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WHEELING - The Wheeling Oglebay Tennis Club will host the WVU Medicine WV Open July 30 through August 2 at Oglebay's Horne Family Racquet Center and the Wheeling Park tennis facilities.
With about 90 entrants in 15 divisions, some first round matches will need to be played today, Thursday, starting at 4 p.m. The majority of the matches will begin on Friday at 9 a.m., and play will continue all day Friday and Saturday with finals scheduled on Sunday.
The men's open singles division has a draw of 32. The No. 1 seed is Loren Byers, who won the men's open singles in 2022, 2023, and 2024. He missed the 2025 event due to injury. Byers played collegiate tennis at Penn State and Ohio State. He plans to play professionally in futures and challengers events abroad beginning in the fall.
Additional seeds are (2) Max Henson of Rostraver Township, PA; (3) last year's champ Mitch Maroscher of Salem, OH; (4 )Illia Shcherbakov of Cleveland, OH; (5) Xander Jhaveri of Westlake, OH: and (6) AJ Mercer of Huntington, WV.
Wheeling teaching professionals John Chatlak and Jeremy McClelland as well as Wheeling resident Tyler McCullough will compete in the men's open singles division.
Chatlak has played in the men's open singles since 1978 and has won singles and doubles titles. Over the years he has taught and competed with students, including McClelland.
McClelland, who has won the men's open singles five times as well as multiple open doubles events, will be playing men's open doubles with his high school teammate Tyler McCullough and mixed open doubles with his student Madeline Bradshaw.
The women's open singles division is smaller but very competitive. The number 1 seed is Madeline Bradshaw of Wheeling. Bradshaw finished her outstanding high school career at Wheeling Park High School as state runner-up and will be playing collegiate tennis at Denison University in Ohio.
The two-seed in the women's open singles is Lexi Henson of Rostraver Township, PA.
Finals of the men's and women's open singles will be played on Sunday at 11 a.m. with chair umpires overseeing the matches.
In addition to the open singles, a total of 13 other divisions will be decided by Sunday: men's, women's, and mixed open doubles; men's 3.0. 3.5, and 4.0 singles; men's 7.0, and 8.0 combo doubles; women's 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 combo doubles, and mixed 8.0 combo doubles.
Using the NTRP rating system, the USTA levels the playing field by assigning an ability level to players. This enables players ages 18+ to compete against others with the same NTRP. To determine combo doubles, the NTRP of the two players is added to establish an NTRP rating. For example, a 3.5 and a 4.0 would total 7.5, making that team eligible for the 8.0 division. Teams can play up, but not down.
In addition to local competitors in the men's open singles, many area gentlemen will be competing in various divisions: Ken Dearth, JT Thomas, Harold Pickens, Christian Turak, Tyler Szafran, Mark Singer, Charles Wylie, Alex Douglass, Cody Francis, Wes Palmer, Ned George, Mark Singer, Chad Broadwater, Brett Andrews, Kevin Kalany, and Wyatt Jefferson.
Local ladies competing in this event include Marissa Forshey, Billie Jo Johnston, Leanne Straub, Ashley Elliott, Maggie Allison, Meredith Delk, Julie Joseph, Julianna Pond, Kelly Barki, Kristin Seibert, Ashley Millard, and Michelle Kret.
The schedule of daily matches will be available on the USTA tournament website, or spectators can call the Oglebay shop at 304-243-4040 for daily schedule updates.
The WOTC welcomes all to come cheer for competitors throughout the event. Admission to all sessions is free.