The Collier (Pelican Bay Community Park – Naples) 7.0 team earned the divisional championship Monday afternoon, wrapping up the 2019 USTA Florida Mixed 40 & Over 7.0/9.0 Sectional Championships and 40 & Over Women’s 2.5 Invitational. They join the Broward (Midtown Athletic Club – Weston) 9.0 squad and Miami/Dade (Independent) 2.5 women as champions from the event.

Semifinal contests kicked off the day, where Broward (Frank Veltri Tennis Center – Plantation) outlasted Alachua (Jonesville Tennis Center – Gainesville) in a decisive match tiebreak for a 2-1 victory while Collier (Pelican Bay Community Park – Naples) collected a pair of straight-set wins to defeat  SMD (Crandon Park Tennis Center – Key Biscayne) by the same score line.

Broward secured two of the three opening frames in their semifinal, but it would be Alachua taking the top spot thanks to a 6-4, 6-0 effort from Alejandro Pauly and Kannika Torres. Nick Boros and Maria Escarra evened things up for Broward by earning line three 7-5, 6-0. That turned the focus to court two, as Ronaldo Coletto and Kerri Paul hung tough to prevail 6-3, 4-6, 1-0.

There was far less drama involved in Collier advancing to the final, as the squad dropped just eight games on the two courts that went their way. Corey Stranger and Carmelo Rubio bested their SMD opponents at line one 6-3, 6-2; Nora Slusar and Andy Mintz won 6-0, 6-3 at the second position. SMD’s Bryant Carreno and Rajni Agarwal prevented the sweep, turning in a 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 triumph on court three.

In the championship dual, a marathon contest on court two that lasted over two hours proved to be the crucial matchup. Broward had little trouble claiming the third position, as Coletto and Paul raced to a 6-0, 6-3 final result. Broward also staked themselves to an early lead at the top spot, but Jorge Prado and Lucy Bastidas saw that quickly evaporate thanks to a furious comeback from Stringer and Rubio; the Collier pair would end up with a 1-6, 6-1 1-0 victory.

With the other two courts complete, the showdown between Broward’s duo of Boros and Escarra versus Collier’s Slusar and Mintz was still early in the second set. Slusar and Mintz had taken the opening frame 6-4, as well as played their way to a break advantage early in the second, before Boros and Escarra turned the match around by reeling off the final five games of the set. The all-important match tiebreak looked to be in the firm control of Collier at six points to three, but the Broward tandem would eventually even the score at 8-8. However, Slusar and Mintz came out on top in the final two points of the match, delivering the clinching win for their team.

Captained by Juan Quiroga, the complete Collier roster includes Rubio, Mintz, Lynn Mariotti, Charles Ferrara, Eileen Hung, Michelle Kaytaz, Mark Allan, Slusar, Flora Loomis, Tamara Blanco, and Stranger.

For complete results from the 2019 USTA Florida Mixed 40 & Over 7.0/9.0 Sectional Championships, click here.