Did Loomis launch Witten?
Was Loomis the launching pad for Jesse Witten? The 26-year-old American has upset his way to the third round of the U.S. Open. Witten defeated Maximo Gonzalez Thursday and will take on fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic in the third round on Friday. Witten was just the fifth seed at the RWI USTA Men’s Professional Tennis Tournament in Loomis back in June. But he cruised through the weeklong tournament, beating Artem Sitak 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in a thrilling final. Witten was interviewed by the crew on ESPN2 Thursday, sporting his University of Kentucky Tennis t-shirt in the studio. He’ll be able to purchase some new gear after earning more than $48,000 for making the third round of the Open. He entered tennis’ fourth major with less than $20,000 in prize money for the year. It’s a pretty cool story for a player who has toiled on tennis’ minor league circuit for five years and had failed to even make the U.S. Open in 10 of the last 11 years.
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It is always great when another local athlete has fought his way through trying times and is finally beginning to get some recognition once again showing that Auburn and the surrounding region is the big little town that could. Congratulations to Jesse and hopefully he will continue to go far!