In a battle of Loyola College Prep alumni, top seed Anthony McMaster defeated No. 2 Stafford Yerger in three sets to win the men’s open singles in the Louisiana Family Medical Clinic City Championships tournament Sunday afternoon at the Bossier Tennis Center.
The week-long tournament attracted 269 players in 21 divisions, the most entries since the event was revived in 2018 after a 10-year hiatus.
McMaster, a standout tennis and football player at Loyola who graduated in 2010, won the 2018 men’s title, defeating Bossier Tennis Center pro Todd Killen in the finals.
His opponent Sunday graduated in May after reaching the Division III boys singles finals in the LHSAA state tournament. Yerger is continuing his education and tennis career at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa.
The title match started with a cloud cover that along with a breeze made things somewhat comfortable.
The first two sets went by fairly quickly. McMaster breezed through the first 6-1 and Yerger dominated the second by the same score.
The players could have decided the match with a 10-point tiebreaker. But they agreed before the match to play a third set in the event of a split.
By the time the third set started, the cloud cover was long gone and the heat was definitely on.
McMaster broke Yerger’s serve in a marathon fourth game to go up 3-1. Each player had multiple game points before McMaster finally converted.
McMaster then held his serve to take a 4-1 lead. But Yerger rallied, winning his serve and breaking McMaster to get within 4-3.
The match eventually reached 6-all. There would be a tiebreaker after all. McMaster won the nailbiter 7-5 to take his second title in four years. He also collected the $1,000 first prize.
Yerger didn’t leave without a title, though. He and Brian Irvin defeated Kirk Fisher and Joel McGregor of Monroe 7-5, 6-2 in the men’s open doubles finals.
Bossier Tennis Center assistant pro Bianca Schulz and Ginger Morris of Bossier City won the women’s open doubles title. They won the first set over Anna K. Harvey of Bossier City and Julie Lesseter of Shreveport 6-2. The latter duo was unable to continue after the first set.
Harvey won the 2020 women’s open singles but was unable to defend her title because of a lack of entries.
Kirk and Tori Fisher won the mixed open doubles with a 6-2, 6-3 over Irvin and Anna Clark.
Here are the City champions in the remaining divisions.
Father-Son Doubles: Todd and Gary Killen
Father-Daughter Doubles: Adam and Sydney Young
Mother-Son Doubles: To be decided this week
Mother-Daughter Doubles; Margaret and Mary Mar Elberson
Coed Open Singles: Andrew Kautz
8.0 Men’s Doubles: Tim Stinson/Brian Bernard
8.0 Women’s Doubles: Alex Litton/Chippy Alcantara
8. Mixed Doubles: Heather Howard/Sam Hussein
7.0 Men’s Doubles: Steve Hurst/Marcus Briggs
7.0 Women’s Doubles: Meghan Wood/Merritt Lorey
7.0 Mixed Doubles: Amy Bowman/Rich Karam
6.0 Men’s Doubles: Jesse Waller/Brad Simpson
6.0 Women’s Doubles: Lynn Ferry-Nelson/Leslie Tuminello
6.0 Mixed Doubles: Skylar Floyd/Jason Taravella
5.0 Men’s Doubles: Chad Souter/Paul Singh
5.0 Women’s Doubles: Trichel Binderim/Abbie Reeves
5.0 Mixed Doubles: Holly and Jonathon Hightower
— Featured photo courtesy of Jeffrey Goodman
