After playing in junior French Open and Wimbledon, Ozan Colak returns home for Lansing tournament

During the course of the year, Ozan Colak doesn't get to spend much time in his hometown of Okemos.

Instead, he's traveling the world as he hones his craft playing tennis, playing in elite junior events such as the French Open and Wimbledon. And next week, he'll be leaving for a tournament in Mexico.

But for this week, the 17-year-old has gotten the chance to play in front of his friends and family — a rare occurrence — as a participant in the second edition of the Capital City Tennis Classic, which started Monday, ends Sunday and is being played at the Michigan State Tennis Center.

"It's a unique opportunity and I really try to cherish it because you don't get this playing tennis," said Colak, who played in both a singles and doubles match Thursday. "You're traveling all over. It can be tough sometimes. So when you can get the opportunity to play at home, just try to make the most of it and appreciate everything that comes."

Colak went 1-1 on the day, losing his second-round singles match to 5-seed Sebastian Gima of Romania, and teaming up with MSU's Jack Winkler to win their doubles quarterfinal match and advance to Friday's semifinals.

Colak isn't the only local player participating. A number of MSU players, including Jarreau Campbell, Nick Williams, Carson Gates, Max Sheldon and Winkler, are also playing.

The event is sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation and had 64 registered singles players and 16 doubles teams from 19 countries playing for $15,000 in prize money.

The field includes the nation's top recruit in the 2019 class (Ronald Hohmann — LSU) and All-Americans from Kentucky and Florida State.

This is the second year for the event. The first tournament took place in 2019, but the 2020 version was canceled due to the pandemic.

"We didn't know what the community support would be, but it's been good so far," said tournament director Cody Cross. "The nighttime matches for the Michigan State Spartan players and then Ozan Colak from Okemos, those matches have had tons of support, so those have been fun."

Colak had quite the crowd following him Tuesday, as friends and former Okemos teammates were on hand to watch him win his first-round match in straight sets over Jack Anthrop.

"I've known those guys since I was 5-6 years old, all the way through elementary school and high school, so being able to see them and play in front of them is always inspiring," Colak said.

Colak couldn't carry that momentum throughout the match against Gima. Colak won the first set, 6-1, and seemed to be on his way to the quarterfinals. But an early service break in the second set put him down 2-0 en route to a 6-4 setback.

In the third set, they traded service breaks early, and eventually, it was 4-4 with Colak serving. However, Gima broke Colak's serve once again in a long game that saw five deuces, three break points from Gima and one game point from Colak before Gima won the game on his fourth break point.

That gave Gima a 5-4 lead and he closed out the match in the next game for a 6-4 win.

"I thought I played well; I served well throughout the match," Colak said. "In the second set, I had one bad break and he played well for the rest of the set. And then in the third set, it was back and forth, good tennis, (he) just got the better of me in the last part at 4-all — couple close points, and that's how tennis goes."

Colak would get some revenge on Gima about three hours later, as Colak and Winkler beat Gima and Jeffery Von Der Schulenburg of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the semifinals.

In other Thursday action featuring MSU players, Campbell/Williams lost to Chad Kissell/Joshua Sheehy, 6-4, 6-2, in the doubles quarterfinals, and Gates lost his second-round singles match to Nino Ehrenschneider of Germany, 6-4, 6-0.

Colak/Winkler's semifinal match is scheduled to take place at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

The singles semifinals and doubles championships will be played on Saturday and the singles final on Sunday.

"(I enjoy) just seeing all of the tennis players come out and support this level of tennis that, for the most part, goes unrecognized at the pro level," Cross said. "But in our two years, I think we've done a really good job of seeing the community come out and support us."

You can check out the ITF site for full results from the Classic.

Contact digital sports reporter Phil Friend at 517-377-1220 or pfriend@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Phil_Friend.

If You Go

What: Capital City Tennis Classic

When: 1 p.m. Friday, Noon Saturday and Noon Sunday

Where: MSU Tennis Center, 3571 Mt. Hope Road, Lansing

Admission: $5, or a donation of a non-perishable canned donation to the Lansing Food Bank

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Ozan Colak seen by friends, family at Capital City Tennis Classic