St. Petersburg Times Sports:: On the verge of a breakthrough

St.Petersburg Times: On the verge of a breakthrough ~~~

I'm always pleased to find preview articles for Pro Circuit Futures and Challenger events, because most of the time, especially when played in bigger cities or ones without any tennis traditions, they don't produce a blip on the sports editor's radar.

The first Futures of the year in the United States is played in Tampa, and for the men, the qualifying draw is 128, meaning you must win four matches just to get a chance at the $1300 that goes to the winner. (The women had only a 64 qualifying draw and over twice the prize money). Among the eight players who earned their main draw spots were Marcus Fugate, who has a year of juniors left, and Tim Smyzcek, who just graduated from those ranks at the end of 2005.

This article features a look at the progress of Scoville Jenkins, who has made a jump of over 500 spots in the ATP rankings since last year at this time. But now at 263, which gives him the top seeding at this event, Jenkins knows it's those next two hundred spots that are the tough ones. He recently was invited to compete in a six-man tournament for the Australian Open main draw wild card that the USTA swapped a US Open wild card for. Amer Delic, that tournament's winner, is now preparing for the year's first Grand Slam, while Jenkins took on fellow American teenager Alex Clayton Tuesday in the first round of the Grand Slam Futures of Tampa Bay at Hillsborough Community College. He has come a long way in a year, and he still has a long way to go.