Eastern at the 2026 NTRP National Championships
Fantastic five. Eastern players captured an astounding five championship titles at the 2026 NTRP National Championships, held April 10-12 (singles), April 17-19 (doubles) and April 24-26 (mixed doubles) at multiple tennis facilities across the country—including the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif., the Giammalva Racquet Club in Houston, Texas, and the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
Eastern athletes swept the 40 & Over 4.5 singles events, with West New York, N.J.’s Francisco Gomez capturing the men’s title and Kellie Mee, of Beacon N.Y., hoisting the championship trophy on the women’s side. Also in singles, Huntington N.Y.’s Sean Tuthill (pictured) stood atop the podium in the 40 & Over 4.0 Men’s singles contest. In doubles, first time partners Felix Hui, of New York, N.Y., and Noel Paul, of Brooklyn, N.Y. emerged victorious in the 18 & Over 3.0 Men’s doubles event, while Kelley Gittler, of Huntington N.Y., and Allison Standerwick, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., brought the 55 & Over 3.0 women’s doubles title back to Long Island. Below, read a selection of their stories competing on the National stage. *Note: At NTRP National Championships, sets are contested in a first-to-four-games format, with a tiebreak at 3-3.
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A Fairytale Week
By the time Tuthill set foot on a court at the Barnes Tennis Center, he’d already embarked on an entire California adventure. Prior to the event, he and his family spent a few days at Disneyland in Anaheim, caught the Artemis II splashdown, hiked the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and visited the San Diego Zoo. It was already a trip chock full of highlights—and then he captured the championship.
“I just tried to keep a level head, play consistently and make it difficult on my opponents,” Tuthill explained of his winning strategy throughout the weekend. “Of course, with the [first-to-four] format it is really challenging to quickly adapt to each competitor and execute a gameplan, so it also took some luck.”
Transitioning from the New York indoor season to the outdoor courts in San Diego was no problem for Tuthill. "I grew up playing almost exclusively outdoors, so I'm pretty accustomed to having to adjust to the wind and sun," he said.
Whether it was consistency, luck, or possibly a little residual pixie dust from the happiest place on Earth, Tuthill displayed some magical form in San Diego, dropping zero sets and just 14 games through four matches—three round robin battles and a semifinal contest—to ultimately reach the championship. As he made his way through the draw, he continually came up clutch in important moments, going 3-0 in tiebreak sets where, he noted, “anything can happen and momentum shifts quickly.”
Even after amassing such an impressive record, Tuthill knew he was in for a battle facing USTA Midwest’s Christopher Tunnell for the title. Tunnell also dropped zero sets en route to the final, and impressively, never lost more than three games in any match.
“His ground strokes were very strong and he really could punish you on any short balls,” Tuthill said of the challenges his opponent presented. “I tried to play angles and not give him a lot of time to get set from the baseline. I was also fortunate that my first-serve percentage was higher than normal, so I was able to take advantage of some easy holds throughout the match.”
Owing in part to his above-average serving day, Tuthill jumped out to an early lead and never let go—even as the skies opened up and delayed play for thirty minutes midway through the first set. The victory, he said, was the perfect way to cap off a great vacation and also a big thrill after spending a long time away from the sport he grew up playing with his father.
“I took an almost 20-year break before starting to play again when my oldest son started taking lessons,” Tuthill said. “I’ve been fortunate to link up with some great local USTA teams over the last few years and only in 2025 did I play my first individual NTRP tournament. I really just enjoy playing competitive tennis again, and the USTA has been a great way to get back into it.”
“I wasn’t sure I would even take the court…”
Just like Tuthill, Gomez was competing in his first-ever NTRP championship. And also just like Tuthill, he breezed through the round robin stages of the competition, sacrificing just four games through three matches to reach the semifinals.
After that, he faced a decidedly more grueling—and lung-busting—path to lifting the championship hardware in his division, with both his semifinal and final contests extending to third-set tiebreaks. In the former, Gomez’s opponent Bryan Barley [of USTA Southern California] came out firing right from the outset of the match and didn’t give the Eastern player a chance to do much.
“He played very fast, very aggressive and made no mistakes,” Gomez recalled. “I don’t think I faced that level of tennis in several years.”
The theme of the weekend for Gomez? "Resilience," he said.
Down a set, Gomez resolved to raise his energy, which ultimately helped him to up his aggression and better read Barley’s patterns. He took over in the second, claiming the set 4-1, then eked out the third in a tiebreak to advance to the championship. The battle, though, took its toll, as Gomez started to feel pain in his right heel.
“I wasn’t sure I would even take the court for the final,” Gomez said. “[So] I had no expectations, other than try my best and let it turn out however it would turn out.”
Turns out, Gomez’s challenger Marcio Moran [of USTA Florida] was also coming off a punishing semifinal bout of his own. Both working through physical issues, the athletes traded 4-1 sets in an up-and-down contest. Moran—who Gomez noted, moved the ball around with incredible precision—began to cramp early in the third but held on to force a tiebreak. After a relentless physical effort, the outcome hinged on three points.
“He was up 5-4 in the tiebreak of the third set and I won the match at 7-5, so in the end I was able to put together three points in a row,” Gomez said. “Those three points required a lot of patience to not overhit and not provide easy balls, and they equally required a lot of resilience to keep running. But [at that stage] it also took a bit of luck. It came down to a few inches here and there.”
And Gomez added he was lucky the encounter ended when it did.
“I was cramping during that last point,” he said. “We had a long rally, probably over 15 shots. Any more [long] exchanges, it would have been tough to keep fighting.”
But his overall fight is exactly how Gomez will remember his first NTRP championship experience. And it’s precisely what compelled him to start playing NTRP tournaments in the first place.
“I like that the level of players is very [high],” he said. “You are guaranteed to face good competition.”
Making the Necessary Adjustments
“I was so shocked to be in the final [that] I think it helped me relax,” Mee said after capturing the title in her division.
Making it to the final maybe shouldn’t have been so shocking, given her mentality. From the start of the event, Mee resolved to not be so rigid in her approach to each match. She reminded herself to willingly make adjustments as necessary.
“I have a tendency to only [want to] play my style of tennis,” she said. “I wanted to ensure that I took the time at the beginning of each match to learn and understand my opponent and adapt accordingly if things were not going my way.”
Mee started competing in NTRP tournaments two years ago. "I was drawn to them just to do something different than USTA Leagues, which I also love," she said. "I like playing people outside my normal rotation of competitors."
One thing Mee noticed immediately: She was not going to win if she kept trying to beat her competitors with pace.
“All the women I played against were such strong players and played very differently to what I am used to,” she said. “They were all very skilled playing against [pace]. I tried to learn quickly what their best shots were and how they were beating me [in points], so I could avoid giving them those opportunities.”
Mee’s openness to deviating from her preferred style of play ultimately served her well. She didn’t drop a single set over the course of the entire tournament, including in the final. Interestingly, she contested that match against a player—Nina Keller, of USTA Southern California—she’d already beat in round robin action.
“Knowing her game a bit helped me focus on what I needed to do…I could start out a little stronger tactically,” Mee said. “She did a great job of being steady and staying in points, but I was able to find the right moments to be aggressive.”
In the end, that was precisely what Mee needed to do to hoist the championship hardware. And although she said it felt great to win, she was most happy to share the experience with friends and family who flew out to support her. She said when she wasn’t playing tennis, she was busy enjoying their company in a decidedly warmer climate than New York.
“I had such a great time,” she said. “I was proud to win in front of friends and family, and the women [I played against] were so nice. The USTA put on a great tournament!”
New Partners, Fresh Trophy
Incredibly, Hui and Paul had only contested one doubles match together before pairing up for the National tournament.
“I think that says a lot about how naturally our games complemented each other and how quickly we built trust on court,” Hui said. “Noel’s serve and forehand were major weapons for us, while I was able to help at net and use my backhand to keep points solid from the baseline.”
Just as important, they were able to develop a strong rapport with each other as the matches unfolded.
“We trusted each other and communicated well,” Hui said. “There were moments when I wanted to press too much, and Noel did a great job reminding me to stay patient and build the point. That balance helped us a lot.”
And it was that balance that also helped them go undefeated throughout the event—without dropping a set.
“It was an incredibly rewarding feeling,” Hui said of claiming the top trophy. “A lot of time and effort goes into improving the game and competing throughout the year, so to see that work pay off on a national stage was very meaningful. It was also special to share that moment with Noel and represent Eastern.”
Another enjoyable aspect of the experience for Hui was seeing the camaraderie among all the players from the section. He specifically cited Michelle Lau and Pamela Salud, who were competing for Eastern in the 18 & Over 3.5 Women’s doubles division.
Paul and Hui met after competing in USTA League competition together. "We were on the same tri-level team," Hui said.
“They were especially encouraging, and I learned a lot just from watching how they competed,” Hui said. “Having that support on the sidelines really meant a lot.”
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