Last weekend the Kelley Brothers invited out some of the best talent on the East Coast to their home #4 court for the 6th Annual Average Joe’s Tournament. Here’s a quick recap of the action.
I have to admit, I didn’t even know this was going on this year, despite posting recaps on it every year since its inception. I’m lucky to have seen some of the live streams pop up from players I’m friend with on FB.
Singles recap:
The top 8 seeds went (in order): Jeremy Dixon, Cole Sendrey, Ezekiel Subieta, Victor Migliore, Joe Kelley, Dylan Pruitt, Jose Flores, and Sam Kelley. There was a full round of 16 and play-ins to there, meaning there were nearly two dozen players hanging out on the Kelley property this weekend.
In the quarters, top seed Dixon held off the host Sam Kelley, the 2023 champion, enabling Sam to work on hospitality the rest of the way. Host Joe Kelley and 2021 champ upset Ohio-native Migliore, who is a two-time finalist here exiting early. Bolivian U21 star Ezekiel Subieta took out his former Maryland-neighbor Dylan Pruitt, and lastly 2024 champ Sendrey, fresh off a trip to World Juniors last month, took out top NE player Jose Flores to move on.
In the semis, Joe Kelley kept up the upset run, taking out Dixon with a dominant show of drive serving. From the bottom half, Cole took out Subieta to get back to the final. In the final though, Kelley was on fire, bombing more drive serves against his young Texas rival and took the title 10,4. He wins the title on his home court for the second time.
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Doubles recap
Joe Kelley teamed up with Ezequiel Subiata to make it a double on the weekend. From the #3 seed, they upset Jeremy Dizon & Jose Flores in the semis, then took out the top seeds Dylan Pruitt & Cole Sendrey 14,13.
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These champions join the following honor roll of past champs in this event:
Singles:
– 1st Annual 2021: Joe Kelley over Austin Cunningham
– 2nd Annual 2022: Kyle Ulliman over Victor Migliore
– 3rd Annual 2023: Sam Kelley over Victor Migliore
– 4th Annual 2024: Cole Sendrey over Kyle Ulliman
– 5th Annual 2025: Jake Bredenbeck over Sebastian Franco
– 6th Annual 2026: Joe Kelley over Cole Sendrey
Doubles:
– 2021: (no doubles event)
– 2022: (no doubles event)
– 2023: Pruitt/Bleyer
– 2024: Pruitt/Cunningham
– 2025: Bredenbeck/Bredenbeck
– 2026: J.Kelly/Subieta
That’s it for the 2026 Average Joe’s/Kelley Invitational.