Chattanooga’s James “Bo” Seal is home for the summer — and ready to play tennis in front of his home crowd.
The Tennessee Valley Open Championships this weekend at Manker Patten give the 17-year-old a rare opportunity to play a tournament in his hometown, since he enrolled at the renowned Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy in Florida last fall.
The TVOC began Wednesday and runs until Sunday’s championship matches, offering $13,000 in prize money divided among 16 categories of the competition.
The event was originally scheduled to begin Thursday, but overwhelming participation pushed the men’s and women’s open draws, along with the men’s 45 singles, to 64-player draws, causing the TVOC to play about 45 matches Wednesday afternoon. The tournament has started early in past years but with only about eight matches, tournament director Ned Caswell said.
This year’s tournament has 268 official entrants, up from 2007’s 225 competitors.
The men’s open top four seeds, including Seal at fourth, received first-round byes and begin play today.
During his first TVOC in 2007, Seal reached the finals of the men’s open, losing to pro Oren Motevassal, a native of Israel. Motevassal returns this year’s tough field, which welcomes Georgia’s Travis Helgeson as the top seed, Mississippi’s Robbye Poole and Tennys Sandgren of Gallatin, a junior player ranked second in the nation. Seal is ranked fifth in the nation and is playing the tournament as an amateur.
“I had fun playing in it last year,” Seal said. “I don’t get to play in front of a home crowd much, and this year’s field is extremely strong. Not that it wasn’t last year, but it got a lot tougher this year.”
Seal completed his first school year at Bolletieri and returned home for the summer three weeks ago. He spent the spring playing in ITF tournaments in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.
“The two in Brazil were the strongest and the two hardest next to the Junior French Open,” Seal said. “I enjoyed being down there (at Bolletieri), and I made close friends, got a lot of workouts in and appreciated my coaches. The group I worked with was all leaving for college, so it was sad to leave for the summer.”
Seal will spend the rest of the summer playing USTA futures tournaments in Illinois and Pittsburgh, along with competing in the National Clay Court Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich. He has pro aspirations, but also wants to attend college and is currently looking at the tennis programs at Tennessee and Georgia.
While he’s in Chattanooga, he’s been working with Caswell and practicing with his dad Bob and Philip Johnson, who coached Seal during his two years at the Baylor School.
“His fitness level is unbelievable, and his ground strokes are as good as any pro,” Caswell said. “I’ve been helping him with his mental game, that and his fitness is his focus. When I was a pro, I played with (Andre) Agassi and Bo’s ground strokes are as good as those guys at that age.”
