| James Bragg of Vero Beach earned the opportunity to be a part of pro tennis history on the ITF World Tennis Tour and U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit.
The 53-year-old paired with Sea Oaks teaching pro Ching Wang to win the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships “Wild Card” doubles tournament on Monday and earned an invitation to compete in the $15,000 entry-level professional tournament April 24-30 at the Vero Beach Tennis & Fitness Club at Timber Ridge.
Bragg and Wang defeated fellow Vero Beach residents Christian Docter and Joseph Van Deinse 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the “Wild Card” doubles tournament at Timber Ridge that awards a main draw doubles invitation to the winning team. At age 53, Bragg will be one of the oldest men to ever compete at an official pro tennis tournament.
“Playing at any level of pro tennis over the age of 50 is extremely rare,” said Greg Sharko of the ATP Tour’s communications department. “Certainly, James would be among the oldest players to ever play an official pro tennis match.”
Bragg, who plays out of The Boulevard Club in Vero Beach, will be scheduled to play his opening round doubles match on Tuesday afternoon, April 25. A former varsity player for Dartmouth, Bragg last year reached the semifinals in singles of the USTA National Men’s 50 Clay Court Championships.
Wang, a first-year teaching professional at the Sea Oaks Beach & Tennis Club in Vero Beach, is a former NCAA Division II player at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina. He competed in a limited number of ITF World Tennis Tour events in 2018 in the United States, Spain and Hong Kong.
Bragg and Ching spoke of their Wild Card tournament victory and their goals at the Mardy Fish tournament playing against ATP-ranked players from around the world here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQUEEt5XoZc
In the singles final of the Mardy Fish “pre-qualifying” tournament that determined a wild card entry into the qualifying event, Jose Galvez of Atlanta, defeated Aldiyar Azbahn of Plantation, Fla., 7-5, 6-3 in the final to earn only his second career entry into an ITF World Tennis Tour qualifying draw. The persistent baseline game of Galvez enabled him to win the title without losing a set and defeated Vero Beach locals Sebastian Mendoza 7-6(5), 7-5 in the quarterfinals and James Van Deinse 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Galvez, a former standout at Kennesaw State University, was playing in his first competitive tournament since 2020 at Timber Ridge and was inspired to give competitive tennis another try after being inspired by his girlfriend, as he discusses here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQNqThUaj4o |
