Levine Saves Four Match Points in Win: Surprising Hardy Makes Round of 16

Levine Saves Four Match Points in Win: Surprising Hardy Makes Round of 16--
© Colette Lewis 2005--
Palm Springs, CA--


Jesse Levine, ITF Easter Bowl's number three seed, faced elimination on two separate occasions in his match with fellow Floridian Michael Venus. After dropping the first set in a tiebreak, at 3-5 serving, he managed to fend off two match points. And when the unseeded Venus, fifth in the USTA rankings in the 18s, got to 40-15, Levine was again on the brink.

"I got lucky," said Levine, "because on both points he double faulted. I started making him play, because I knew he was pretty tight, a little nervous."

When Levine won his fourth straight game to take the set, Venus, who was emotionally transparent throughout the match, smashed his racquet and left it sitting on the court during the entire changeover, a monument to his frustration. Levine began the third up 15-0 when the umpire penalized Venus for racquet abuse, and things didn't improve much for Venus after that, as he could manage only one game in the set.

"I just hung in there," said Levine. "Luck was on my side and things went my way today. Hopefully that will continue tomorrow."

Levine will play another highly ranked, but unseeded player on Wednesday, when he takes on Conor Pollock, who is third in the USTA 18s rankings. Pollock was runnerup in last year's 16s singles at the Easter Bowl.

Stefan Hardy, 17, doesn't have a gaudy USTA ranking, but he is not an unfamiliar face at the Easter Bowl. Two years ago he was a quarterfinalist in the 16s singles and doubles. He resurfaced this year with a splash, taking out sixth seed Holden Seguso on Monday, then backed up that performance with 7-5, 6-1 win over Johnny Hamui today.

Hardy is from Santa Maria, north of Santa Barbara, and attributes his relative obscurity to the fact that he attends public high school. He did travel to Mobile for the Spring Nationals, and was felled not by an opponent, but by a stomach virus after his first round win. He works with Hugh Bream, the head coach of the Cal Poly women's team, but Hardy is aware that competition in the Central Coast is not at the level it reaches in the LA area. He doesn't play high school tennis anymore, because, he said, "I was 56-0 in high school."

On Wednesday Hardy faces hard-serving Carlos Salmon of Connecticut, another unseeded player, who banished 12th seed Dylan Arnould in three sets today at the Desert Princess site.