The Lake Invitational Men’s and Women’s NRT/Viking PCQ Preview

October 11-12, 2019
Franklin Lakes, NJ

The 2019-2020 Grand Prix circuit kicks off in New Jersey this weekend, with solid fields in both the men’s and women’s divisions vying for the first major title of the season.

Women
After being out with an injury for the latter part of last season, Cynthia Dardis is back and ready to team with partner Amy Shay to reclaim their perennial spot at or near the top of the rankings. They will have plenty of worthy challengers at The Lake Invitational, including:

2019 APTA Nationals finalist and second-ranked Roxy Enica (both with partner Laura Berendt) is in fine form, coming off a win this past weekend at the Patterson Club Open (with Florentina Hanisch). Ana Brzova is a three-time APTA National Champion (2013-2014 with Viktoria Stoklasova, 2015 with Liz Cruz) who has played sparingly in recent seasons, but showed she is a force to be reckoned with when she plays, reaching the 2019 APTA Nationals semifinals with Amy Shay. She also has the “home field” advantage as the Head Professional at the Indian Trail Club. An untested team to be sure, but no one will want to see Brzova/Enica in their section of the draw.

Kerri Delmonico and Lauren Gebbia are a team that consistently reaches the later rounds of big tournaments. The current fifth-ranked team in the country fell in the semifinals of Patterson to Enica/Hanisch, and looks to better that result at The Lake Invitational.

The eighth-ranked team in the country, Jessica Guyaux and Myrthe Molenveld, got everyone’s attention in their first tournament together, winning last season’s Patterson Club Open. They continued to have excellent results together, reaching the semifinals at both The Midwesterns and the Philly Open.

Maria Manley and Pam Ruoff, ranked 13th, proved that they can challenge the top teams when they took out the fourth seeds, Suzanne Lemery and Kelly Rohrbach, in a fierce battle at last season’s Boston Open. Manley/Ruoff almost pulled out another upset in the quarterfinals of Boston, but lost in three sets to Martina Ondrejkova and Ana Maria Zubori.

Men

Although it couldn’t measure up to the dominance of their 2017-2018 season, when they won a slew of tournaments including the Nationals and claimed the number one ranking, John Hughes and Marc Powers had another great season in 2018-2019, finishing as finalists at the Nationals (losing to Juan Arraya and Mark Parsons) and ending the season ranked second. This past weekend in Patterson, they split up and reached the finals with different partners, with Hughes and Martin Bostrom getting the final round win over Powers and Juan Arraya. They are the team to beat at The Lake Invitational, but will get plenty of competition from a strong field including:

Juan Arraya and Jeffrey Morneau were the second-ranked team in 2016-2017 and the third-ranked team in 2017-2018. Last season, Arraya won his first National title and claimed the top ranking (both with Mark Parsons). Morneau finished the season ranked tenth with Mikk Irdoja. If this team can find the form they had together in previous seasons, they will be tough to beat.

The fourth-ranked team, Marek Czerwinski and Graham McNerney, posted excellent results last season, reaching the final eight at Nationals and the semifinals of Chicago Charities. Most impressively, they won the Philly Open, beating Arraya/Parsons in a three-set final, cementing their place as a top team.

Brian Compton and Scott Kahler went on quite a run in 2018-2019, claiming the titles at The Cleveland Masters and The Midwesterns and getting to the semifinals of the Nationals. They finished the season as the fifth-ranked team.

A perennial top ten player, Max LePivert has had several different partners over the last few years. This past weekend at Patterson, he teamed up with Anton Protsenko and reached the semifinals. He and Protsenko, who is ranked 21st with Andrea Bonfigli, will partner again at the Lake Invitational and look to repeat that good result.

It is always exciting to see who is in good form at the season’s first Grand Prix! You can watch all of the action on Friday and Saturday on the APTA Network, YouTube, and Facebook Live.

You can also follow the results as they happen on Live Scoring.