USTA Championships begin in Delray Beach Sunday
Published July 11th, 2008
By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS EDITOR
On the heels of what has so far been a successful summer, 18-year-old Blas Moros and 16-year-old Zachary Katz are looking to continue their hot play at the USTA Boys’ 18 & 16 Clay Court Championships hosted by the City of Delray Beach.
Tournament play starts Sunday at 8 a.m. at the Delray Swim & Racquet Club, Boca West and the Delray Beach Stadium & Tennis Center.
Moros is a senior at Pine Crest High in Fort Lauderdale who lives in Boca Raton. This summer, he has played in one big event, the Florida State Junior Closed Championships in Daytona Beach, where he finished third. After a tough quarterfinal match, Moros lost in the semifinals to an opponent who had never previously defeated him.
 He qualified for the national closed event in Tallahassee, put had to pull out due to unspecified medical issues, which have been a concern for he and coach Steve Serito.
“We think we’ve conquered what it is, but it’s going to take time,” Serito said.
17th Seed
Moros took the entire week prior to the event off to allow his body to build itself back up.
Now, he’s looking for better results in Delray Beach.
“If I can play well, I’ve got a real chance,” he said.
Moros is seeded 17th at next week’s event. Plantation’s Brennan Boyajian, who won the Florida State Closed Championships, is the top seed.
Moros discovered the game at age 3, when an uncle gave him a racquet and took him onto the court.
“I loved it more than anything else,” he said. “Maybe because I didn’t have to rely on anyone else.”
 Moros played other sports, like soccer, baseball and basketball, but tennis remained his passion.
He entered his first competitive tournament at age 6, but didn’t start competing seriously until he was 12.
Moros, a self-described all-court player, has been working with Serito at South County Regional Park for the last seven years.
“It’s been a perfect relationship,” Serito said. “And he’s gone from maybe, 60, 80 in the state slowly, slowly up to three, four. Each year, just keep rising.”
Clay is one of Moros’ best surfaces, and Serito thinks he has the tools not just to win the tournament, but to play professionally.
“He’s athletic enough to be a pro player,” Serito said.
If he wins the event in Delray, Moros will earn a wild card entry into the Delray Beach International Tennis Tournament (ITC) next February.
“It’s pretty big,” he said. “It’s the big clay court tournament of the summer.”
A Late Bloomer
Katz too has had a fulfilling summer. He was the No. 4 seed in the Florida State Closed Junior Championships, where he advanced to the semifinals and finished third.
He said it was his best result in the last few years.
“I finally put a few good matches together,” he said. “My serve was very good, I was coming to the net.”
Katz won’t be seeded, but he is experienced. This will be his third time competing at the clay court championships, but it will be his first in the 16-year-old age group.
“It’s going to be a good test,” he said.
Katz was a late bloomer in the sport, though he started at age 4 when his parents introduced him to the game.
“I loved it, that and golf,” he said. “Just the individuality I guess. You have your own freedom to create points.”
He started entering tournaments at age 10, but he said, “It was a rough beginning. (Still) I always had fun with it.”
Despite his problems on the court, Katz stuck with tennis, and he began to see results when he competed in tournaments as a 14-year-old.
Katz has attended Saint Andrew’s since sixth grade, and he trains at Rick Macey Tennis Academy in Deerfield Beach.
This week, Katz was in Shreveport, La. to play in the Intersectionals, a competition that consisted of singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
As for next week, he said, “Hopefully I’ll get to the third or fourth round, do well in doubles.”
The championships are scheduled for next Sunday at the Delray Beach Stadium & Tennis Center.
Other Players
The list of other local competitors at the event is as follows:
18s
Enrique Andrade (Boca Raton)
Johannes Vanoverbeek (Boca Raton)
Sam Wells (Boca Raton)
16s
Jason Berry (Boca Raton)
Dennis Novikov (Boca Raton)
Zack Quigley (Boca Raton)
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