The Richmond Tennis Club (RTC) must feel a whole lot like home to Andre Dome.
The 24-year-old California native dominated the $15,000 ITF Futures Tournament at the RTC. The event was presented by title sponsor Silex Canada — recognized for General Contracting and Construction Management.
The ITF Men’s Circuit provides the entry into professional tournaments, enabling players to eventually reach the higher levels on the ATP World Tour.
The second-seeded Dome was not only crowned singles champion — with a three-set victory (6-3, 3-6 6-4) over top seed Matt Reid of Australia — he teamed with New Zealand’s Finn Tearney to win the doubles title.
The pair defeated Americans Hunter Nicholas and Max Jacob in straight sets (6-4, 6-4).
The former collegiate standout at Cal Poly University even had a familiar face in the stands.
Current Richmond Tennis Club instructor Julien Heine was one of Dome’s junior coaches when he was working out of California a number of years ago.
The tournament, which was brought to Richmond by Tennis BC and Tennis Canada, had to battle Mother Nature.
Some matches were moved indoors to Sportstown and the men’s final was pushed back 90 minutes on Sunday to allow centre court to completely dry out. Organizers had high praise for the efforts of the club throughout the week long tournament — led by manager Tanya Donaldson and the unsung group of volunteers.
Dome’s road to the men’s title included straight set wins over Canadians Alejandro Tabilo (6-2,6-1) and Evan McNicol (6-1,6-3) to reach the quarter-finals of the 32-player main draw. That’s when the road got much tougher.
He needed three sets (6-2, 5-7, 6-4) to get past another Canadian — Kyryll Kryvchun. His semi-final match against fellow American Eric Johnson also went the distance (6-1, 2-6, 6-4).
Meanwhile, Reid rallied to beat Tearney 4-6, 7-6 (4) and 6-2 in the other semi-final.
Dome and Tearney were a force through much of the doubles competition, dropping just one set to Canadians Alexander Day and Alejandro Tabilo.
Reid and American Patrick Davidson were the top seeds but were ousted in the first round by Eric Johnson and Nicholas Reyes of the US.
