Tue, Dec 02 2008
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Published July 18, 2008 11:52 pm - Jean-Yves Aubone has learned an important tennis lesson at a young age and he is reaping the benefits on the USTA Futures Tour. The lesson the 20-year-old Floridian has learned is the importance of mental and physical toughness. He exhibited both Friday in his quarterfinal win at the USTA Freeman Men’s $10,000 Futures Tournament at the Millennium Tennis and Fitness Club. Coming off last week’s Futures tourney championship in Peoria, Ill., Aubone reached the semifinals of this week’s event in Joplin. He pulled off his second upset of the tournament Friday with a 7-5, 6-1 victory against fifth-seeded Adam Thompson from New Zealand. Aubone rolls to semifinals in Futures tourney By Rich Brown
rbrown@joplinglobe.com Jean-Yves Aubone has learned an important tennis lesson at a young age and he is reaping the benefits on the USTA Futures Tour. The lesson the 20-year-old Floridian has learned is the importance of mental and physical toughness. He exhibited both Friday in his quarterfinal win at the USTA Freeman Men’s $10,000 Futures Tournament at the Millennium Tennis and Fitness Club. Coming off last week’s Futures tourney championship in Peoria, Ill., Aubone reached the semifinals of this week’s event in Joplin. He pulled off his second upset of the tournament Friday with a 7-5, 6-1 victory against fifth-seeded Adam Thompson from New Zealand. Blake Strode, who played No. 1 for the University of Arkansas this season, also pulled a quarterfinal upset, dispatching fourth-seeded Nicolas Santos of Brazil 6-4, 6-3. The other two quarterfinals saw seventh-seeded Tigran Martirosyan, Armenia, defeat Ytai Abougzir, U.S., 6-4, 6-3 and Travis Helgeson, U.S., roll past Arnau Brugues, Spain, 6-0, 6-2. Semifinal matchups today have Martirosyan taking on Helgeson at 11 a.m. and the Aubone-Strode match to follow. The singles final will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday. The unseeded Aubone, who will be a junior at Florida State next season, turned back top-seeded Adriano Biasella, from Italy, in the second round and has not been pushed past two sets by any of his three opponents. He opened with a 6-2, 6-2 decision against Millennium pro Diego Camacho. “Even though I am doing well here, there are still a lot of things I need to improve on, like a little bit of footwork and game plan,” he said. “But, with each match, I feel like I am getting better.” Although Aubone’s USTA ranking was not high enough to get him into this week’s main draw, he was given a special exempt status, in light of last week’s championship, to play at Millennium. Aubone’s physical and mental attributes came into play constantly throughout his quarterfinal match. Physically, he never quit on any point, refusing to stop running even if Thompson’s shots were out of reach. And, mentally, he showed his toughness the most when it was necessary ... at 5-all in the first set, for instance. That was the point where Aubone may have concentrated the most. With Thompson serving, the young Florida netter stroked a flawless backhand crosscourt to get the advantage and closed out the game on a precision crosscourt forehand that went untouched by the feisty New Zealand player. The 6-5 lead gave Aubone the momentum and mental edge he desired, and he next only gave up one point in holding serve for the first-set victory. “After breaking his serve, I was thinking I have to get the next game, keep the same game plan and stay consistent, not play like I am up a break,” said Aubone, who started playing tennis at age 2. “I had to keep playing every point the same.” 
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