Semifinals Ready to Go
by Tom Wozniak, Director of Marketing
The Semifinal round of the 1st Annual Media Breakaway Tennis Tournament is locked in and looks like a true clash of the titans.
The Women’s bracket includes two serious grudge matches with Kacy Manning vs. Kimm Wierema and Jaclyn Charles vs. Remijia Santopietro. The buildup to the Manning-Wierema match has been especially contentious, as these two top ranked players have been engaged in a war of words worthy of a championship boxing match. At a recent press conference, the two got into a heated debate over who was the better tennis player reminiscent of famous Ali v. Frazier and Lang v. Balboa stare-downs.
“You are clearly a better player than I am,” said Manning. Wierema shot back with “No way. You are a fantastic player and have a much stronger game than I do.” That prompted Manning to retort, “You know, we are both pretty good players. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.” This was followed by Wierema’s parting shot, “You’re right. Do you want to grab some coffee?” Fortunately, security was present to keep this heated verbal exchange from escalating into a serious altercation.
On the Men’s side the semifinal matches include Steve Richter vs. Jon “Ringo” Ringhofer and Doug Davis vs. Will Charland. Thus far, the men’s bracket has gone mostly as expected, with the top two seeds (Richter and Davis) heading toward an epic battle for tennis supremacy. However, Ringhofer and Charland plan to have something to say about that. At this morning’s press conference, each of these underdogs spoke about finding an appropriate strategy for their upcoming matches.
“Andy Roddick is a good friend of mine,” said Ringhofer “and people are always telling us we look like twins. So, I’m thinking of having Andy play my match for me.” A reporter from Sports Illustrated pointed out that revealing that strategy might not have been the best idea. After a few moments of thought, Ringhofer replied “Ummm, I was just kidding. Seriously. Andy will definitely NOT be playing in my place. So, you don’t need to look to closely at him…I mean me…when he…I mean I play against Steve.”
In the meantime, Steve was anxiously awaiting the announcement of the draw for the U.S. Open that starts August 31st. “If Ringo’s stalling tactics to play our match turn out to hurt my chances of being in the U.S. Open this year, I will be very upset,” Steve said.
Whatever happens, the semifinals are sure to bring the tension and excitement up a notch when they take place later this week. Stay tuned!
