Familiar Foes to Meet in Semifinals at the Girls 18 Clay Courts Saturday

©Colette Lewis 2008--
Memphis, TN--

Four of the top five seeds are through to the semifinals at USTA Girls 18s Clay Courts at the Racquet Club of Memphis, having survived the heat and humidity that have been building, like the tension, as the tournament week nears its conclusion.

There was only one three-setter in Friday's quarterfinals, and it was short on suspense, as No. 5 seed Kristie Ahn overcame a second set hiccup to take out tenth seed Grace Min 6-0, 3-6, 6-0. As in her round of 32 victory over Ellen Tsay, a No. 17 seed, Ahn took her foot off the gas in the second set. Min got back in the match, hoping to duplicate the feat she accomplished in the round of 16, when the 14-year-old from suburban Atlanta dropped the first set at love to No. 2 seed Alexa Guarachi, but fought back to win. Ahn had gotten off to a quick start, making very few errors, although still hitting deep and going for lines. Min couldn't hang with Ahn in the beginning, but she found her form in the second set, while Ahn's concentration lagged after taking a 2-0 lead in the second set. The 16-year-old from New Jersey held her serve only once more in the set, giving Min reason to hope she could take down another favorite. But Ahn broke Min to open the third and relocated her formidable ground game to advance to a meeting with No. 3 seed and 2007 Clay Court finalist Lauren Embree.

Embree and Ahn last met in Mobile four months ago, in the finals of the USTA Spring Nationals, with Ahn winning by a deceptive 6-4, 6-3, as the match took more than two hours to complete. Since then, Embree has won one Pro Circuit event (Wichita), and Ahn has taken two (Pennsylvania and Houston), so both are playing well and confidently. This time the surface might favor Embree, who puts clay at the top of her list of favorite surfaces, but Ahn has recently spent a couple of weeks in Barcelona training on red clay, so she too looks comfortable on the surface.

Embree reached the meeting with Ahn by downing No. 11 seed Hideko Tachibana of Texas 6-4, 6-4. Tachibana showed flashes of the form that had helped her upset No. 7 seed Alexandra Cercone on Thursday, but her first serve wasn't up to the challenge in the first set and despite breaking Embree three times, she held only once. The second set saw both players protect their serve better, but Embree got the one break she needed at 3-3 and held on for the win.

The other semifinal will put top seed Beatrice Capra of Maryland against Washington's Jacqueline Cako, the fourth seed. Capra and Cako met in the first round of the Grass Courts in Philadelphia last month, with Capra taking a 6-3, 7-5 decision on her way to the final, while Cako went on to win the first round consolation tournament.

Cako had the more difficult time reaching the semifinals as No. 16 seed Kaitlyn Christian was serving for the second set before Cako captured the last four games of match in a 6-3, 7-5 victory.

Capra, 16, was no doubt happy that she once again had an 8 a.m. starting time, as the court condition was at its best and the heat and humidity were not as oppressive as they would be a few hours hence. Her opponent, No. 9 seed Rachel Saiontz, had fought back valiantly in her round of 16 match against No. 17 seed Danielle Lao, but she could not find that form Friday morning, and Capra had her fifth straight-set victory, by a 6-1, 6-1 score.

A berth in the doubles final was at stake Friday afternoon, and it was Cako and her partner Courtney Dolehide, the No. 2 seeds, who earned one of them, with a 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3 win over the eighth seeded team of Lauren Herring and Min. Herring and Min had break point opportunities galore late in the first set, but they failed to convert. Cako and Dolehide fought off one set point at 5-6 in the tiebreaker, taking advantage of their first chance to put the set away three points later. Herring and Min's did capitalize on a late break of Cako in the second set, but couldn't recover from the 3-1 deficit they found themselves in when Herring suffered the only break of the final set.

Cako and Dolehide's opponents in Saturday's final are Cercone and her partner Jackie Kasler, the No. 6 seeds, who downed No. 7 seeds Alexandra Leatu and Tsay 6-3, 3-6, 6-0. Tsay was the day's iron woman, as she survived two consolation singles matches, winning both, the first of which was a three-and-a-half hour war of attrition with Monica Chow. The slightly built left-hander began playing at 8 a.m. on Friday, and with just an hour or two off between matches, didn't finish until nearly 7 this evening, showing remarkable endurance in strength-sapping conditions.

For complete draws, including the consolation results, see the TennisLink site.

For coverage of the Florida Clay Court Nationals, see collegeandjuniortennis.com.

Tags: junior tennis, Kristie Ahn, USTA National Girls 18s Clay Courts, Colette Lewis

Min Upsets Second Seed Guarachi in Clay Court Round of 16

©Colette Lewis 2008--
Memphis, TN--

There is no substitute for being at a tennis tournament. If you went to the Girls 18s Clay Courts draws tonight and saw that 14-year-old Grace Min, seeded tenth, defeated No. 2 seed Alexa Guarachi 0-6, 6-1, 6-3, you would wonder what turned the match around, what provided Min with the momentum to take the next two sets easily. But you wouldn't know that the last game of match took nearly twenty minutes to complete, that Min needed nine match points to finally finish it, and faced two break points in that remarkable game, which would have put the match back on serve.

"I kept saying, okay, this next point, you're going to get this next point, but I didn't, I still didn't, until like the ten millionth one. She finally just hit a return error," said Min, who hit a gutsy forehand winner in the corner to save one of the break points. "If I lost that game, she would have been serving at 4-5, and that wouldn't have been good, since she has a really good serve. I really needed that game."

In the first set, Guarachi looked much more at ease, and Min had difficulty getting a first serve in, compounding her predictament. Guarachi was in control with her forehand, banking the first set very quickly. But Min jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, and the errors began to come in bunches for the second seed. Guarachi chided herself during a wayward stretch in the second set, saying "you're just giving her confidence." Guarachi had dropped the middle set in her match on Wednesday against Britney Sanders but had broken open a tight match by winning the final three games, so she was capable of reversing the momentum that Min had taken in the second set. But Min refused to indulge in any tentative play, even when chance after chance came and went in the final game.

"The mindset, playing not to lose, did bring me down a couple of times, not in this match, but in previous tournaments," Min said. "I definitely learned from those tournaments. And I didn't have anything to lose, she was the two seed, I was the ten seed, and I was just going out there to compete hard. I was confident with the way I was playing so I was just, go for it."

Min will play No. 5 seed Kristie Ahn, who defeated unseeded Kate Fuller 6-1, 6-2. The previous time Ahn and Min met, in the round of 16 at the USTA Spring Championships, Ahn prevailed in two sets, but needed a slew of match points before she finally closed it out, a scenario much like that of Min's today.

Min wasn't the only player to drop the first set of her match 6-0 and yet go on to win. Hideko Tachibana, the No. 11 seed, suffered through that demoralizing scenario too, but took the final two sets from No. 7 seed Alexandra Cercone 6-4, 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal contest with No. 3 seed Lauren Embree, who downed Danielle Collins, a 17 seed, 6-3, 6-1.

Top seed Beatrice Capra cruised past No. 13 seed Hanna Mar 6-2, 6-1 and will face Rachel Saiontz, the No. 9 seed. Saiontz dropped the first set to Danielle Lao, a 17 seed, but came back convincingly, for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory.

No. 4 seed Jacqueline Cako has been dominant throughout the week, and today was no exception, as she served exceptionally well in her 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 12 seed Monica Chow. Cako meets No. 16 seed Kaitlyn Christian, who upset No. 6 seed Keri Wong 7-6(1), 6-4.

The doubles quarterfinals also delivered several upsets, with the heat and humidity beginning to ratchet up as the day dissolved into evening.

Top seeds Embree and Saiontz came out strong against the No. 6 seeded team of Cercone and Jacqueline Kasler, but couldn't sustain it, as Cercone and Kasler took a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 decision in an entertaining match that featured some blistering ground strokes and jaw-dropping gets. Cercone and Kasler will play No. 7 seeds Alexandra Leatu and Ellen Tsay in Friday's semifinals. Leatu and Tsay beat a nine seeded team, Fuller and Julie Sabacinski 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

The third team to come back from a set down to win was the eighth seeded team of Lauren Herring and Min, who took out No. 4 seeds Lilly Kimbell and Zoe De Bruycker 5-7, 6-0, 6-2. Herring and Min will play the second seeded team of Cako and Courtney Dolehide, who downed Mar and Kate Turvy, the fifth seeds, 6-1, 6-3.

For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

For coverage of USTA Clay Court championships in Florida, go to collegeandjuniortennis.com

Tags: junior tennis, Grace Min, USTA Girls 18s Clay Court Championships, Colette Lewis

A Tennis-related Adventure--in Vietnam

My weekly post for The Tennis Recruiting Network centers around an exciting new program called "Coach for College" that has been created by Parker Goyer, a recent Duke graduate. At the NCAAs, I spoke with Reka Zsilinszka and Amanda Granson, two members of Duke's current women's team, about their upcoming trips to Vietnam to assist with sports camps in rural parts of the country.

Tags: college tennis, The Tennis Recruiting Network, Colette Lewis

Ahn Escapes Upset in Wednesday Action at Clay Courts

©Colette Lewis 2008--
Memphis, TN--

It was another day of good weather and good performances by the seeded players at the USTA Girls 18s Clay Courts, with 15 of the 16 remaining players in the draw sporting a red number next to their names. But No. 2 seed Alexa Guarachi and No. 5 seed Kristie Ahn were pushed to third sets by their opponents, with Ahn advancing when No. 17 seed Ellen Tsay had to retire with cramps trailing 3-1 in the final set.

Ahn had taken a comfortable 6-3, 3-0 lead, but by her own admission, she relaxed, and Tsay refused to concede the match. "I thought from then it would be easier," said Ahn, who has won two Pro Circuit events this summer. "But she just fought the whole time and I was just watching, waiting for her to make a mistake, which obviously did not happen."

The left-handed Tsay, who hits with little pace but uses her savvy placement and maddening consistency to frustrate her opponents, really found her rhythm in the middle of the second set. Although Ahn resisted the temptation to try to hit a winner on every point, her strokes were not as deep as they had been in the first set, and Tsay won many of the rallies by simply waiting for Ahn to miss. Tsay broke Ahn at 4-4 and served out the second set, and although there was no heat break, both players took a bathroom break.

Ahn took a 2-0 lead, but gave her break back making it 2-1. Tsay requested a trainer at the changeover, and received treatment on her thigh before retaking the court. She fashioned a 40-15 lead, but Ahn stepped up her game at that point, and soon had turned the game in her favor, taking a 3-1 lead. Tsay couldn't return to her position to receive serve, and for a minute or two stood near the service line with her racquet serving as a prop to hold herself up. A roving umpire arrived on the court, but she could not receive treatment for a second time for the cramping and was forced to retire.

"When she got up 40-15 I was telling myself, if you win this game, there is a slight chance she could retire," Ahn said. "But if you lose this game, there's no way she's going to retire."

Tsay did receive treatment after the match and returned to play doubles several hours later, where she and partner Alexandra Leatu won their round of 16 contest.


Second seed Guarachi was challenged by Californian Britney Sanders, finding herself at at 3-3 in the third set with her hard-hitting unseeded opponent. But Guarachi swept the final three games of the match for the 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win, advancing to a round of 16 meeting with 14-year-old Grace Min, the 10th seed, who outlasted a No. 17 seed, Lindsey Hardenbergh, 7-6(3), 6-4.

Top seed Beatrice Capra lost the first four games of her early morning match with unseeded Floridian Maria Belaya, but Capra weathered the onslaught and took the final 12 games of her 6-4, 6-0 victory.

There is only one top eight seed missing from the round of 16: Lilly Kimbell, who fell to Danielle Lao, a 17 seed, 6-3, 6-2. The only unseeded player remaining is Kate Fuller, who advanced without the loss of a game against Melissa Cecil.

For complete results, including doubles played this evening, visit the TennisLink site.

For coverage of various Clay Court championships in Florida, see collegeandjuniortennis.com.

Tags: junior tennis, Ellen Tsay, Kristie Ahn, Alexa Guarachi, Britney Sanders, Colette Lewis

Seeds Keep Rolling at Girls 18s Clays

©Colette Lewis
Memphis, TN--

The weather was as good as it gets for Memphis in July, with blue skies, a refreshing breeze and tolerable humidity to go with the 90 degree temperatures. Although three sites are used for the first four days of the USTA Girls 18s Clay Court Championships, I stuck to the main site, The Racquet Club of Memphis, where many of the top seeds played this afternoon.

Most of them breezed into the round of 32, and I managed to catch some of top seed Beatrice Capra's 6-2, 6-2 win over Sabrina Santamaria, No. 3 seed Lauren Embree's 6-1, 6-1 pounding of Julie Kirkland and No. 7 seed Alexandra Cercone's 6-2, 6-2 win over Rachel Decker-Sadowski, despite the relatively brief match times. Both Embree and Cercone were swinging away on the forehand side, and playing next to each other, the two Florida girls seemed to be competing to see who could punish a short ball with more force. Although it was played at the Racquet Club, I missed No. 2 seed Alexa Guarachi's 6-2, 6-0 dismantling of Caryssa Peretz, and saw only a few points of No. 5 seed Kristie Ahn's 6-0, 6-0 win over Mary Hill.

But there were a few engaging matches. In stark contrast to the majority of the top seeds' victories, No. 12 seed Monica Chow was put to the test by Nida Hamilton before emerging with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win. The match, which began a few minutes before its scheduled 2:30 p.m. start time, didn't end until after 5:45 p.m., with long points, long games, as well as score and line disputes, contributing to the marathon length.


Only two top 16 seeds failed to make Wednesday's round of 32. Jennifer Kellner's 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 win over No. 15 seed Courtney Dolehide was at another site, but I did see the second set of Kate Fuller's 6-2, 6-4 decision over No. 14 Kate Turvy.

Fuller, fresh from clinching the Southern section's Intersectional Team Championship in Shreveport in the mixed doubles match, played aggressively against Turvy, but made sure that she was ready for any and all of her shots to come back. Turvy would scramble and dig and get one more ball back, but Fuller was always prepared to try another placement, and another, if necessary. In the second set, Fuller broke at 3-4 and took a 30-0 lead when serving for the match, but a couple of her errors and Turvy's winners gave Turvy four straight points and the game, putting them back on serve. Fuller didn't show any frustration however, and after the changeover, put the pressure right back on Turvy, who couldn't summon her best in the final game.

There were no doubles matches played today, but they will resume on Wednesday with the round of 16 in the afternoon.

For complete draws, see the Tennis Link site.

For coverage of the 14s, 16s and 18s clays in Florida, please check out Marcia Frost's collegeandjuniortennis.com.

Tags: junior tennis, USTA Girls 18s Clay Court Championships, Colette Lewis