Small-school players shine in opening round of DODDS-Europe tennis tourney
By Rusty Bryan, Stars
and Stripes
Michael Abrams / Stars and Stripes
Evan Hegarty of Bamberg returns a shot against Heidelberg's John Mackey. Unseeded Hegarty
beat two seeded players to reach the semifinals. |
WIESBADEN, Germany — To the obstacles faced by small-school players in the
DODDS-Europe tennis championship here — long bus rides, inconsistent competition,
lack of knowledge of their opponents — add playing with borrowed equipment.
"I forgot my racket," said semifinalist Evan Hegarty of Bamberg. "I was
playing with someone else’s racket."
The unseeded Hegarty used his loaner to defeet fourth-seeded Tyler Russell of Würzburg
and fifth-seeded John Mackey of Heidelberg in straight sets in Friday’s opening
rounds to reach this morning’s semifinals.
"It took me a while to get used to it," Hegarty said, but he has no plans to
give it back anytime soon.
"It’s too far [to go back to Bamberg] to get my own," he said.
"I’m just going to keep going."
Hegarty conducted a clinic in making the best of the situation, beating Division I
runner-up Russell 7-6, 6-0. He then downed Mackey 6-3, 6-3.
Hegarty plays top-seeded Oliver Steil of AFNORTH in Saturday’s semis, and he might
want to borrow a racket for his other hand, too. Steil, the defending champion, remained
unbeaten this season after a 6-1, 6-0 victory over of Rajiv Shah of Baumholder and a 6-0,
6-0 waxing of Bitburg’s Jordan Matthews.
The other semifinal pits Pawel Wasiukiewicz of Ankara, the sixth seed, against
second-seeded David Jackson of Bad Aibling. Wasiukiewicz, the Turkey champion, downed
Tyler Martin of Ramstein 6-1, 6-1, then eliminated Division I foe Thomas Rogers of
Wiesbaden 6-4, 6-4.
Michael Abrams / S&S
Third seed Priscilla Roney of International School of Brussels returns a shot from
Wurzburg's Danielle Wells in the first round. |
Jackson, the Division III champion, lost just one game Friday in bouncing Ronny
Snekkestad of Kaiserslautern and Cheon Hyun Nam of International School of Brussels.
The success of Hegarty, Jackson and Wasiukiewicz were the most spectacular of several
for small-school players in Friday’s open matches.
Unseeded Beth Macintire of Hohenfels routed Division I foe Chandra Harrison of Ramstein
6-0, 6-2 in her opening match, only to fall to the Division III champion, Kim Kirkhum of
Giessen at love in the quarterfinals.
It was the second 6-0, 6-0 victory for Kirkhum on Friday; she bounced Würzburg’s
Zeryna Wells in the opener.
Another small-school terror, top-seeded Necat Akman of Izmir, the 1999 champion who
self-destructed in last year’s finals, reached the 2001 semis with a first-round bye
and a 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Bitburg’s Courtney Martz. Akman will face Kirkum in
Saturday’s semis; the other will match AFNORTH’s Jessica Blaesche, the No. 2
seed, against Italy champion Zoe Hili of the American Overseas School of Rome.
Hili’s major obstacle Friday was knocking the rust off her game.
"I haven’t played since May," said Hili, referring to her victory in the
American Schools in Italy tournament. The Italian teams, which frequently travel the
length of the country to play their regular-season matches, have their season in the
spring to save money, according to AOSR coach Kiernan Canter.
"In the fall, we have [boys’ and girls’] volleyball and cross country,
and some schools play football, too," Canter said. "If we added tennis,
we’d have to take two buses on each trip."
Hili dispatched unseeded Lauren Riney of Heidelberg 6-1, 6-1 before eliminating No. 3
Priscilla Roney of International School of Brussels 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The big schools gained some luster in doubles, where the Heidelberg teams of Alison
Pienta and Vanessa Cruz, the defending champions here, and Diana Dull and Katie Meagher,
reached the semis on opposite sides of the draw. Meagher and Dull will play the Wiesbaden
duo of Christina Romangoli and Ana Lohmer, and Pienta and Cruz will take on the winner
between Leah Welsh and Janice Reinold of ISB and Miriam Butzke and Carmen De La Plaza of
SHAPE.
The boys’ semis feature Miki Sokolovsky and Alexander Henes, top-seeded after the
Lakenheath duo of Dan Sullivan and Brandon Bitner withdrew from the competition, against
two more small-schoolers, Stefan Von Hendy and Braden Eggerl of Bad Aibling on one side of
the draw, and Benjamin Blaesche and David Novotny of AFNORTH against Bitburg’s Josh
Sparkman and Ryan Warner on the other.
Play begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Vitis Tennis and Squash Center in the Wiesbaden suburb
of Nordenstadt and at the Tennis Center Christ in nearby Hochheim.
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