Pro Tennis Tourney Continues This Week in Napa Valley

Rain delayed the qualifying first round matches of the Napa Valley Challenger, a USTA pro circuit tennis tournament in the Napa Valley.

Chris Arns, the Tournament Director at the Napa Valley Country Club coordinated this enormous feat.

"It's not easy to put on a pro tournament, but you can't do much about mother nature either," said Arns.

The Napa Valley Challenger is a men's tournament with prize money of $50,000. Arns had to rally over 40 sponsors to even think about making this Challenger a reality.

Sept. 21 was the opening date of the qualifying matches; the main draw begins Monday, Sept. 23 and goes through Sunday, Sept. 29.

Matches begin at 10 a.m. daily, for more detailed information visit NapaValleyChallenger.com. Visit Facebook.com/NapaValleyChallenger for photos, scores and updates, follow us on Twitter.com/nvtennis.

If you'd like to see men's professional tennis in an intimate environment and one of the most scenic backgrounds in the Valley, this is your chance; tickets are on sale now at NapaValleyChallenger.com

Here are the results for the first qualifying matches:

SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
MensQualifying Singles - First RoundQualifying -
[WC] M Seeberger (USA) d [WC] R Stineman (USA) 61 62
Qualifying - T Kokkinakis (AUS) d M Frank (USA) 46 61 64
Qualifying - D Webb (USA) d E Elliott (USA) 63 64
Qualifying - [WC] K Harbatsiuk (BLR) d A Klegou (BEN) 62 76(4)
Qualifying - [WC] A Tsodikov (USA) d [WC] J Ball (USA) 63 62

According to www.Seminoles.com, here is a rundown of Sunday's action:

After winning three singles matches during the tournament, three Seminoles reached the shootout for the USTA Challenger Wildcard at the Napa Valley Tennis Classic.

No other school at the tournament had more than one player in the shootout at the Meadowood Napa Valley Resort.

"The whole tournament was an overall success," said associate coach Nick Crowell. "we accomplished our goals and now we are ready to build on this the rest of the year. Each guy showed a lot of improvement and are fired up for the rest of the fall."

Before the shootout, the players finished the round robin with sophomore Michael Rinaldi defeating Daniel Ho of Stanford 6-3, 6-4. No. 116 Benjamin Lock topped Boise State's Thomas Tenreiro 6-3, 7-6 (3) while No. 57 Dominic Cotrone won 6-4, 6-2 over USTA junior Martin Redlicki 6-4, 6-2.

In the quarterfinals, both Rinaldi and Lock lost but Cotrone won 11-9 over Nikhil Jayashankar of California. In the semifinals, Cotrone lost to No. 95 Danil Proskura of Alabama 10-5.

The team hosts the Bedford Cup this week beginning Thursday, September 26. Check back to Seminoles.com for all your information on the men's tennis team and follow the team at twitter.com/fsu_mtennis.

RESULTS

Singles:
Michael Rinaldi (FSU) def. Daniel Ho (STAN) 6-3, 6-4
Maciek Ramowicz (STAN) def. Marco Nunez (FSU) 7-5, 6-1
No. 116 Benjamin Lock (FSU) def. No. 123 Thomas Tenreiro (BSU) 6-3, 7-6 (3)
No. 57 Dominic Cotrone (FSU) def. Martin Redlicki (USTA) 6-4, 6-2

Wildcard Singles Shoot-Out

Quarterfinals:
No. 57 Cotrone (FSU) def. Nikhil Jayashankar (CAL) 11-9
No. 11 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) def. Rinaldi (FSU) 10-6
No. 119 Uros Petronijevic (USD) def. No. 116 Lock 12-10

Semifinals:
No. 95 Danil Proskura (ALA) def. No. 57 Cotrone (FSU) 10-5