Kennedy and Mayew Meet Again for Another ITF J300 Title, Schuman and Iyengar Face Off in Girls Final at Pan American Championships; Weber and Gamble Win Boys Doubles Title, Chung and Hamilton Claim Girls Doubles Championship

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Spring Texas--

The last International Tennis Federation Regional Championships for American players took place back in March in San Diego California, with Jack Kennedy defeating Ian Mayew 7-5, 7-5 for his first ITF J300 title. They play again Saturday for the title at the second ITF Regional championship of the year at the Pan American Championships, after both posted straight-sets victories Friday morning at the Giammalva Racquet Club.

Mayew, seeded fourth, ended the run of No. 11 seed Jack Secord with a 6-3, 6-2 win, a result he attributed to a bit of a strategy change in his own game and the strength and stamina advantage he had over the 16-year-old from Lake Forest Illinois. 

"I'm keeping it simple, I'm not overdoing it, not overplaying," said Mayew, who turns 18 at the end of next month. "I have a tendency to go pretty big and just send balls, so I'm really locking it down this week and keeping it consistent. I'm playing with a lot more margin, more shape on the ball, really trying to mimic the men's game, try to make it physical out there."

Mayew, who has yet to drop a set in the tournament, got early breaks in both sets and felt in control throughout, although he recognized that Secord was a dangerous opponent.

"He been playing really well, beating Jagger[Leach] and Dom[Mosejczuk], top guys in the world, so clearly he was in form," said the  Cary North Carolina resident. "It makes a world difference, when you're a couple of years older. You get later in the tournament, you feel you can still dictate points, go deep in the rallies. It's a huge advantage being a couple of years older than he is, but I'm sure in a couple of years, he's not going to be playing this tournament; he'll be on to bigger and better things."

Kennedy, seeded third, also has gotten through his first four matches without dropping a set, although his 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 8 seed Benjamin Willwerth Friday had its share of tense moments.

Service holds were the norm in the first set, with Willwerth having a generally easier time with his, but Kennedy converted his second break point in Willwerth's service game to go up 5-4 and put away an overhead to secure the opening set.

Kennedy broke to open the second set, but Willwerth battled through a lengthy second game to break back and held for 2-1. Broken again to go down 3-2, Willwerth broke back for 3-3, but Kennedy got another break for a 4-3 lead and made that one hold up.

"He was playing well, especially his serve," said Kennedy, a 16-year-old from New York. "It was a really tough serve to read. As the match went on, I did get a read on it. I think his energy level dropped a little bit and his first serve percentage was lower than it was in the first set, so it was easier to break. But he's a tough player to play, doesn't give you too much rhythm, comes to the net a lot, has great hands, so it was a tough match today, and I'm glad I got through it."

Kennedy said he knows Mayew's game well, not just from the San Diego final, but also as his doubles partner at the Roland Garros and Wimbledon Junior Championships this year.

"I think we have an idea of how we both play," said Kennedy, who reached the Kalamazoo 18s final in August. "Obviously in doubles, it's a little different game style, but both of us have gotten better since San Diego. He's getting a little stronger, a little faster, all the little things. But I was 5-2 down in San Diego, so tomorrow I've got to start a little better, I think it was just the nerves then."

Mayew and Kennedy traded many a drop shot in the San Diego final, but Mayew said he has been using that shot less in the past several months.

"I've just got more confidence in my backhand and don't have to bail out with a drop shot as much anymore," Mayew said. "I've definitely been working on that a lot. I'll use the drop shot more as a last resort, and not rely on it as much as I have in the past."

Aside from that, Mayew is planning on few changes in his approach to Saturday's final.

"I had set points," Mayew said of their San Diego contest. "I was playing the right way, but at this level the margins are so small. One point here and there and he took the set. Obviously, he's going to be smacking the ball out there, and we'll see how it goes, but we'll both go out there and just battle, just like we did in San Diego."

In addition to smacking the ball, Kennedy will also resort to a fist pump and a "vamos" in tribute to his idol Rafael Nadal, who will retire this year after competing for Spain in the Davis Cup.

"He's the reason why I started playing and really got into tennis," said Kennedy, who wasn't born when Nadal won his first Roland Garros men's title in 2005. "He's a great role model to have and we're lucky to have had him on the tour for so long. I'd love to have his firepower one day, but his vocal firepower, we have that similarity, and that's something I can emulate now."

No. 6 seed Aspen Schuman lost 6-2, 7-5 in the Pan Am semifinals last year to eventual champion Maya Joint of Australia, who is now 113 in the WTA rankings. With her 6-1, 6-1 victory today over No. 8 seed Claire An, her third win over An since June, Schuman has reached her second ITF J300 final, where she'll face another familiar face in No. 5 seed Maya Iyengar.

Although she dropped only two games, Schuman still needed 90 minutes to grind through some very long rallies and multiple deuce games.

"I knew that I had to compete my best against Claire," said Schuman, a 17-year-old from Menlo Park California. "She really made me work for it; I was running quite a bit today, but it was a really good match and I thought we both played well."

Schuman reached her first J300 final in August of 2023 at College Park, and feels that will help her Saturday.

"I think since the last time [in a J300 final] I've gotten a lot of great experiences," said Schuman, who played the Australian Open this year and US Open Junior Championships twice, while also competing on the SoCal Pro Circuit during the past summer. "I think I've learned a lot, and played a lot of big tournaments since then, so yeah, I feel ready."

Schuman has also continued to add to her game.

"I've been working on trying on being more of an all-court player, getting to the net more, being more aggressive on my serve and return," Schuman said. "I've tried to be more aggressive and trust my shots, and I've definitely seen an improvement in that this week. It's a combination of being consistent and aggressive, but I've definitely been working on the aggressive side of it."

The drama of the day came in the second girls semifinal, with No. 5 seed Maya Iyengar watching a 5-2 third set lead evaporate against No. 2 seed Annika Penickova before finally securing a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory and a spot in her first ITF J300 final.

Penickova looked to heading to a routine straight-sets victory, leading 6-3, 4-3, with Iyengar serving at 15-40. But Iyengar saved those two break points to hold a three-deuce game, then broke Penickova, who was up 40-15, in another three-deuce game to take a 5-4 lead. When Iyengar closed out the set on her first opportunity at 40-30, she felt the tenor of the match change.

"I sensed that she kind of messed up that game," Iyengar said of Penickova's failure to get the break. "And at 4-all, she was up 40-15 in that game, I think also. I was just staying in it, because I know how she plays, it's up and down. But yeah, I think that was the turning point for sure."

Iyengar wasn't happy with her own level in the first set, but understood that she would have to shrug off the succession of groundstroke winners that her 15-year-old opponent could blast past her.

"She gave me more errors in the second set, but in the first set I wasn't used to the pace and she definitely took the racquet out of my hand," said Iyengar, a 17-year-old from Arizona. "But at the end of the second set I started getting going."

Iyengar led 4-0 and 5-1 in the third set, but Penickova didn't concede, holding for 5-2, then saving three match points with Iyengar serving at 40-0, the first two with forehand winners, the third with an overrule from the chair umpire on the far sideline.

Penickova held for 5-4 and Iyengar received a code violation warning for racquet abuse after that game. She didn't get close to a match point serving for it a second time, double faulting at 15-40, but after coming all the way back, Penickova couldn't hold at 5-all, with two backhand errors and a double fault giving Iyengar a third chance to serve out the match. 

Penickova again made her earn it, saving two more match points from 40-15, but she netted a forehand to give Iyengar a sixth match point, which Iyengar won when Penickova sent a backhand wide.

"Not one error was coming off her racquet," Iyengar said of Penickova's comeback and match point saves. "I also played a little too conservative, because I wasn't sure if I should go for it or not, because she was missing earlier. She looked so tired, also, so I thought she would make some errors, but she played incredible at the end. At 5-all I think she was getting more fatigued and I recognized it, tried to hit deeper to the backhand, trying to think through my strategy, rather than thinking, oh my gosh, I just missed match points. At 5-all I was ok, I'm going to lose if I don't focus on a strategy to get her out of this unbelievable tennis."

After the two-and-a-half-hour match, Iyengar and Penickova shared a long embrace at the net.

"She's like my best friend and we're staying together this week," Iyengar said. "We were talking about it all week; we're going to have the best match, and I think was a good match."

Iyengar and Schuman played twice this past June in J200s in Mexico, with Schuman winning both times, in a semifinal 7-6(1), 7-6(2) and a final 7-5, 6-3.

"Both times I had plenty of chances," said Iyengar, whose biggest title came at a J100 last year, where she beat Schuman in the final. "She's a great player, and she'll make me work for every point, especially since I'm a little bit tired too. But I think last time, I played a little too conservative, focused too much on the result."

The doubles champions were crowned Friday afternoon, and as with the singles, all participants were from the United States. In the boys final, unseeded James Weber and Jon Gamble defeated No. 8 seeds Calvin Baierl and Joseph Oyebog Junior 7-6(2), 6-4.

Weber and Gamble had the tougher time holding serve in the first set, needing to win deciding points at 3-all and 4-all. Oyebog and Baierl were rolling along, getting the break at 5-all with Baierl serving for the first set at 30-0, when the momentum suddenly changed. Baierl had not lost a point on serve in the set at that point, but they dropped three straight points to go down 30-40. Weber missed a return for the first deciding point that Oyebog and Baierl had faced on serve, and he double faulted to send the set into a tiebreaker. 

"It was a momentum shift," said Weber, an 18-year-old from Georgia. "They made a mistake on one of the points and we were able to capitalize on that. After that, they weren't as loud, we were firing ourselves up, and they were getting quieter."

Gamble and Weber took control of the tiebreaker early going up 5-0, and closing it out without any drama.

In the second set, Weber again held on a deciding point, and they finally were able to break Oyebog at 3-all. After holds by Gamble and Baierl, Weber served for the championship, but at 40-15, they each missed a volley to send it to a deciding point. Weber hit a good first serve and Baierl blistered his return down the line, but it just missed wide according to Gamble and the chair umpire.

It's the first ITF J300 title for Gamble and Weber, although they recently won their first title together at an ITF J100 in South Africa, and had reached the semifinals of the J300 there when the tournament was abandoned due to three days of rain.

"This is just our second J300, but in the first one we got semis and it rained," said Gamble, a 17-year-old from Las Vegas. "We kind of got robbed of that one, I feel we were really synching well that week and I told him, let's go get the one in Texas."

Gamble and Weber took out No. 5 seeds Ronit Karki and Jack Satterfield in the second round, defeated the No. 3 seeds and 2023 Pan Am finalists Willwerth and Noah Johnston in the quarterfinals and saved three match points in their 7-6(5), 3-6, 13-11 win over No. 2 seeds and 2023 Pan Am champions Jagger Leach and Matisse Farzam. 

Gamble, who now has won nine ITF junior doubles titles, had one explanation for those impressive results.

"It's the power of friendship," Gamble said.

Girls doubles champions Alanis Hamilton and Kayla Chung took their second ITF J300 title Friday, adding the Pan American Championships to their title at March's Regional Championships in San Diego. The No. 6 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds An and Shannon Lam 7-6(3), 6-4, with the four friends enjoying their mix-and-match pairings.

Hamilton and An, who lost in the doubles final last year, have played together many times, but playing against An was a unusual experience for her.

"We're honestly just having fun," said Hamilton, a 17-year-old from Arkansas, who will be joining the University of North Carolina in January. "I could tell. We were both excited to meet in the finals because we'd both defended our points. I haven't played her in doubles in three years, so we both wanted to see what it was like to be on the other side, and I think it was really fun."

Chung and Hamilton, who won the bronze ball this year at the USTA National 18s in San Diego, did not lose a set all week, with their comfort at the net giving them an advantage.

"After the San Diego ITF and the Hard Courts, we knew coming in that we had a great chance of coming out on top," said the 17-year-old Chung, who now has nine ITF doubles titles. "I feel like the way we play, a lot of teams aren't used to seeing people at the net, so it gives us a huge advantage, an element of surprise," Hamilton said.

The first set of the final featured just two breaks, with Lam and An taking a 4-2 lead but surrendering the break in the next game. Chung held on a deciding point for 4-all, with the next four games service holds. The tiebreaker featured three double faults by An and Lam, giving Hamilton and Chung all the margin they needed.

Chung and Hamilton got an early break and held on to in with Chung coming from 15-40 down at 3-1 to hold. At 2-5, An saved three match points with some big serving, and Chung was broken in the next game to get the set back on serve. But with Lam serving, she and An fell behind 15-40, and although they saved a fourth match point, Chung and Hamilton converted the fifth to run their winning streak on the ITF Junior Circuit to eight matches, but it may end there.

""She's going to school," said Chung, "so I think this is our last junior ITF, I'm guessing, unless something happens at the end of the year."

The two singles finals are both scheduled for 10 a.m. Central time Saturday.

Secord and Schuman Knock Out Top Seeds to Reach Semifinals at ITF J300 Pan Am Regional Championships; Three Current Collegians Advance at W75 in Edmond OK; Four Americans Reach Fairfield Challenger Quarterfinals; Fakih and Pareja Advance at W35 Bakersfield

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Spring Texas--

Aspen Schuman and Jack Secord had reasons to be apprehensive about their performance this week at the ITF J300 Pan American Regionals Championships in suburban Houston. Schuman was recovering from a foot injury that had hampered her since the USTA Nationals in early August, and Secord had not had the best week of practice at the USTA Lake Nona campus the week prior to this tournament.

Yet both took out the No. 1 seeds in impressive fashion Thursday morning at the Giammalva Racquet Club to advance to Friday's semifinals.

Secord, the No. 11 seed, said he had gotten "destroyed" by Dominick Mosejczuk in a practice match in Lake Nona last week, but that didn't keep him from beating the No. 7 seed 7-5, 6-4 their third round meeting Wednesday. In today's quarterfinals Secord had the advantage of having beaten No. 1 seed Jagger Leach in three sets when they met last December in the Orange Bowl, but even he was dazed by his comprehensive 6-2, 6-2 victory.

"I played well," said the 16-year-old lefthander from Lake Forest Illinois. "I took it to him. I don't know if he played his best, but I went out there and got the best of him today. I feel pretty comfortable right now."

Secord said he has been playing "bigger tennis" recently and when he is making no unforced errors while maintaining that aggressive mindset, as was the case today, he can handle anything a junior can throw at him.

"I think my game matches up with his decently well," said Secord, who won a J100 on indoor hard in Canada in mid-September. "At Orange Bowl I played more defensive, and obviously, it's clay and I can kind of get away with that. But recently I've been hitting the ball, moving faster, all that."

Secord led 6-2, 5-0, but Leach held, and Secord was serving on the sunny side, which he said contributed to a couple of rare unforced errors and less effective serving. But when they changed ends, Secord resumed his dominance, breaking Leach to move into his first J300 semifinal. 

Secord will face No. 4 seed Ian Mayew, who defeated No. 9 seed Matisse Farzam 6-4, 6-3. It's the first meeting between the two.

The other boys semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Jack Kennedy and No. 8 seed Benjamin Willwerth. Kennedy defeated No. 10 seed Max Dussault 6-4, 6-3, while Willwerth ended the run of wild card Gus Grumet by a score of 6-2, 6-3.

The girls quarterfinals were also completed in straight sets, with the exception of No. 2 seed Annika Penickova, who breezed through the first set, then found herself in a serious battle with 13-year-old Raya Kotseva before posting a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory. Penickova will face No. 5 seed Maya Iyengar, who beat No. 3 seed Nadia Lagaev of Canada 6-4, 6-3, assuring that both the boys and girls champions will be from the United States.

No. 6 seed Schuman's 6-3, 6-2 win over top seed Thea Frodin gave her reason to believe that the foot injury she tried to play through this summer was in the past.

"I think I just have a lot more confidence because I'm moving better this week," said the 17-year-old from Menlo Park California. "My foot's feeling a lot better; the last two months I had a foot injury, at Hard Courts and the US Open, but now I feel a lot more confident in my movement and that's really helping my play in the matches."

Schuman's two victories over Frodin last year gave her an idea of what to expect.

"I'm a little bit familiar with her game, so I kind of new what I had to do going in and what to expect," Schuman said. "She's an amazing player, a really tough opponent and I think her serve is definitely one of her strengths.  So I just knew I had to be extra ready in my return games and really focus on my serve games, to make sure I was keeping up with her, or trying to at least. So it was helpful to know to be ready for that, but there's nothing you can do if she's serving really big and hitting lines."

Schuman, who reached the semifinals here last year, will face No. 8 seed Claire An, who defeated No. 4 seed and doubles partner Shannon Lam 7-6(3), 6-1. The first set, which was still going when Schuman wrapped up her victory over Frodin, was a war of attrition, but An took control in the second set to reach her second J300 semifinal.

Earlier this year Schuman beat An in the round of 32 at the Nationals in San Diego 7-6(4), 6-4, and in the final of the J200 in Mexico in June 6-1, 7-5.

The doubles finals, which were played on Saturday last year, will take place on Friday this year, with some familiar faces and some new ones.

No. 6 seeds Kayla Chung and Alanis Hamilton will face No. 2 seeds An and Lam, with one of them guaranteed to earn the title that eluded them last year when An and Hamilton lost to Ariana Pursoo and Maya Joint 6-7(3), 7-5, 10-7 in the final.

Chung and Hamilton advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 win over unseeded Kaia Giribalan and Thara Gowda; An and Lam survived against the unseeded team of Kotseva and Jordyn Hazelitt 6-1, 3-6, 10-8.

Defending boys champions Matisse Farzam and Leach, the No. 2 seeds, lost to unseeded Jon Gamble and James Weber 7-6(5), 3-6, 13-11. Trailing 9-7 in the match tiebreaker, Gamble saved both match points, hitting a backhand volley winner on the first and smashing a short ball at the feet of Leach on the second. On their third match point, at 10-9, Leach netted a forehand, but Gamble and Weber couldn't convert their match point at 11-10, with Farzam putting away a volley. But Farzam missed a volley on the next point and Gamble had a second match point, this time on serve, and he made it count, with a great first serve ending the run of Farzam and Leach.

Gamble and Weber will play No. 8 seeds Calvin Baierl and Joseph Oyeboy Junior, who defeated No. 6 seeds Secord and Jacob Olar 7-6(3), 7-6(4). 

Both boys semifinals and the An-Schuman match will be played  at 9 a.m. Central time, with the Iyengar and Penickova semifinal not before 11 a.m. The boys doubles final will also be at 11 a.m., with the girls doubles final not before 1 p.m.

On the USTA Pro Circuit, three current collegians have advanced to the quarterfinals of the W75 in Edmond Oklahoma: Texas A&M's Mary Stoiana and Georgia teammates Anastasiya Lopata and Dasha Vidmanova. 

Stoiana, a wild card, defeated No. 8 seed Sophie Chang 6-4, 6-2 to advance to a meeting with Vidmanova, who defeated qualifer Jiangxue Han of China 6-1, 7-5. Stoiana defeated Vidmanova 6-1, 7-6(4) in the NCAA team championship match in May in Stillwater.

In the other quarterfinal in the top half, 2024 NCAA singles finalist Lopata will face No. 7 seed Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine, after defeating No. 3 Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand 6-2, 6-2.

Former NC State All-American Alana Smith, a qualifier, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Viktoria Hruncakova and will face No. 4 seed Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia Friday. Elli Mandlik, the No. 5 seed, will play unseeded 18-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada, who beat No. 2 seed Kayla Day 6-4, 6-2.

Alex Gruskin is providing commentary beginning with tomorrow's quarterfinals at the Cracked Racquets YouTube Channel and spoke with all the winners today. Those conversations are available at the Cracked Interviews podcast.

The quarterfinals are now set at the ATP Challenger 75 in Fairfield California, with four Americans advancing. Top seed Learner Tien(USC) will face No. 5 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M); No. 6 seed Brandon Holt(USC) will play No. 4 seed Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan and No. 8 seed Ethan Quinn(Georgia) will face No. 2 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia. Quinn ended the run of qualifier Rudy Quan, a UCLA freshman, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The only quarterfinal without an American has Alexis Galarneau of Canada facing No. 7 seed Bernard Tomic of Australia. 

At the W35 in Bakersfield California, 15-year-old Julieta Pareja defeated ITA All-American champion Maria Sholokova of Wisconsin, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-2 in the first round and reached the quarterfinals with a three-hour 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over former USC All-American Eryn Cayetano. Seventeen-year-old wild card Kate Fakih, a freshman at UCLA, defeated No. 2 seed Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) of Canada 6-2, 5-2, retired, to advance to her second W35 quarterfinal. Fakih's win over WTA No. 275 Branstine is the best win by ranking in her limited appearances on the USTA Pro Circuit.

Other Americans to reach the quarterfinals in Bakersfield are top seed Hanna Chang, wild card Amelia Honer, a senior at UC-Santa Barbara, and qualifier Solymar Colling(San Diego). No. 5 seed Whitney Osuigwe is still playing her second round match tonight.

Qualifier Aidan Kim, a sophomore at Ohio State, has advanced to the quarterfinals of the $25,000 men's tournament in Louisville Kentucky, where he'll play recent Oklahoma State graduate Tyler Zink, the No. 4 seed. No. 7 seed Alex Rybakov(TCU) will face off against No. 2 seed Garrett Johns(Duke), and qualifier Keshav Chopra(Georgia Tech) will play former Tennessee All-American Johannus Monday of Great Britain.

Thirteen-year-old Kotseva Reaches Quarterfinals, Secord Tops No. 7 Seed Mosejczuk, Farzam Saves Match Point in Three-Tiebreaker Win at ITF J300 Pan American; Mboko Avenges Recent Loss to Jovic at W75 in Edmond

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Spring Texas--

The third round at the ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships is when seeds begin playing seeds, and that was the case for the majority of the contests, with only six unseeded players, three boys and three girls, making it to the round of 16. When another warm and sunny day at the Giammalva Racquet Club had ended, only two unseeded players had advanced to Thursday's quarterfinals: 13-year-old Raya Kotseva and wild card Gus Grumet.

Kotseva had played the J60 last week in Corpus Christi, losing to her doubles partner Jordyn Hazelitt in the quarterfinals, so her expectations for this week's event, her first J300 tournament, weren't high. But a routine 6-3, 6-1 win over qualifier Sarah Shumate Wednesday, after her 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over No. 7 seed Capucine Jauffret in yesterday's second round, put Kotseva in the quarterfinals with the other seven Top Eight seeds.

"I wasn't really expecting this big of a result, because it's my first J300, and I'm playing basically players Top 100 in the world," said Kotseva, a Las Vegas resident, who turns 14 next month. "But I just came out here to give it my all, and whatever happens happens. I'm just trying to learn from each match, keep being positive, make the best of it and have fun."

Next for Kotseva is No. 2 seed Annika Penickova, who defeated No. 15 seed Kayla Chung 6-3, 6-2.

Only two of the eight girls matches went to a third set, with No. 6 seed Aspen Schuman defeating No. 10 seed Monika Ekstrand 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 and No. 4 seed Shannon Lam getting by unseeded Isabelle DeLuccia 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. 

Lam and DeLuccia, both from New Jersey, battled through long rallies and deuce games, with both playing offense and defense equally effectively. Lam got the final break, with DeLuccia, the 2024 Easter Bowl 16s finalist, serving at 4-5 in the third. They shared a long hug at the net, both appearing physically and emotionally exhausted from their efforts. Lam will face No. 8 seed Claire An in the quarterfinals, after An defeated No. 12 seed Ava Rodriguez 6-3, 7-5; Schuman will take on top seed Thea Frodin, who defeated USTA 16s champion and No. 16 seed Ishika Ashar 6-4, 6-2 in a match that was much longer and closer than the score indicates.

The fourth quarterfinal, in the bottom half, will feature No. 5 seed Maya Iyengar, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over No. 9 seed Leena Friedman, and No. 3 seed Nadia Lagaev of Canada, who beat No. 13 seed Anita Tu 6-4, 6-1. Lagaev is the only non-American in the quarterfinals.

Top seed Jagger Leach took out the last non-American in the boys draw, beating No. 13 seed Rafael Botran Neutze of Guatemala 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Leach will face No. 11 seed Jack Secord, who took out No. 7 seed Dominick Mosejczuk 7-5, 6-4, after trailing 4-1 in the second set.

"He was a little off his game at the start, and I think that helped a bit," said the 16-year-old left-hander from Lake Forest Illinois. "In the first set, I played pretty clutch tennis. In the second set, I lost a long game at 0-1 on my serve, and got down 3-0, but I waited for my chance to get the break back and I got it."

Secord broke Mosejczuk to take a 5-4 lead, but expressed relief that he was able to serve it out. 

"I was pretty nervous, I didn't play the best game," Secord said. "I could have been a little looser, looking back, but I'm glad I got it."

Secord missed converting his first two match points, but a couple of first serves and well-struck backhands got him out of trouble and he converted on this third attempt.

Secord has his mother traveling with him this week, the former Linda Harvey Wild, who was a Top 25 WTA player and a 1996 US Open quarterfinalist. Although Secord is primarily coached by his grandfather Steve Wild, his mother's stepfather, and usually travels to tournaments with his father, he is enjoying having her on the road with him this week.

"She obviously know a lot, and she's kind of feisty, because she used to play," Secord said. "My dad's more laid back. As for my grandpa, he's a better coach, I would say. But mom's a mix of dad and grandpa."

Secord and Leach, who is also being accompanied this week by his mother former WTA No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, played last year at the Orange Bowl, with Secord winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

"I pulled it out," Secord said. "It will be a tough match; I think he's a little better on hard courts, but I'll go out and play my best."

The only unseeded boy remaining is 2024 Kalamazoo 16s champion Grumet, who came back to defeat No. 14 seed and 2023 Kalamazoo 16s finalist Lachlan Gaskell 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Grumet, playing in his first ITF J300, will take on No. 8 seed Benjamin Willwerth, who defeated No. 12 seed Ronit Karki 6-3, 6-3. The other quarterfinal in the bottom half will feature No. 3 seed Jack Kennedy, the 2024 Kalamazoo 18s finalist, against No. 10 seed Max Dussault. Kennedy defeated unseeded Ryan Cozad 6-4, 6-4 and Dussault beat unseeded Joseph Oyebog Junior by the same score.

The most dramatic and contentious match of the day was also the longest, with No. 9 seed Matisse Farzam defeating No. 6 seed Kase Schinnerer 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 7-6(5) in over three and a half hours.  Up 6-4 in the second set tiebreaker, Farzam lost the next three points, but saved the match point he faced at 6-7 with an ace. 

The many arguments over line calls, which had been surfacing regularly in the first two sets, went to another a level in the third set, with a roving umpire stationed on the court from early in the third set, when a lengthy argument about who called what ball out when brought the match to a halt.  

Whether it was emotional or physical fatigue or the presence of the umpire, the remainder of the third set was more subdued. In the seemingly inevitable third tiebreaker, Farzam led 5-0 and 6-2, but Schinnerer saved the first match point with a backhand passing shot winner. Farzam called Schinnerer's second serve out at 3-6, but was overruled by the umpire, and Schinnerer saved his third match point with a volley winner to make it 6-5. But as he had done in the second set tiebreaker, Farzam came up with an ace at the most important point of the match to secure the victory.

Farzam will face No. 4 seed Ian Mayew in the quarterfinals, after Mayew defeated No. 15 seed Calvin Baierl 7-5, 6-1.

Both Farzam and Schinnerer were short on energy for their doubles matches 90 minutes later. Schinnerer and Mayew, the top seeds, lost to No. 8 seeds Oyebog and Baierl 6-1, 6-4. Defending champions Farzam and Leach, the No. 2 seeds, defeated No. 7 seeds Cozad and Simon Caldwell 6-3, 2-6, 10-4.  

Oyebog and Bairel will play Secord and Jacob Olar, the No. 6 seeds, in the semifinals Thursday. Secord and Olar defeated No. 4 seeds Mosejczuk and Dussault 6-4, 7-6(9). Farzam and Leach will face unseeded Jon Gamble and James Weber, who took out No. 3 seeds and 2023 finalists Noah Johnston and Willwerth 6-4, 4-6, 10-7.

The girls doubles draw also lost its top seeds today, with No. 6 seeds Alanis Hamilton and Chung defeating Iyengar and Schuman 6-3, 6-4. Hamilton and Chung will play Kaia Giribalan and Thara Gowda, who defeated Bella Payne and Shumate 7-5, 6-4.

Kotseva and Hazelitt, the 12s and 14s Easter Bowl doubles champions, are playing their first ITF tournament as a team and they advanced to the semifinals with a  6-3, 2-6, 10-7 win over Frodin and Lyla Middleton. No. 2 seeds An and Lam defeated No. 7 seeds Kayla Moore and Kenzie Nguyen 6-2, 6-4 and will play Kotseva and Hazelitt.

All eight singles quarterfinals are scheduled for 9 a.m. Central on Thursday, with the doubles semifinals to follow.

Iva Jovic's USTA Pro Circuit winning streak came to an end today in the first round of the W75 in Edmond Oklahoma. Jovic lost to Victoria Mboko of Canada, whom she had beaten in three sets in the Berkeley final two weeks ago, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(3) in two hours and 55 minutes. Georgia teammates Anastasiya Lopata and Dasha Vidmanova both picked up first round victories today, with ITF Accelerator entrant Lopata beating Madison Sieg(USC) 6-2, 6-1 and qualifier Vidmanova taking out top seed Lucrezia Stefanini of Italy 6-1, 6-3.

Wild Card Grumet Knocks Out Top Seed Woestendick in Second Round of ITF J300 Pan Am Closed, Oyebog Ousts No. 5 Seed Johnston; Quan Advances at Fairfield Challenger; Jovic Faces Mboko at W75 in Edmond

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Spring Texas--

Seeds began competing at the ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships Tuesday, with only six of the 32 singles seeds eliminated in round two, played under sunny skies at the Giammalva Racquet Club in suburban Houston.

The reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion Gus Grumet pulled off the biggest upset of the day, beating 2023 Kalamazoo 16s champion Cooper Woestendick 6-4, 7-5 on Court No. 1.

Grumet, who received a wild card, came into his first ITF J300 tournament with confidence after receiving a qualifying wild card at the Tiburon Challenger last week and going three sets with Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian). 

"It was super fun, a great experience, and I was honored to be able to play," said the left-hander, who turns 17 late next month. "It was a tough match; the biggest difference between the junior level and the pro level is the physicality, being super strong.  I think that was the main difference; I was really happy with how I played."

Grumet, from nearby Mill Valley, had never played a match on the Pro Circuit before Tiburon, so he was excited to make his debut in front of a hometown crowd.

"I put on a show out there, which I was happy about," Grumet said. "I had a lot of people come out to watch me, because it's pretty much my hometown, and I'm really excited that I got that experience."

In his first meeting with Woestendick, Grumet wanted to keep himself in control of the points, but it took him several games to find his range.

"He came out really strong," Grumet said. "He's a really good first ball striker, that's always really tough, and he was attacking my forehand. I struggled at the beginning with that, worked my way into it, played solid, stayed in the rallies. Towards the end, I really found my groove."

After hitting a forehand passing shot for a winner, Grumet had his first match point with Woestendick serving at 4-5, but hit a backhand wide, and Woestendick held for 5-5. After Grumet held for a 6-5 lead, Woestendick was again under pressure and a couple of unforced errors and a backhand passing shot winner gave Grumet two more match points. He only needed one, with Woestendick's backhand error at 15-40 securing the upset.

Because Grumet goes to a traditional high school, he usually isn't able compete on the ITF Junior Circuit. He won the first ITF tournament he played this summer, a J60 the week prior to the Clay Courts, which he also won. His second ITF tournament was the US Open Junior Championships, receiving a wild card in New York as the Kalamazoo 16s winner. This week, he has a few days off from school, which minimizes the stress of missing so many classes.

"This week I got kind of lucky, because there's not a lot of school, but overall, yeah, it's kind of a struggle missing school," said Grumet, who, as a junior, is also planning official visits to college campuses for this fall. "But I'm working through it, and I'm super happy to be here."

On Wednesday Grumet will play 2023 Kalamazoo 16s finalist Lachlan Gaskell, who got an injury walkover from Keaton Hance. 

Joseph Oyebog Junior is something of a celebrity now in junior tennis circles, as he was one of the four players featured in the Amazon Prime series Top Class Tennis documentary that began streaming in July. Oyebog is the only one of that quartet still playing junior tennis; Ariana Pursoo, Stiles Brockett and Stephanie Yakoff are all in college now.

"I've had that a lot," Oyebog said. "People come up to me and ask me for pictures, saying 'oh, I've seen you on the show'. I ask them for their feedback, if they enjoyed it, what could have been better. But there's been a lot of positive reviews, so I can't complain. I'm just grateful to have been chosen and have that opportunity."

Oyebog admits that his results since that documentary was filmed, at the end of 2022, have not been what he hoped for or expected, but his 7-5, 6-4 win over No. 5 seed Noah Johnston showed just how high his ceiling can be.

"I've struggled a lot the past almost two years now," said Oyebog, who turns 17 in December. "It's been working on a lot of the mental side, changes, accepting that tennis is tennis and you're going to have ups and downs." 

The ups were all there in today's match, and he gave very few free points to his fellow left-hander. Although an Oyebog serve makes a sound that's just not heard at junior tournaments, and his ground strokes are nearly as lethal, he often misses too many first serves and in the ensuing rallies, sprays balls if a point is extended.

There was none of that today, with the serve and the pace on his groundstrokes just too much for Johnston.

Oyebog gives credit for that serve to his father, a former professional who played Davis Cup for Cameroon and now has an academy there, while Junior trains at IMG.

"My dad had a pretty big serve," said Oyebog, who mentioned that his own serve was clocked at 139 mph last summer. "I think at one point he had the fifth fastest serve in the world. All of that just comes from him, his background as a tennis player."

Oyebog will play No. 10 seed Maximus Dussault, who ended the winning streak of Corpus Christi J60 champion Andrew Johnson, a wild card, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The third unseeded boy to make the third round is Ryan Cozad, who defeated No. 16 seed Jack Satterfield 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(4).

Top seed Jagger Leach defeated wild card Gavin Goode 6-2, 6-3.

Three unseeded girls also reached the third round, including 13-year-old Raya Kotseva, who defeated No. 7 seed Capucine Jauffret 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.  Kotseva will face qualifier Sara Shumate in the third round; Shumate defeated No. 11 seed Alanis Hamilton 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Isabelle DeLuccia is the third unseeded girl in the final 16; she defeated No. 14 seed Kenzie Nguyen 7-6(5), 6-4.

Top seeds Thea Frodin and Annika Penickova won their second round matches in straight sets, and so did No. 3 seed Nadia Lagaev of Canada, but Lagaev's match with wild card Elena Mireles was a long, contentious battle. Lagaev served for the match at 5-4, but couldn't close it out, and trailed 4-2 in the second set tiebreaker, only to take five of the next six points to earn the victory.

There are four unseeded girls doubles teams in the quarterfinals, but top seeds Maya Iyengar and Aspen Schuman and No. 2 seeds Claire An and Shannon Lam are through.  Only one unseeded team remains in the boys doubles quarterfinals.

There are four USTA Pro Circut tournaments this week, which I won't have time to cover as extensively as usual due to being onsite here in Houston. 

The men have the ATP Challenger 75 in Fairfield California and the $25,000 tournament in Louisville Kentucky. 

Rudy Quan, a freshman at UCLA, won his third main draw Challenger match today in Fairfield, after two qualifying wins Sunday and Monday. The 18-year-old from Thousand Oaks California defeated Guy Den Ouden(Pepperdine), who won a Challenger title last month in Europe, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Quan will play 2023 NCAA singles champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia), the No. 8 seed, Thursday.

The women are competing at the W75 in Edmond Oklahoma and the W35 in Bakersfield California. Sixteen-year-old Iva Jovic will be looking to extend her USTA Pro Circuit winning streak to 11 in a first round match Wednesday with Victoria Mboko of Canada. Jovic, who won the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe on Sunday, beat Mboko in the final of the W35 in Berkeley two weeks ago. 

Corpus Christi Champion Andrew Johnson Extends Winning Streak as ITF J300 Pan Am Begins; Florida's Thornqvist Retires; Brantmeier Injunction Denied; Baptiste Leads AO Wild Card Challenge

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Spring, Texas--

The first day of competition at the ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships at the Giammalva Racquet Club in Spring Texas doesn't feature any seeds, who have first round byes. But it gives the six qualifiers and six wild cards a chance to test their games against at a major event on the USA's junior ITF circuit, and many took advantage of it on a hot and sunny day in suburban Houston.

Fifteen-year-old wild card Andrew Johnson of Rancho Palos Verdes California was coming into his first ITF J300 tournament with well earned confidence, having won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title last week at the J60 in Corpus Christi. Johnson, who moved up to 579 in the ITF rankings after the title, lost as many as three games in a set only twice in his six victories last week, and continued that theme today, defeating 17-year-old Jacob Olar, ranked 219, 6-2, 6-0.

Johnson, who trained at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona for a week prior to traveling with USTA National Coach Jon Glover for this two-week Texas swing, said he has been focused on adding more aggressive shots during this stretch of victories.

"I was playing smart last week, playing more aggressive than I usually do," said Johnson, who won the Junior Orange Bowl 14s, the Winter Nationals 14s and the Easter Bowl 14s in succession in a four-month stretch before moving up to the 16s division, where he reached the USTA Clay Courts final this year. "Corpus Christi was very important, it was my first singles title in the ITF, and it was very special to me. I felt so good after."

Olar is much bigger than Johnson, but Johnson was able to neutralize that advantage, putting returns at Olar's feet when he came in, and if that didn't result in an error, passing him after an approach shot.

"My returns were definitely better than usual today," Johnson said. "And my backhand was really solid, backhand line. Everything was working today. I think confidence is a big part of it; I've been playing pretty well, so it's still going."

Johnson will play No. 10 seed Maximus Dussault in Tuesday's second round. Johnson is one of three wild cards advancing, with Gavin Goode and 2024 Kalamazoo 16s champion Gus Grumet also making the second round.

Grumet will kick off play Tuesday on Court 1, against No. 2 seed and 2023 Kalamazoo 16s champion Cooper Woestendick.

Qualifiers earning wins today in the boys first round are Nicolas Pedraza. Marcel Latak, Bullion Sharp and Arnav Bhandari.

Four of the six qualifiers also advanced in the girls draw:Eva Oxford, Calla McGill, Sara Shumate and Joanna Kennedy. And, just as with the boys, three of the six wild cards won their first round matches: Sara Ye, Hannah Ayrault and Elena Mireles.

The first round of doubles was also played today, with the seeded teams taking the courts on Tuesday.  Maya Iyengar and Aspen Schuman are the top girls seeds; future UNC teammates Ian Mayew and Kase Schinnerer are No. 1 in the boys draw, with defending champions Jagger Leach and Matisse Farzam seeded No. 2.

Roland Thornqvist and the 2011 NCAA National Champions

After the recent retirement announcement of Stanford's Lele Forood, I wasn't expecting to read that another coach with multiple NCAA women's team championships would follow, but that happened today, with Florida's Roland Thornqvist leaving the head coaching position, effective immediately, after 24 years leading the Gators. Thornqvist, who took over from the late coaching legend Andy Brandi in 2001, won four NCAA team titles in 2003, 2011, 2012 and 2017. Still only 54, Thornqvist "hasn't ruled out coaching, but may also pursue a post in an athletic administrative capacity," according today's release at floridagators.com.

After nearly two months, the preliminary injunction requested by Reese Brantmeier's attorneys was denied by the judge, meaning that student-athletes who want to remain NCAA eligible continue to be bound by the rules that limit the amount of prize money they may accept at professional tournaments to the expenses they incur. The case will continue to work its way through the courts, this simply keeps the current rules in place until that case is decided. The judge's remarks in denying the injunction can be found in this article from the Carolina Journal.

The first update on the USTA's 2025 Australian Open reciprocal wild card for women came out today, with last week the first of the four-week period designated for WTA points accumulation. From today's release:

ORLANDO, Fla., October 7, 2024 – Hailey Baptiste leads the women's side of the Australian Open Wild Card Challenge after its first official week. Baptiste's leading total of 80 points includes results from two events, as she qualified and reached the second round of the China Open WTA 1000 in Beijing (which began on September 25), then reached the second round of the WTA 125 event in Hong Kong. Sixteen-year old Iva Jovic, this year's USTA Girls' 18s national champion, is second with 75 points counted from winning the title at the USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. 

 

The current top of the women's standings (player's current ranking in parenthesis): 

 

1. Hailey Baptiste (102) -- 80

2. Iva Jovic (216) -- 75
T3. Sofia Kenin (162) -- 35
T3. Lea Ma (474) -- 35

 

The women's wild card will be awarded to the American with the most ranking points earned at a maximum of three tournaments during its four-week window. The women's Challenge window runs through the week of October 21. All indoor and outdoor hard-court and carpet events at the W35 level and above are included in the Challenge.

Basavareddy, Jovic, Ma and Corwin Claim USTA Pro Circuit Titles; Gauff Wins Beijing 1000 Championship; Leach and Frodin Top Seeds at ITF J300 Pan Am Closed

Americans swept the singles titles on the USTA Pro Circuit this week, although three of four tournaments featured all-USA finals, making a sweep quite likely after the semifinals were completed.

Nishesh Basavareddy won his first Challenger title today with an impressive performance in at the Tiburon 75, emphatically ending his Challenger final losing streak at three. After a disappointing performance in the final a week ago in Charleston, a 6-4, 6-3 loss to lucky loser Edas Butvilas of Lithuania, the unseeded 19-year-old from Indiana brought his best level against former Texas All-American Eliot Spizzirri, taking it 6-1, 6-1 in 62 minutes. The Stanford junior is up to 192 in the ATP live rankings with his first Challenger title; he is not playing next week's Challenger 75 in Fairfield California, where he made his first Challenger final last year.

Iva Jovic won her first W75 title today in Rancho Santa Fe California, running her USTA Pro Circuit winning streak to 10 matches and avenging her loss in February's W35 final to Ena Shibahara of Japan. The unseeded 16-year-old, who won the W35 in Berkeley a week ago, defeated No. 3 seed Shibahara 6-3, 6-3 in today's final. The only set Jovic lost all week was the first won she played, against Victoria Hu(Princeton) in her 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 first round victory.  Jovic is now up to 217 in the WTA live rankings.

For more on Jovic's title, see this recap of the final from press aide Steve Pratt.

Lea Ma, the former Georgia All-American, had never been past the quarterfinals of a Pro Circuit tournament, but this week the 23-year-old New Yorker took three steps beyond that, taking the title at the W35 in Redding California. Ma defeated top seed Maria Mateas(Duke) 6-3, 6-2 to record that milestone. Mateas had beaten Texas A&M sophomore Lucciana Perez of Peru in the semifinalis late last night 6-1, 6-0.

The doubles title in Redding was won by Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) and Eryn Cayetano(USC), with the unseeded pair defeating the unseeded team of Clervie Ngounoue and Himeno Sakatsume of Japan 6-2, 6-2 in last night's final.

At the men's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Ann Arbor, top seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) took the title, beating unseeded Alfredo Perez(Florida) 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 in today's final. It's the second Pro Circuit singles titles for the 28-year-old from Wisconsin and his first in four years.

The biggest title for an American was delivered by Coco Gauff, who won her second Masters 1000 title today in Beijing. Gauff, the No. 4 seed, defeated Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1, to put a disappointing US hard court summer behind her.  For more on Gauff's title, see this article from the WTA website.

Qualifying is complete and the draws are out for the ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships in Houston, which I'll be covering in person beginning Monday.

The boys qualifiers: Marcel Latak, Noble Renfrow, Arnav Bhandari, Bullion Sharp, Nicolas Pedraza, Andre Alcantara

The girls qualifiers: Bella Payne, Calla McGill, Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann, Joanna Kennedy, Eva Oxford, Sara Shumate

The boys wild cards: Gavin Goode, Juno Pethe, Cal Riggs, Andrew Johnson, Santiago Albarran(MEX) and Gus Grumet. 

The girls wild cards: Maya Chen, Jordyn Hazelitt, Sarah Ye, Hannah Ayrault, Kayla Moore and Ahona Chowdhury.

The boys seeds:

1. Jagger Leach
2. Cooper Woestendick

3. Jack Kennedy

4. Ian Mayew

5. Noah Johnston

6. Kase Schinnerer

7. Dominick Mosejczuk

8. Benjamin Willwerth

9. Matisse Farzam

10. Maximus Dussault

11. Jack Secord

12. Ronit Karki

13. Rafael Botran Neutze(GUA)

14. Lachlan Gaskell

15. Calvin Baierl

16. Jack Satterfield

The girls seeds:

1. Thea Frodin

2. Annika Penickova

3. Nadia Lagaev(CAN)

4. Shannon Lam

5. Maya Iyengar

6. Aspen Schuman

7. Capucine Jauffret

8. Claire An

9. Leena Friedman

10. Monika Ekstrand

11. Alanis Hamilton

12. Ava Rodriguez

13. Anita Tu

14. Kenzie Nguyen

15. Kayla Chung

16. Ishika Ashar

Seeds have first round byes and will play their first matches on Tuesday.