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Two valley teens get shot at championship
(by Tony Lange - June 22, 2011)
Two valley teens get shot at championship
By TONY LANGE
Gates Mills native Lauren Davis and Chagrin Falls resident Emily Mazzola, two 17-year-olds, are among the 32 singles players in the main draw of the 2011 Ladies Cleveland Open Pro Circuit Championships.
The $10,000 U.S. Tennis Association event got under way Tuesday on the outdoor clay courts at the Chagrin Valley Athletic Club in Bainbridge. Players get $98 for qualifying and world ranking points based matches won.
The singles semifinals are scheduled to be played at 1 p.m. June 25 and the finals at 1 p.m. June 26.
Davis, who relocated from Gates Mills about a year and half ago to live and train in Boca Raton, Fla., at Evert Tennis Academy, is a former Gilmour Academy student. She won a Division II Ohio High School Athletic Association state title her freshman year of high school, beating Cincinnati Summit County Day's Gabby Steele, 6-4, 6-0, in the finals match.
"It was really good for me. Winning states as a freshman got me a lot of publicity, and it was a good experience for me and a big deal," Davis said. "I really enjoyed being a part of the tennis team at Gilmour and just playing with my friends."
With her family still in Gates Mills, Davis got a little homesick when she first moved to Florida, she said, but it was the right move.
"I have goals set for myself for tennis, and I have a lot of dreams that I want to accomplish, and so I think that moving down to Florida was the right decision," Davis said.
While making friends and falling in love with her new life, Davis said, she attends Kaplan University, plays tennis three to four hours daily and does fitness training an additional two hours a day, she said.
To finish 2010, Davis won 36 of 37 matches on a run that included titles in two USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, three junior tournaments and an eight-woman playoff tournament, which earned her a wild card to the 2011 Australian Open, her first main-draw appearance in a Grand Slam event.
In January, Davis turned pro and is currently ranked 373 in the world.
"I think it's a really big responsibility," she said. "When I made the decision to turn pro, I was so ready to take on that challenge and to just commit myself to it as my job now and just set some high goals for myself."
Coming back to Ohio to represent her hometown at the Chagrin Valley Athletic Club this week is really exciting, Davis said.
"I'll have a lot of supporters behind me, and that will be really nice," she said. "And I'll also be able to stay at my house, which also will be really nice, and my friends and family can support me too. So I'm just really looking forward to it."
Meanwhile, Mazzola, who won the wild-card tournament last week to qualify for this week's USTA event, has never competed in a main draw Pro Circuit tournament before. She just finished her junior year at Chagrin Falls High School and finished fourth in singles Division II state high school tournament in the fall, losing the third-place match, 7-5, 6-4.
"I'm really excited," she said about competing at CVAC for her first main draw. "It will be really good competition, and it will be fun to see all these other girls who are so good and work so hard to be good at tennis. It will just be cool to be around them and with them and on the court."
Mazzola also said it will be nice to have people around who are rooting for her.
"But it's obviously something new, so it'll be a little uncomfortable, but I'm still excited about it," she said.
Upon returning from a team tournament in Champaign, Ill., on Sunday, Mazzola had planned to rest and take Monday off -- the day before the main draw -- to rest.
She had planned to just stay focused, play her game and do what she does before every competition, prepare her body and mind for the next match, she said.
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