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Edwardsville Open Semifinals

by | Jun 12, 2016 | Blog | 0 comments

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There are several pro events that take place in July and August in Illinois and several of them have tournaments in advance to help determine wild cards. Last week Illinois rising junior Aron Hiltzik won the Ursula Beck Wildcard Shootout in Decatur, Illinois and this weekend Edwardsville High School is hosting the Edwardsville Open with the winner getting a wild card in the late July Futures event

I made the 45 minute drive north to watch today’s semifinal matches which included three current college guys and one 16 year-old that will be a force in years to come. Both semifinal matches started shortly after 11 a.m. and with temperatures in the mid 90s the guys were all in a hurry to get on court so they could try to get off as soon possible.

Michael Peters/Carson Haskins

The No. 1 seed, Carson Haskins, is a 16 year-old from Ballwin, Missouri who has now won the Class 2 Missouri High School state championship two years in a row. Haskins won the ASICS Easter Bowl in the Boys 16 division in April and is currently ranked #1 by the USTA in the 16 and under division. Haskins’s opponent in the semifinals was Harvard rising sophomore Michael Peters who was also a St. Louis native. Peters saw limited action last season going 4-4 overall including 1-1 in dual-match play.

Haskins jumped out to an early 3-0 lead before Peters held and broke to pull within 3-2. Haskins broke back and held for 5-2 and would eventually take the opening set 6-3. 

Haskins broke to start the second set but Peters would break back and hold for 2-1. Haskins then won three straight to go up 4-2 before Peters held for 4-3. Haskins held for 5-3 and then went up 15-40 on the Peters serve but Peters won the next four points to hold for 5-4. Peters broke to even it at 5-5 but Haskins broke back from 15-40 to go ahead 6-5. Haskins had another two match points after going up 40-15 but Peters once again won four straight points to break and send it to a tiebreak. Haskins won the first four points in the tiebreak and cruised to take it 7-2 to book his spot in Sunday’s final.

The other semifinal matched up Illinois State rising senior Dylan Steffens and Washington University-St. Louis rising junior Johnny Wu. Steffens was coming off a year in which he went 26-7 overall including 19-2 in dual-match play with all but three of those matches coming at No. 6. Wu went 17-7 on the year including 15-6 in dual-match play with all but one match coming at No. 2.

Dylan Steffens/Johnny Wu

Wu needed less than 30 minutes to take the opening set 6-0 but something unfortunate happened when he was receiving up 2-1 in the second. Wu broke a string on his racquet, which normally wouldn’t have been a big deal, but it was a huge deal in this instance because he only had two racquets with him and he broke a string on the other one early in the first set. Wu was going to borrow a racquet from someone else when Steffens offered up one of his own. Wu excepted the offer so he could continue the match but it became pretty apparent that all his confidence went out the window with the unfamiliar racquet in his hands. Steffens won five of the next six games, with most of them coming rather quickly, to take the set 6-3.

There was supposed to be a stringer on the way but unfortunately for Wu they wouldn’t get there in time. After Wu held for 1-1 in the third, Steffens would take the finals five games to close it out 0-6, 6-3, 6-1.

I didn’t get as much footage from this match and most of it came before Wu broke his last string.

The final is set for Sunday morning at 8 a.m.

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