Daily Update -April 17, 2008

Thursday April 17, 2008

Update 006

Matt Roberts through to the second round

Matt Roberts (USA) had to dig deep to find a way to come back in the second set to keep his match with Shane La Porte (USA) from going to a third set. After securing a close first set 6-4 he found himself behind a service break, 5-2 in the second set. Just when the Little Rock crowd was getting ready for a third set, Matt fought his way back to 5-5 and eventually to win 7-6 (10-5). His win puts all three Arkansas players / teams (Matt Roberts, Peter Shults and Raul Bermudez / Dinko Halvachev) into the next round with matches scheduled for Thursday (see Order of Play).

Matt's parents, shown below behind his interview with the Arkansas Gazette, are much more relaxed than they were during the match. His Dad commented during the match, "This is the first time I've been able to watch Matt play in a couple of years. It's great to have him home for a match."

Kids 'n Pros - Rising stars give back to Future Stars

True Champions give back to the future of their sport. This is what took place at the Kids 'n Pros event on Wednesday.

16 of the main draw pros took time out of their day to play with 150+ kids who came out to the Kids 'n Pros event. It was amazing to watch players who have spent thousands of hours on the court, fine tuning their games for professional events, taking the time to play with kids who are just learning the fun you can have playing tennis.

"Our tournament is more than a professional tennis tournament." commented Breda Turner, the tournament director. "It is an 8 day event that involves the entire community to develop and promote the game of tennis and provide critical funding for New Outlook Cancer Recovery for Women. And, it is the longest running USTA Pro-Circuit tournament in the country."

Feature match highlights for the Main Draw Thursday

Each day, the main draw gets more exciting and it is harder to pick the feature matches of the day. With this in mind, here are my picks:
11am	How do you choose between Little Rock's Matt Roberts as he takes on #2 seed Pierre-Ludovic Ducloas (CAN), #1 seed Artem Sitak(RUS) and former NCAA #1 player Todd Paul (USA) and Adam Fass (USA) against USTA wild card Adam El Mihdawy (USA)? They will all be great - catch as much of each as you can.
Not Before 1Pm	Arkansas's Peter Shults is back in action against #4 seed James Ward (GBR) and Bryan Wooten (USA), winner of the Ann Loomis Sportsmanship award in the Qualifying tournament will take on #5 seed Greg Jones (AUS).
Not Before 2pm	Raul Bermudez (VEN) and Dinko Halachev (BUL), both from Little Rock, will face Julio Peralta (CHI) and Guillermo Rivera-Aranguiz (CHI) who knocked off the #1 doubles seed in round 1.

Order of Play and Draws at www.newoutlooktennis.com

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Don't miss A Taste of Tennis - presented by Parker Lexus

Make your reservations for A Taste of Tennis

Tonight at 6:30pm - PVCC Ballroom
Featuring 4 international courses
&
Dance Performance by Ballet Arkansas

CLICK HERE for details and to make your reservation.

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