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Tournament Feature
Tennis Plaza Cup Crowns Champions amid Raindrops
by
Colette Lewis, 31 January 2008
It may have taken overtime, but eight champions emerged in four age divisions in last week's Tennis Plaza Cup, a USTA National Level 3 event sponsored by Tennis Plaza in south Florida.
Held at five sites in and around Coral Gables, two of them featuring clay courts, the Tennis Plaza Cup wasn't blessed with ideal weather after Saturday's opening two rounds. Persistent rain on Sunday morning delayed the second of two matches until late evening, despite tiebreakers in lieu of third sets.
More rain Monday afternoon pushed the completion of the boys' 18s final to Tuesday morning, when at 1-1 in the third set, No. 1 seed William Federhofer and No. 3 seed Sekou Bangoura, Jr. resumed the tournament's final championship match.
Bangoura earned a break in the final set's seventh game, and serving for the title at 5-4, the 16-year-old from Bradenton was determined not to make the same mistake he had made in the first set the previous day.
"It was the exact same circumstances as the first set," Bangoura said. "I was up 5-3 and a couple of things happened that shouldn't have. (Today) after he held serve at 3-5, I just kept telling myself, get a serve in and go for your shots, because that's the mistake you made last time and you might as well try and correct it."
There was no hesitation this time, with four outright winners in the final game giving him a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 decision.
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