Alex Clay of Grayson, Ga. and an incoming freshman to the University of Alabama, had a dominant weekend at the ITA National Championships.
Clay, along with Taylor Lindsey, of Vestivia Hills, Ala., won the doubles by defeating Breanne Smutko, of Alpharetta, Ga., and Chelcie Abajian, representing the University of Illinois. The score was 9-8(6). LIndsey is also representing Alabama.
Mary Clayton, of Duke, defeated Clay 4-6, 6-3, 1-0(5) to take the women's singles crown.
Preview information
Nearly 30,000 men and women have competed in ITA Summer Circuit events since it began in 1993. The circuit provides college (and junior and alumni) players the opportunity to compete in organized events virtually year round. Although the primary focus of the circuit is to provide incoming freshman and collegiate players the chance to compete in the summer months, for NCAA compliance purposes, the events within the ITA Summer Circuit are categorized as "open"; therefore anyone is eligible to compete in these events as long as he/she is a current ITA member.
Click here for more information and to register.
There are five tournaments in the Southern Section:
UNC - Chapel Hill
UNC - Greensboro
Lagoon Park inMontgomery, Ala.,
University of Georgia
University of Alabama
New in 2010 is the addition of the Mid-Atlantic Circuit as well as a fourth site (New Mexico) in the Mountain Circuit. The ITA Summer Circuit is currently made up of eight regional circuits (East, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Central, Mountain, Southwest and West) and all eight regions consist of four consecutive open tournaments played during the month of July, leading up to the August 7-11 ITA National Summer Championships in Bloomington, Indiana.
The entry fee for all Summer Circuit tournaments is $55 (includes singles and doubles), with the exception of the National Clay Court Championships (Mt. Lebanon/Pittsburgh) and the USTA/ITA National Summer Championships which are both $65 (includes singles and doubles). All tournaments will use a 10-point match tie-breaker for the third set of singles; all doubles will be 8 game pro-sets. An American player who competes in at least 3 tournaments and is the point leader for that Region will automatically qualify for the USTA/ITA National Summer Championships (point chart is below). Additional information specific to each tournament can be found on the registration page.
Similar to last year, as determined by the ITA Board of Directors at its annual meeting in December 2008, all participants in the ITA Summer Circuit MUST be an ITA member. Memberships are available for current college players, junior players, alumni and more. Varsity student-athlete and junior membership is $25/year and additional membership registration information can be found at: www.itatennis.com/AboutITA/Membership.htm