Virginia Tech tennis player Patrick Daciek will compete in the first-ever US Open National Playoffs – Mixed Doubles Championship, August 24-27, at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale in New Haven, Conn.

 

Daciek, a senior from Severna Park, Md., and his partner, Skylar Morton of Bethesda, Md., won the Mid-Atlantic Sectional Qualifying Tournament with a victory against brother-sister duo Tara and Venkat Iyer, winning the mixed doubles title, 6-0 6-1. Prior to the tournament Morton and Daciek had never played doubles together, but knew each other from training at the Junior Tennis Champions Center.

 

The team will begin play on August 24^th against the Pacific Northwest champions, Marie-Eve Pelletier and former ATP touring pro Aleksandar Vlaski. The winner of that match will advance to play the team of Christina Fusano and David Martin, the Southern Sectional winners.

 

The tournament is being held in conjunction with the New Haven Open at Yale presented by First Niagara, the final Olympus US Open Series women’s event of the summer. The winning team will receive a wild card into the main draw of the 2011 US Open Mixed Doubles Tournament, starting Wednesday, August 31, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., the home of the US Open.

 

Mixed doubles was added to the US Open National Playoffs this year, following the debut of men’s and women’s singles last year. This year, 192 teams competed in mixed doubles at one of 16 Sectional Qualifying Tournaments, and 14 teams have advanced to New Haven (two teams have withdrawn). The US Open National Playoffs function as a series of tournaments held throughout the United States to make the US Open eligible to anyone and everyone 14 and over with the passion to compete, regardless of playing ability or nationality.

 

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