Life as a
professional tennis player has taken Oxnard’s Daniel Nguyen to Seoul, Korea;
Bangkok, Thailand, and earlier this month to Kyoto, Japan. But nothing compares
to playing in your local USTA Pro Circuit Futures event, sleeping in your own
bed and eating home cookin’ prepared by your mother.
That’s what Nguyen’s
been doing this week at the USTA Men’s
Pro Tennis Championships of Calabasas,
a USTA $15,000 Pro Circuit Futures event being played at the Calabasas
Tennis & Swim Center. He’s been winning, too, and on Friday advanced to the
semifinals with a convincing 6-1, 6-4, over former Duke All-American Henrique
Cunha.
“It’s about a 35,
40-mintue drive home, but it’s great to be at home,” said Nguyen, 23. “My go-to
meal this week has been whole wheat pasta, tomato sauce and chicken and
vegetables.”
The four-time NCAA
team champion, who played in the shadow of Steve Johnson while at USC, will
next face another Southern Californian who has been traveling the world as a
pro player the last few years in Jason Jung of Torrance, Calif. The former
Michigan star Jung beat 16-year-old wild-card Taylor Fritz, 6-4, 6-4 earlier in
the day.
In the late match,
former Thousand Oaks High School teammates and former Pac-12 rivals Marcos
Giron of UCLA and Kyle McMorrow formerly of Washington squared off with Giron
serving tough in a 6-2, 6-3 victory. Giron had seven aces on the night, and no
double faults.
The Nguyen-Jung
semifinal match will take place at 4 p.m., and will be followed by a doubles
semifinal match. Local actress Kaley Cuoco will take part in an exhibition
before the night’s features singles match takes place with No. 6-seeded Mate Pavic
of Croatia taking on the unseeded Giron.
Nguyen is headed back
to Asia next month and will play for the first time in China. “I’ve never
played in China before,” he said. “It’s going to be so different than beautiful
California. It’ll be smoggy and the balls will be different.”
Last year as a
freshman at Torrey Pines High School, Fritz reached the final in the Boys’ CIF
division at The Ojai losing to Gage Brymer. He then led his team to the CIF-San
Diego section team title and won the individuals. Still an amateur, Fritz has
played ITF pro events in Costa Rica, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida and is
enrolled at Laurel Springs School, an online independent study program.
“I hate not having a
social life and having to leave high school,” Fritz said. “It’s something I
didn’t want to do, but I felt like I had to for my tennis.”
EVENTS: A USTA Junior Team
Tennis Kid’s Day with a Tennis Carnival is Saturday from 4 p.m. till 5:30 p.m.,
and a VIP sponsor dinner reception is later in the evening from 6 p.m. to 10
p.m. The Kaley Cuoco & Friends Exhibition is Saturday evening before the
singles final semifinals.
Friday’s Singles Quarterfinals Scores
WC: wild card; Q:
qualifier
Mate Pavic, Croatia
(6), def. Gianni Mina, France, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4
Marcos Giron, U.S.,
def. Kyle McMorrow, U.S. (q), 6-2, 6-3
Daniel Nguyen, U.S.,
def. Henrique Cunha, 6-1, 6-4
Jason Jung, U.S. (3),
def. Taylor Fritz, U.S. (wc), 6-4, 6-4
Friday’s Doubles Semifinal Score
Dennis Novikov/Connor
Smith, U.S., def. Damon Gooch, South Africa/Roberto Marcora, Italy, 6-3, 7-5
No comments:
Post a Comment