Hokie ClubVirginia Tech tennis player Patrick Daciek will compete inthe first-ever US Open National Playoffs – Mixed Doubles Championship, August24-27, at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale in New Haven, Conn.
Daciek, a senior from Severna Park, Md., and his partner,Skylar Morton of Bethesda, Md., won the Mid-Atlantic Sectional QualifyingTournament with a victory against brother-sister duo Tara and Venkat Iyer,winning the mixed doubles title, 6-0 6-1. Prior to the tournament Morton andDaciek had never played doubles together, but knew each other from training atthe Junior Tennis Champions Center.
The team will begin play on August 24th againstthe Pacific Northwest champions, Marie-Eve Pelletier and former ATP touring proAleksandar Vlaski. The winner of that match will advance to play the team ofChristina Fusano and David Martin, the Southern Sectional winners.
The tournament is being held in conjunction with the NewHaven Open at Yale presented by First Niagara, the final Olympus US Open Serieswomen’s event of the summer. The winning team will receive a wild card into themain draw of the 2011 US Open Mixed Doubles Tournament, starting Wednesday,August 31, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.,the home of the US Open.
Mixed doubles was added to the US Open National Playoffsthis year, following the debut of men’s and women’s singles last year. Thisyear, 192 teams competed in mixed doubles at one of 16 Sectional QualifyingTournaments, and 14 teams have advanced to New Haven (two teams havewithdrawn). The US Open National Playoffs function as a series of tournamentsheld throughout the United States to make the US Open eligible to anyone andeveryone 14 and over with the passion to compete, regardless of playing abilityor nationality.