Chicago Charities Men's Preview

October 31, 2017
Chicago, IL

Men
The favorites in the men’s draw are the fifth and sixth-ranked teams in the country, Scott Kahler and Casey Watt, and Marek Czerwinski and Chris Gambino. Both of these teams showed good form by reaching the semifinals at the PNC Steel City Open, and look to advance further in Chicago. The eleventh-ranked team of Ryan Baxter and Ricky Heath were quarterfinalists in Pittsburgh and will try to improve on that result in Chicago.

Although they have not played together in a few years, Juan Arraya and Alex Bancila are the most dangerous team in the draw. Arraya (with Jeff Morneau) is number one in the country, and pocketed the Grand Prix title in Pittsburgh. Bancila is also coming off of an NRT victory, winning the Milwaukee Open with Sven Burus. Graham McNerney and Matt Warner lost to Bancila/Burus in the Milwaukee finals and will try to make an impact on the Charities draw.

Martin Bostrom, who played a great tournament with Sebastian Bredberg last weekend at the Atlantic Classic, just barely losing to Drew Broderick and Jared Palmer in the finals, is playing with Michael Montalbano in Chicago. At the Patterson Open, Montalbano showed that he can compete with and beat the top players, teaming with Arraya to take the title while dismissing three teams of top ten players along the way. Marco Grangeiro and Mark Innes join Bostrom/Montalbano as teams who could go far in the Chicago draw.

Besides Czerwinski/Gambino, there are several other teams who could advance deeply into their hometown tournament. Ben McKnight and Pete Rose, Peter Berka and Christopher Struck, and Jeronie Barnes and Mike Marino are all hoping to give the fans reason to cheer.

The paddle at Chicago Charities is always high quality; watch the Live Streaming on the APTA Network beginning with the women’s round of 16 at 1:00 pm on Friday and continuing throughout the weekend. You can also follow the results as they unfold on Live Scoring.