Chattanooga: Rivals Seal, Ramsay unite as a TVOC duo

Two years ago, Chattanooga’s James “Bo” Seal and Charlie Ramsay often played tennis against each other as part of rival high school teams.

Seal played for Baylor back then, and Ramsay played for McCallie.

But Friday, they joined forces at the Tennessee Valley Open Championships, advancing to the men’s open doubles semifinals in the tournament at Manker Patten.

The competition resumes this morning with semifinal matches in singles and doubles for the open and age-group divisions.

Seal also advanced to the men’s open singles semifinals, and Chattanooga’s Claire Bartlett reached a women’s open semifinal.

The sixth-seeded Seal and Ramsay upset third-seeded Davey and Tennys Sandgren of Gallatin, 7-5, 6-1, in a quarterfinal. Earlier in the day, the former rivals outlasted John McLean of Durham, N.C., and Terry Richardson of Ellenwood, Ga., 6-3, 6-7(7), 10-3.

“We struggled a little during the first match, because I had a long singles match, but we were really clutch at times,” Seal said. “But in the second match against the Sandgrens, we played extremely well together.”

“We have similar styles of playing, so I figured Charlie and I would be a good match.”

In 2006, Seal played the No. 1 singles position as a freshman for the Red Raiders, winning two TSSAA Division II state singles championships, and Ramsay was No. 1 for the Blue Tornado, who won the state team title that year. Now Seal attends the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and Ramsay recently finished his sophomore year at the University of Memphis, where he plays tennis on scholarship.

Seal and Ramsay practiced together when Seal returned to Chattanooga three weeks ago, and they talked about the upcoming TVOC, leading to their doubles pairing. They had never played doubles together.

“It was a blast,” Ramsay said. “It wasn’t weird at all, just fun. And it was great having the members and the crowd support us during the second match.”