Haskins, Ortega Advance to Men’s Semifinals, Gordon-Carney, Zielinski to Women’s Final at Bud Simpson Open

Colin Feeney, Contributing Sports Writer

Jun 23, 2019 11:03 AM

Listen to the story

GODFREY – The top two seeds in both the men’s and women’s singles – Carson Haskins of Ballwin, Mo., and Kristopher Ortega of Homer Glen, Ill., along with Shannon Gordon-Carney and Victoria Zielinski, both of St. Louis – advanced to the men’s semifinals and women’s final respectively on day two of the 37^th Bud Simpson Open tennis tournament on Saturday at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey.

Play went on despite a steady rain on Saturday morning and early afternoon, with the weather finally clearing up later in the afternoon, allowing the matches to proceed.

In the second round of the men’s singles, Haskins defeated Will Frank of St. Louis 4-0, 4-0, Cole Davis of Ballwin won over Leonardo DaSilva of O’Fallon 4-2, 4-0, it was third-seed Austin Diehl of St. Charles, Mo., winning over Jaden Henderson of Troy 4-0, 4-0, Donovan McKnight of O’Fallon won over Ryan Weber of St. Charles 4-1, 4-2, Dylan Faulkenberg of Troy won over Gabriel Patrica of Urbana 4-0, 4-0, fourth-seed Daniel Gomez Espina of Elsah defeated Edwardsville’s Erik Weiler 4-0, 5-3, Andy Graf of Mascoutah won over Travis Blair of O’Fallon, Mo., 4-0, 4-1, and Ortega eliminated Max Skaer of Swansea 5-3, 5-3.

In the quarterfinals, Haskins defeated Davis 4-1, 4-0, Diehl won over McKnight 4-0, 4-1, Gomez Espina defeated Faulkenberg 4-2, 4-0, and Ortega won over Graf 4-1, 4-0.

In the quarterfinals of the men’s 45-and-over singles, Craig Reichert of St. Louis won over Sushil Negri, also of St. Louis, 4-2, 4-1, and Bill Blythe of Vandalia won over Yangdong Pen of Edwardsville 4-2, 4-0. In the semifinals, top-seed Tim Hasara of Chesterfield, Mo., won over Reichert 6-1, 6-0, and second-seeded David LaFevers of Springfield, Mo., defeated Blythe 6-1, 6-2.

Article continues after sponsor message

Reach Your Local Community with Us - advertise today!

In the men’s 55-and-over singles round-robin, in the first round, Kevin Deaton of Bethalto defeated Dan Dafcik of Chesterfield 4-1, 4-0, while Dave Snider of Collinsville won over Bobby Stierwalt of St. Louis 4-2, 4-1. In the second round, Snider defeated Dafcik 4-0, 4-1, while Deaton won over Stierwalt 5-4 (9-7 in the tiebreak), 5-4 (7-3 in the tiebreak).

In the women’s 4.0 singles quarterfinals, Dr. Laurie Burke of St. Louis won over Angela Muzzarelli, also of St. Louis, 4-0, 3-5, 1-0, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), Angela Reckelhoff of Troy won over Rachel Hall of Jerseyville 2-4, 4-0, 1-0, 7-6 (8-6 in the tiebreak), and second-seed Laura Moore of Godfrey won over Nicole Lowe, also of Godfrey, 4-1, 4-0. In the semifinals, Burke received a walkover into the final, as top-seeded Nuran Ercal of St. Louis and Keli Keener, also of St. Louis, both withdrew, and Moore won over Reckelhoff 6-1, 6-2.

The women’s open singles quarterfinals saw Hannah Blythe of Vandalia win over Brenda Gonzalez of Champaign 3-5, 4-1, 1-0, 7-6 (7-3 in the tiebreak), Ashley Hennis of St. Louis won over Haley Milazzo of East Alton 4-1, 4-0, and Zielinski won over Alexis Payne of Columbia, Mo. 4-1, 4-1. In the semifinals, Gordon-Carney defeated Blythe 4-0, 4-0, and Zielinski defeated Hennis 4-0, 4-3.

In the semifinals of the men’s open doubles, the top-seeded team of Diehl and Haskins defeated Faulkenberg and Jacob Guse of St. Jacob 6-0, 6-0, while second-seeded Skaer and Weiler defeated Davis and McKnight 6-7 (4-7 in the tiebreak), 6-3, 1-0, 7-6 (10-8 in the tiebreak). In the only match played thus far in the women’s doubles round-robin, Gordon-Carney and Mojca Gasperlin of Wildwood, Mo., defeated Gonzalez and Moore 4-0, 4-0.

In the mixed doubles semifinals, top-seeded Hennis and White won over Sara Kreutzrager of Roxana and Adam Ruckman of Godfrey 3-5, 5-3, 1-0, 7-6 (7-5 in the tiebreak), and LaFevers and Payne upset second-seeded Gordon-Carney and Terry McNabb of St. Louis 4-1, 5-4 (7-5 in the tiebreak).

The final day of the tournament will be held Sunday morning, with the men’s semifinals starting at 9 a.m., the finals in most of the divisions scheduled for 12 noon, and two other finals starting at 3 p.m.

Prefer RiverBender on Google