Weather serves up early problems for Godsick at Mardy Fish tournament
VERO BEACH — Nico Godsick had so many starts and mostly stops at this week’s rain-interrupted Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation $15,000 ITF/USTA Pro Circuit tournament that he had to wonder if he was ever going to get on the court.
After several hours of chess and friendly poker games, Godsick finally opened play Thursday morning at the Vero Beach Fitness and Tennis Club at Timber Ridge but then had to deal with a damaged Stadium Court surface and a feisty opponent in fifth-seeded Dominican Peter Bertran before pulling out a (timewise) 4-hour, 10-minute 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory to advance to the second round.
The heavy rains this week created soft spots on the baseline, requiring repeated repair work, thus prolonging the match.
“I thought if I get to play, I get to play. It’s never easy playing someone who’s playing well in these windy conditions and having three [long] breaks to [fix] the court," said Godsick, 18, who lives in Delray Beach with his mother/coach Mary Joe Fernandez, a former No. 4 in the world, and father Tony Godsick, longtime agent of Roger Federer and now Coco Gauff with Team8 agency.
“I look at it as, yeah, it bothers me, but it bothers him, too. But actually, it worked out because I got the break right away and again early in the third set [after another maintenance delay].”
Bertran, 27, who has won three ITF $15,000 events since 2019 and is ranked 625, was serving at set point when a chunk of clay popped up behind Godsick’s baseline to halt play for 30 minutes. After another five-minute warmup, Godsick broke, but lost in the tiebreak, and then trailed 2-5 in the second.
“Most of the time when you’re down 2-5, match point, you’re going to lose 98 percent of the time, but if I stop trying, I’ll lose 100 percent of those matches," said Godsick, who earned his first ATP ranking point in a $15,000 ITF tournament in Sunrise earlier this month. “As long as I keep competing, that’s all I can really ask for.”
The 538th-ranked, 6-foot-1 Godsick, who already features a top 100 backhand, found his missing-in-action forehand and serve. He was able to break Bertran’s serve and stave off a match point before rolling in the ensuing tiebreak.
“We both didn’t play well at the same time, and I weathered the storm," said Godsick, who will play for Stanford in the fall. “I wasn’t timing my serve right in the first two sets so when I started to serve and find my forehand, the match changed.”
With Fernandez and long-time coach Diego Moyano watching from courtside, along with dozens of Timber Ridge fans, Godsick coasted in the third, punctuating his second career pro victory with an ace.
“He has really good genes," smiled Moyano, whose academy is at Mission Bay in Boca Raton. “He always fights to the end, and he has that ability to figure out matches. Win or lose, you never lose that. We are still building his game.”
In a glass-half-full day for Dominicans, sixth-seeded Roberto Subervi just beat the rain and 18-year-old qualifier Sean Daryabeigi, of Delray Beach, 6-3, 7-5, in a delayed first-round match. The 677th-ranked Subervi, 29, has won eight similar $15,000 ITF tournaments and was ranked a career-high 211 in 2020.
In other second-round matches, Ricardo Rodriguez, of Venezuela, a two-time Fish singles finalist, fell 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in one of his trademark, 3-hour, and 14-minute marathons to German qualifier Benni Henning, who turns 26 on Friday.
“Physically, I was stronger," said Henning, who played tennis at Norfolk State University and three years at College of Charleston (SC). “He pressured me a lot and we were pretty equal. Toward the end, I committed a bit more and he got a little tight. It was a really good win for me."
Henning took a few years off after college, teaching tennis at LTP Academy in Charleston and then working as a hitting partner for WTA’s Emma Navarro [now ranked 101] “to make money so I could travel.”
Joining Henning in the quarterfinals was Canadian Dan Martin after a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Thomas Brown of UNC Charlotte. Martin, born in Romania, played parts of four seasons at Dartmouth and now plays for the University of Miami (COVID extension) while pursuing his master’s in sports administration.
“My generation of Canadian players was the best ones to compete against, so knowing where they are, I can see myself being up there and it’s inspirational," said Martin, 23, who will play Jacob Brumm after the former Baylor standout knocked out fourth-seeded Colin Markes, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Martin’s Romanian roommate this week, the top-seeded, 502nd-ranked Gabi Boitan, dispatched 16-year-old Californian Kaylan Boitan, 7-6 (4), 6-1, but was two points away from elimination in his afternoon match before another rainstorm halted play at 3-3 in the third versus wild-card entrant Jaycer Lyeons, of Clarksville, Tennessee.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Storms interrupt play at Mardy Fish tournament at Timber Ridge
