Jack Dorsey Tennis Tournament this week at Oglebay and Wheeling Parks | News, sports, jobs

WHEELING — The Wheeling Oglebay Tennis Club will present the 2024 Jack Dorsey Memorial Senior Open Tennis Tournament June 19-23 at Oglebay Park's Horne Family Racquet Center and Wheeling Park's Hilltop Courts.

This event is a men's national level 3 and attracts players from all over the country.

The divisions include ages 35 to 85 in singles and doubles, with age groups in 5-year increments.

Play starts on Wednesday evening (19 June) and concludes with most of the finals played on Sunday 23 June. The schedule and match results will be available on the USTA website, playtennis.usta.com/tournaments, using the keyword Dorsey.

Kelly Molyneaux Rose returns as tournament director. Having held this position since 2019, she has earned the respect of the gentlemen who travel here to compete for national ranking points.

This event brings approximately 120 players from 24 states to the area. The largest number of players are from Florida (18), but many are from Ohio (14), Maryland (12), Pennsylvania (12), Michigan (12) and Virginia (11).

Divisions with the largest number of participants are the 65, 70 and 75 singles divisions, with 26, 20 and 18 respectively.

Based on recommendations from the USTA seeding committee, Rose published the seeds in the singles divisions: men's 35 singles No. 1 Calvin LaForrest (Arlington, Va.) and No. 2 Jeremy McClelland (Wheeling); men's 40 singles – round robin; men's 45 singles No. 1 Michal Malcek (Fort Walton Beach, Florida) and No. 2 Clinton Vanvalkenburgh (Chesterfield, Missouri); men's 50 singles No. 1 Bruce Nesbit (Wilmington, Del.) and No. 2 Juan Carlos Alcarez de Soto (Key Biscayne, Fla.); men's 55 singles No. 1 Mark Panepinto (Sarasota, Fla./Wheeling) and No. 2 Don Davis (Ashburn, Va.); men's 60 singles No. 1 Bryan Sauer (Wilmington, Del.) and No. 2 Adam Abele (Lakewood Ranch, Fla.); men's 65 singles No. 1 Michael Rose (Ecorse, Michigan) and No. 2 Stuart Chase (Charlottesville, Virginia); men's 70 singles No. 1 Joaquim Rasgado (Hendersonville, NC) and No. 2 Robert Graham (Tampa, Florida); men's 75 singles No. 1 Vishru Maharaj (Fernandina Beach, Fla.) and No. 2 Chuck Maland (Knoxville, Tn.); men's 80 singles No. 1 James Hendrix (Boone, NC) and No. 2 L. Hill Griffin (Atlanta, GA); and men's 85 singles No. 1 Ronald Perdue (Tulsa, Ok.) and No. 2 Vitalis Seputa (Troy, Mich.).

Members of the WOTC who will participate include the following: McClelland (35 singles and doubles), Tyler McCullough (35 singles and doubles), Diego Gattesco (50 singles and 45 doubles), Panepinto (55 singles and 45 doubles), and Tyler Szafran (35 singles).

This tournament is named after John T. “Jack” Dorsey, Jr., who passed away in 2010. Dorsey had a great love for the sport of tennis. He enjoyed competing and serving as an ambassador for the sport. Dorsey brought this national men's event to Wheeling and served as director for more than fifteen years.

Debbie Pickens, president of WOTC, commented: “This tournament is the culmination of a year of preparation. I would like to thank everyone who helped in any way to make this event possible: Oglebay staff, WOTC board members, all the volunteers and the generous sponsors.

Tournament Director Kelly Rose said: “Following the 2022 tournament, we announced that 2023 may be the final year for the Jack Dorsey Memorial Senior Open. The volunteers were put under pressure, and WOTC President Debbie Pickens even more so. The response to this news from the national tennis community was overwhelming. During the 2023 event, literally dozens of players expressed concerns about the end of the tournament. When the USTA section office received the player ratings, they contacted Debbie to commend the club for its 5-star rating, which is higher than any other tournament in the Middle States Section. They offered to do whatever it took to ensure the Dorsey lived on.

“For the past few years, I have been in Detroit doing administrative work on the USTA side while Debbie and the Wheeling Oglebay Tennis Club team were preparing for the arrival of the players. They have arranged use of the Oglebay and Wheeling Park tennis facilities, booked room blocks at Oglebay and local hotels, arranged sponsorships, ordered trophies and player gifts, arranged other amenities for the players, scheduled volunteers to help during the tournament itself, and much more .”

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