Westfield native and St. Mary High School graduate will make his pro tennis debut on Tuesday at the ITF Pro Circuit Manshield Men’s Futures tournament being held at the Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club. (Photo courtesy of SNHU)
WINNIPEG, Manitoba – Mitch Dobek, a Westfield native who graduated St. Mary High School in 2009 and recently wrapped up a standout four-year career with the Southern New Hampshire University men’s tennis program, will compete in his first professional tournament Tuesday after qualifying for the ITF Pro Circuit Manshield Men’s Futures tournament being held at the Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club. Dobek will face Frederik Nielsen of Denmark in the first round of the 32-player field at 10 a.m. local time.
To qualify for this week’s event, Dobek defeated a pair of Canadian players, downing Adith Prematilake 6-0, 6-0 before besting Alex Lesiuk 6-2, 6-2. He is one of eight players to advance from the qualifying rounds.
Dobek’s opponent, the 30-year old Nielsen, captured the Wimbledon doubles championship in 2012 with Jonathan Murray, and he also reached the opening round of the 2012 Australian Open.
Dobek completed an undefeated Western Massachusetts run as a senior at St. Mary High School, only losing to a Harvard-bound player in the state semifinals.
Dobek garnered Northeast-10 All-Conference honors in doubles play in each of his four seasonsat SNHU, while he was a three-time All-Conference performer in singles, including First Team honors in 2011 when he was also named NE-10 Player of the Year.
He finished his career as SNHU’s all-time leader in doubles victories with 71, while his 63 career singles triumphs place him second all-time in that category. During his career, the SNHU Penmen made four trips to the NCAA tournament and won the NE-10 championship in his senior season of 2014.
