition match between Christian and Catrina Thompson vs Tim Blenkiron and Cristala Andrews. Saturday was great, but took second billing to the amazing match that came before and after it. Christian Thompson played Ryan Gormley, Friday night in an amazing three set duel. 7-5; 7-6; [7-5], 10-8 in the super tie break. It could not have gotten any better. Ryan told me he wanted that match going in but I had to do the draw randomly. Ryan did get her in his bracket but first had to beat the formidable Romik Yeghnazary. Romik is just getting back into the game, and used this event to sharpen his strokes.

Ryan was down 5-2 against Christian, then came back to win the first set and it was equally competitive in every set of the match. The crowd , while unplanned, converged more then any other match of the event..