Baker, Francis headling McAllen pro tennis tourney

McALLEN — Jamie Baker is looking for a Rio Grande Valley sweep. And Alberto Francis is hoping for a successful homecoming.

After winning USTA Futures pro tennis tournaments in Brownsville and Harlingen the last two weeks, Baker goes for three straight when play opens this morning at the $15,000 Marquez and Marquez Men’s Futures of McAllen tennis tournament at the McAllen Country Club.

Francis, meanwhile, is a member of the tourney’s No. 1 doubles team and is also seeded in singles.

“For the community it’s a great opportunity for McAllen to see some world class tennis right in their backyard,” McAllen Country Club Tennis Director Chris Gill said. “These are some of the best players in the world. A lot of them are very young. We have 14 and 15 years olds trying to get their feet wet in pro tennis. Then we have some other guys who are a little older or were injured and are trying to find their way back up the rankings.”

Baker, who enters the tournament as the No. 1 singles seed, is fresh off a windswept 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) win over Jurek Stasiak in the championship finals Sunday at Harlingen. Stasiak is unseeded in this tournament.

Singles and doubles play begins at 10 a.m. today and continues through the week. The

semifinals will be Saturday and the championship finals on Sunday.

Francis, who with Ryler De Heart forms the tournament’s No. 1 seeded doubles team, attended McAllen Memorial High School before moving on to a stellar career at UCLA. Since turning pro Francis has played in exotic locales such as Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Columbia, Brazil and Poland. But as a McAllen Country Club member, Francis won’t have to live out of his suitcase this week. In fact, he said he’ll be able to walk to his matches.

In addition to being a part of the top-seeded doubles team, Francis has also drawn the No. 8 singles seed. If the rankings hold to form, Francis will have a quarterfinal-round rematch against Baker, who beat him in straight sets last week in Harlingen.

“I’m pretty excited. It’s always fun playing at home because I’m used to traveling so much,” Francis said. “It would be nice to play him again. I don’t think I played as well as I could have. It was pretty windy and it seems like he’s been handling the wind well the last few weeks. We’ll see how the first rounds go.

“Hopefully this tournament will help out to get kids playing and people in the area maybe get involved with leagues.”

Todd Mavreles is the Deputy Sports Editor for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4451.