The sound of squeaky shoes and tennis balls smacking against rackets filled Halls Ferry Park for the beginning of the Mississippi Mudcats Novice and Intermediate tournament.

The city of Vicksburg’s tennis program puts on three junior tennis tournaments a year in the spring, summer and fall.

“We’ve been doing this pretty much since I’ve been at this position for about five years,” said Rick Shields director of the Vicksburg tennis program.

Shields said the first day of the tournament usually has the high seeded players matched against the lower seeded ones, while the second day has more evenly matched players.

Shields grew up a military dependent and learned the importance of learning new people and cultures, and how it makes you a better person. Shield tries to bring the same environment to the tournament and expose kids to different cultures.

“We think this helps build kids’ character. They get a chance to play with and against different people from different backgrounds in a manner they would have otherwise never met,” Shields said.

Shields said iron sharpens iron and when players play the same people you get the same results, whereas playing different people from different states you can gauge where you are.

Asher Carson felt he didn’t do as well after his doubles match but has learned new strategies from his match.

“If somebody hits it down the middle and neither one of us know which one is going to hit it, one of us really needs to call it and try to get to it as fast as we can,” Carson said.

Carson said some strategies translate from doubles to singles play and a player gets the same idea. Carson really wants to use this weekend to get better as a player. Carson enjoys playing against his friends and other people at the tournament.

Adam Eckstein and Jacob Runnels played to a third set tiebreaker, which had spectators anxious to see who will finish strong. Eckstein made Runnels work for points with a nice volley at the net winning his 11th point in the tiebreaker. Eckstein showed great hustle playing balls at the baseline and at the net during the last rally of the match, which happened to be the longest.

Warren Central teammates Matthew Register and Joseph Jabour matched up on the first day.

The match between Register and Jabour was well played and intense. They played nice, long rallies and served well and hard in the second set. Jabour won the match but it was more of a friendly competition than a rivalry.

Jabour said he playing in tournaments puts the pressure on.

“Normally I only feel pressure in tournaments or in high school matches and I normally don’t play high school matches as much as I play tournaments,” Jabour said. “Tournaments allow me to get more experience.”

Jabour and Register play a lot together and both know each other’s games.

“He knows that I hit a kick serve so he’s able to attack my second serve and he knows I’m weaker on my backhand,” Register said. “I know where he’s going to serve it at me.”

Register plays in tournaments to keep himself conditioned for the Warren Central season.

“There’s a whole different type of conditioning,” Register said. “There so much cutting it helps you get focused for other games.”