Smyczek Named Pro Circuit Player of the Week

Tim Smyczek played some outstanding tennis in Orange Park Florida last week, winning the Pro Circuit Futures event there, his first singles title at that level. It led to his being named USTA Pro Circuit Player of the Week. Smyczek is one of my weekly SMASH column aces too, but I've been warned that due to a website re-launch and the extensive travel plans of my editor, the column may not get up the day after I send it in, which has been the case up until now. So I apologize if you've been looking for it the past couple of days--I hope it will be posted soon.

Anyway, Smyczek has picked up where he left off; in this week's event in Tampa, he won his first round match and will face fellow 18-year-old Alex Clayton Thursday.

In addition to Smyczek and Clayton, the Tampa tournament has lots of boys in the remaining sixteen that I expect to see here in Kalamazoo in August: Kellen Damico, who beat top seed Travis Rettenmaier in the first round; Attila Bucko, who took out the fifth seed, and Marcus Fugate and Holden Seguso, who defeated unseeded players.

It's also great to see Vahid Mirzadeh back on the court. A serious back injury kept him from playing almost all of last year, but he's been in India and Turkey playing satellites this winter and spring, and his results in his home state of Florida suggest he's gotten rid of any rust in his game.

Michael Shabaz, who will be 19 in August and is therefore not eligible for Kalamazoo, is also playing very well in Florida. Last week he defeated Donald Young before dropping a 7-6 in the third decision to Smyczek, and today he upended second seed Brendan Evans.