Pedro Nolasco, who has been a ball boy at the Casa de Campo La Terraza tennis club for more than 12 years, will in February be representing the Dominican Republic in the Davis Cup, a premier international team event in men’s tennis, run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Earlier this month, with the support of his coach and mentor, Emilio Vasquez, Casa de Campo’s director of tennis and the sponsorship of Central Romana, Pedro, who was the champion of last year’s annual “McDaniel Tennis Tournament”, played in a qualifying round robin at the Parque L’Este in Santo Domingo. Competing against 14 of the Dominican Republic’s best tennis players, Pedro was crowned the overall winner to become part of the Dominican Republic’s team for the Davis Cup and thus ranked #4 in tennis in the Dominican Republic.
Emilio Vasquez, Pedro Nolasco, Rick McDaniel and Francisco Conception
Pedro Nolasco will compete in the Americas Group 2 division of the Davis Cup 2012, over the weekend of the 10th to the 12th of February with Victor Estrella, the Dominican Republic’s #1 player, who is also ranked #160 in the world, Johnson Garcia and Bebo Fernandez, ranked #2 and #3 respectively in the Dominican Republic. In this 1st round tournament, to be played in a “knock-out” format, the Dominican Republic will face Bolivia at the Parque L’Este in Santo Domingo.
At the end of this month, January 30th Pedro will join his team mates in Santo Domingo to form the “4 raquetas” (the 4 man team who will be representing the Dominican Republic) to commence 2 weeks of intense training before the contest begins on Friday February 10th.
Following the 1st round of the tournament, if the Dominican Republic is successful, Pedro Nolasco and his teammates will compete in the 2nd round of the tournament over the weekend of the 6th to 8th of April and will face either the Puerto Rico or Venezuela. The 3rd round and the final, which we hope will involve the Dominican Republic, will be played from the 14th to the 16th of September.
Want to watch the Dominican Republic compete in the Americas Group 2 division of the Davis Cup? Well you can! The tournament is taking place in the Parque L’Este in Santo Domingo, no tickets are required and entrance is completely free! When: 10th – 12th of February Time: From 9am Info: Please contact Casa de Campo tennis on: tenis@ccampo.com or EXT: 5940
The DR will take part in the Americas Group 2 division of the Davis Cup
About Pedro Nolasco
Pedro started working and training at the La Terraza Tennis Club in Casa de Campo when he was just 8 years old and from an early age showed great potential. Destined to become a successful athlete, Pedro’s late father, Pedro Julio Nolasco won the first Olympic medal for the Dominican Republic in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, when he won the bronze medal in the men’s bantamweight category. Today, Pedro Julio Nolasco is remembered in La Romana as a sporting pioneer and even has a boxing stadium named after him; the “Estadio Pedro Julio Nolasco,” and there is no doubt that Pedro (jr.) certainly takes after his father! Now the #4 tennis player in the Dominican Republic, Pedro Nolasco who is 20 years old and has finished school is hoping to get a scholarship for a university in the United States, where he will be able to improve and develop his tennis.
About the Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. Competitors for the Davis Cup are divided into 4 groups; the “World Group” and Groups 1, 2 and 3. The top group, the “World Group” consists of the World’s 16 best national teams, and it is the competitors in this group that compete for the Davis Cup. All the other countries, who are not part of the “World Group” are divided into regions; the Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe/Africa and compete in groups 1, 2 and 3. Nations progress up the groups after winning their group, for instance for the Dominican Republic to be in group 2 (which where it currently is), it first had to win group 3, and if the Dominican Republic is successful this year and wins the Americas Group 2 division, the country will then progress to Group 1 next year and if successful in Group 1 it will become part of the “World Group” and thus able to compete for the Davis Cup. Source:wikipedia.org and daviscup.org
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