Heck Wins Second Consecutive Men's Edwardsville Open Singles Title, Okonkwo And Snezhko Win Doubles Crown

Colin Feeney, Contributing Sports Writer

Jun 25, 2023 10:56 PM Jun 27, 2023 6:07 PM

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EDWARDSVILLE - Hunter Heck of St. Paul, Minn., won his second straight open singles championship, earning a wild card berth in next month's Edwardsville Futures tournament, while Dave Snider of Collinsville took his third consecutive 18-and-over singles title and Ollie Okonkwo of Iowa City, Ia. and Nikita Snezhko of Minneapolis, Minn. won the open doubles championship on the final day of the Edwardsville Open tennis tournament Sunday at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.

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In the Round of 16, played on Saturday in the open singles, Heck won over Edwardsville's Erik Weller 6-2, 6-1, while Patricio Garcia-Muriel of San Antonio defeated Juan Suero of St, Louis 6-2, 6-4. Fourth-seeded Reid Jarvis of Springfield, Mo. won over Cole Davis of Ballwin, Mo. 6-3, 6-3 and Noah Hernandez of Hinsdale, Ill. defeated St. Louis' Blake Strode 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), 1-6, 10-6. Gus Tettamble of St. Louis won over sixth seed Felipe Gomez of St. Charles, Mo. 6-3, 7-6 (7-2 in the tiebreak) and third seed Henry Ruger of Philadelphia defeated Thomas Nelson of Sleepy Hollow, Ill. 6-4, 6-1. In the final two matches of the second round, Snezhko defeated Santiago Munoz-Quiroga of St. Charles 6-4, 6-1 and Okonkwo won over Oscar Pachon of St. Louis 6-3, 6-1.

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In the quarterfinals, also played on Saturday, it was Heck winning over Garcia-Muriel 6-1, 6-3, Jarvis eliminated Hernandez 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), 6-4, Ruger won over Tettamble 6-2, 6-2 and Snezhko won over Okonkwo by injury walkover. In Sunday's semifinals, Heck defeated Jarvis 6-2, 6-3 and Ruger defeated Snezhko 6-1, 6-2. In the final, Heck won his second straight championship, defeating Ruger 6-3, 2-6, 10-8.

In the 18-and-over singles quarterfinals on Saturday, Snider, the top seed in the draw, won over James McKeever of Alton 6-1, 5-7, 10-4, while Edwardsville's Issac Chieboun defeated Daniel Krummrich of Fairview Heights 6-2, 6-1, it was Alton's Parker Mayhew eliminating James Rhodes of St. Louis 6-3, 6-3 and David Gonzalez of Alton won over Timothy Flatt of West Frankfort 6-1, 6-7 (1-7 in the tiebreak), 10-6. The semifinal results showed Snider winning over Chieboun 6-2, 6-3 and Mayhew winning over Gonzalez 6-1, 6-2, with Snider winning his third straight title with a 6-1, 6-2 result over Mayhew in the final.

In the quarterfinals of the open doubles, Okonkwo and Snezhko defeated Chris Griesedieck of Springfield, Mo. and Riley Muren of O'Fallon 6-1, 6-2, while Jarvis and Nelson won over Joel and Kyle McCandless of Lexington, Mass. 6-4, 6-4, Hernandez and Gomez defeated Dylan and Devan Faulkenberg of Troy 6-0, 6-2 and Heck and Tettamble defeated Jesse Hattrup and Jade Dynamic of Edwardsville 6-2, 6-4. In the semifinals, Okonkwo and Snezhko won over Jarvis and Nelson 6-4, 7-5 and Heck and Tettamble eliminated Hernandez and Gomez 6-2, 6-2. Okonkwo and Snezhko won the final over Heck and Tettamble by injury walkover.

In the 18-and-over doubles, which was played in a round-robin format, Hung Nguyen of Fairview Heights and Richard McQueen of Swansea won both of their matches to take the championship at 2-0, defeating Ali Javaheri of St, Louis and Dwayne Upson of Columbia 6-1, 7-6 (7-1 in the tiebreak) and then won over David Larner of Maryville and Jean-Paul Vestlens of St. Louis 6-2, 6-0 to take the title. Javaheri and Upson were second at 1-1 and Larner and Vestlens came in third at 0-2.Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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