by Meaghan Neal
For the first time in many years the Tuxedo Club hosted the Men’s US Amateur Singles & Doubles Championships
US Bathurst team members Freddie Bristowe and Henry Smith showed why they were selected for the team by playing each other in the singles final and partnering together to take home the Doubles title. Smith, who played fantastic in his win over Barker in the semis, was not quite as clinical in the final…and Bristowe was a rock throughout weathering the Smith pace and calmly taking home the title! Matt Mackin showed that his game has improved dramatically over the last year, as he hopes to make the jump to the upper echelon of amateur tennis.
Top amateurs Erik Barker and Matt Makin not only pushed Freddie and Henry in the singles semi-finals as mentioned above, Barker and Mackin held a 2 sets to 1 lead before succumbing in 5 sets in a very entertaining doubles final.
2025 US Van Alen /Clothier cup team members Spencer Yager and Tarquin Sotir, who are eager to represent the US on future amateur teams played well in spurts and took home knowledge about where they need to improve the close the gap between themselves and the top amateur players.
Young guns Jonah Serotta and Kurt Mueller showed the crowd that the future is indeed bright for US Amateur court tennis as they both look to represent the US on Van Alen /Clothier teams and hopefully Bathurst Cup teams as well.
Henry Smith and Freddie Bristowe both mentioned in their speeches how special it is to play at Tuxedo, thanked the US Court Tennis Preservation Foundation for their support of player development in the US…of which they both have benefited, and in a nice ‘shout out’ to Tuxedo’s Racquets Director Tim Chisholm they thanked him for his coaching, encouragement and support over the years.
