By Richard Polen
sports@joplinglobe.com
Harvard Law School is going to have to wait. Blake Strode has other plans, at least for now.
Strode, who was graduated in May from the University of Arkansas, advanced Thursday to the quarterfinals of the Millennium Tennis Club $10,000 Men’s Futures with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Marcus Fugate.
Today he faces top-seeded Michael McClune, who defeated Jonathan Wolff 6-1, 6-2 in Round 2. Strode, who advanced to the finals of the International Tennis Federation Futures tour on July 12 in Pittsburgh, Pa., is playing in his third tournament since turning pro.
In other quarterfinal matches, which begin at 10 a.m., fourth seed Greg Ouellette faces sixth seed Matej Bocko, Holden Seguso takes on Michael Venus, who won last week’s tournament on a clay court in Peoria, Ill., and fifth seed Arnau Brugues-Davi faces Luis Diaz-Barriga.
In today’s doubles final at 6 p.m., third seed Cory Parr and Todd Paul, who defeated McClune and Ouellette 6-3, 6-1 in Thursday’s semifinal, will face fourth seed Diaz-Barriga and Robbye Poole. They slipped past Andrew Crone and Stefan Hardy 7-6, 7-6 in the other semifinal.
Strode and McClune have not faced one another before, although McClune and Ouellette defeated Strode and Burges-Davi 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 in Wednesday’s doubles quarterfinals.
“He’s a tough player,” said Strode, who played at the NCAA Singles Championship in May and became just the third player in school history to qualify for the semifinals.
Strode is a three-time all-Southeastern Conference selection, a two-time SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year and was the 2009 recipient of the ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for leadership and sportsmanship.
“I’m going to law school, but I’m definitely going to play tennis for at least a year,” he said.
While in Joplin, Strode is staying with Kurt and Susan Hoffmeister, whose daughter, Melissa, attends the University of Arkansas. She played one year of tennis at Arkansas after she won the Missouri Class 2 state championship in 2006 with a 35-1 record as a senior at Joplin High School.
“I was here the last few years,” Strode said. “It’s a well-run tournament. I stay with a family here. I like coming here. It’s not that far from St. Louis.”
Strode, from Bridgeton, Mo., was graduated in 2005 from Pattonville High School. He chose to attend Arkansas for several reasons.
“It’s just a really cool place,” he said. “Everything just worked out perfectly at Arkansas. I liked the campus and the atmosphere, just fell in love with it.”
He was graduated with a double major in international economics and Spanish. His grade-point average was 3.97.
At Pittsburgh, Strode was defeated in the finals 7-6, 7-6 by Dennis Zivkovic. In his first pro tournament, Strode was eliminated in the first round by Roy Kalmanovich 6-4, 6-4 in Rochester, N.Y.
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Tennis career puts law school on hold
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