Avalon Park, Florida- Some new blood showed up on the East Side of Orlando tennis for Stop #2 of the FTT Round Robin Tournament. Players got a chance to get some local competition on Sunday August 24. The event was sanctioned and part of the Florida Tennis Tour (FTT) and WSA World Sports Alumni . The neighborhood round robin prize money event is designed for 3.5 level to 4.5 level players to encourage more singles action in the area. The event is organized by Orlando Synergy Marketing and sponsored by Neo Matrix Medical, the top Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Facility of Central Florida. Parel Racket Stringing serving East Orlando tennis players 502-797-9062
The round robin format are 6 game pro-sets with no ads played. Tie-break at 5-5. Players are divided into groups of 3. The top #1 in each group with the best record moves onto play the finals. The #2s in each group play for 3rd place while the remainder face-off for consolation matches. The top 3 places are paid prize money depending on the amount of players and every player will receive ranking points.
In round one, East River High teammates faced off as Bucky Parel defeated Felipe Leiva 6-3. Zip Parel trailed 1-3 before mounting a comeback against the seasoned and fast hustling Alex "Papa" Lozzi. The match was close but it was Lozzi advancing with a 6-4 win. Newcomer Kevin "Montana" Raible took apart Zip Parel 6-0 and then won his seat into the finals by defeating Lozzi . Regining FTT Round Robin Champion Charlie "Dragon" Williams defeated Leiva 6-2 and then faced Bucky Parel for the right to goto the finals. The two battled back and forth to 3-3 with Parel scoring several aces off big serves, but the steady play of Williams saw him pull away for a 6-3 win.
Dragon & the hard nosed Papa Lozzi
In the match for 3rd place, Lozzi bounced back and ran over Bucky Parel 6-0 while Leiva scored an impressive win over his #1 line teammate Zip Parel 6-4 to take 5th.
The finals saw Raible put a clinic of heavy top spin balls matched with great ball placement to shoot to a 5-0 lead within one game of winning the tournament with a flawless no games lost record . But Williams rallied back to finally score a game, and looked to score another at deuce playing for another game point, but erred into the net off the return giving Raible the one-sided 6-1 victory.
"This was a great event and really good for my game. I'm looking forward to the next one!" said Raible.
Dragon makes back to back finals while Montana Kevin savors his first FTT win
Results:
1st "Montana" Kevin Raible 100 pts
2nd Charlie "Dragon" Williams 80 pts
3rd Alex "Papa" Lozzi 70 pts
4th Bucky "Firestorm" Parel 60 pts
5th Felipe "Mr.Smooth" Leiva 50 pts
6th Zip "Iceman" Parel 40 pts
To enter the next FTT Round Robin Tournament, contact 407-782-4978 or email FloridaTennisTour@gmail.com . Entry fee is only $15. Matches start at 8:00am and event finishes typically before noon.
1st 100 points
2nd 80 points
3rd 70 points
4th 60 points
5th 50 points
6th 40 points
7th 30 points
8th 20 points
9th 10 points
10th 5 points