A Rockdalian won the 39th Annual Rockdale Open men singles title, while the mens and mixed doubles championships were won by players from Thrall, Taylor and Groesbeck, respectively at Veterans Park, July 11-15.
Rockdale Tennis Association held a night tournament to escape the high temperatures, according to event organizers. There was no youth tournament this year due to a low number of entries.
Ben Blanchard won the singles title, when Devon Whitsel was sidelined with an injury. Blanchard and Whitsel were teammates at Rockdale High School. Blanchard qualified for the state tournament twice while at RHS in 2016 and 2017 and was the number two-seeded player for the Howard Payne University men’s team as a freshman this past season. Whitsel was the 2018 Mixed Doubles State Champion.
In the Men’s Doubles, Thrall High School tennis coach Matt Malish and David Cuebas, of a Taylor, who has won the Open’s singles title seven times defeated Blanchard and Adrian Saucedo of Rockdale, 6-2, 6-0.
Erin Blanchard of Rockdale and Noah Santa Cruz of Groesbeck won the mixed doubles final by forfeit, after an injury sidelined Whitsel and his partner Reyna Gonzalez. Blanchard was a 2017 State Tournament silver medalist and the third-seeded singles player on the Howard Payne University women’s team this past year as a freshman.
The results for each match of the tournament is listed below.
Men’s singles results: First round – Blanchard (Rockdale), bye; Christian Dubec (Thrall) over Brandon McGilbey (Brownwood) 6-3, 6-0; Whitsel (Rockdale) over Mike Zapata (Rockdale) 7-5, 6-2 and Tom Nguyen (Nacogdoches) over Adrian Saucedo (Rockdale) 6-4, 6-2; Semi-finals – Blanchard over Dubec 6-3, 6-0 and Whitsel over Nguyen 6-4, 6-2; Finals –Blanchard over Whitsel, (forfeit)
Men’s doubles results: (Round robin, eight game pro set) Round one – Malish (Thrall)-Cuebas (Taylor) def. Erin Blanchard (Rockdale)-Reyna Gonzalez 8-; Tom Nguyen-Brandon McGilbey 8-1; Rick Spencer (Lexington)-Tom Maldonado (Rockdale) 8-1 and Gary Griesbach (Rockdale )-Robert DeWester (Rockdale) 8-1.
Round two – Blanchard-Sauce-do def. Griesbach-DeWester 8-1; Ngyuen-McGilbey 8-1; Spencer-Maldonado 8-3 and E.Blanchard-Gonzalez 9-8.
Round three — Nguyen-McGilbey def. Griesbach-DeWester 8-2; Spencer-Maldonado def. Griesbach-DeWester 8-2 and E.Blanchard-Gonzalez def. Griesbach-DeWester (ret.).
Mixed doubles results: (Round robin, eight game pro set) Round one – Blanchard (Rockdale)-Santa Cruz (Groesbeck) def. MacKenzie Brown (Caldwell)-Ricky Spencer 8-1 and Cori Pool (Round Rock)- Brent Pool (Round Rock) 9-8; Round two – Gonzalez-Whitsel def. Blanchard-Santa Cruz 8-1 and Pool-Pool def. Brown-Spencer 8-3.
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