Plotkin Stuns Jr. Wimbledon Champion and Open's Second Seed

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©Colette Lewis 2005

If the USTA has a copyright on perfect weather, the U.S. Open is collecting some serious royalties this week. Clear skies, low humidity and refreshing breezes have been relentless since we arrived in New York, leaving the tennis as the lone focal point.

Junior tennis is now taking center stage, and today’s diva was American Liz Plotkin, who earned one of the biggest victory of her junior career, taking out Wimbledon champion Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-4 in a second round singles match.

In fact, Plotkin, a seventeen-year-old from San Franciso, has now beaten the last two Wimbledon girls champions in the past year, having also beaten Kateryna Bondarenko at the 2004 Winter Internationals.

Plotkin is currently 36th in the ITF rankings, while Radwanska is third. But Plotkin, who did some scouting of Radwanska at Wimbledon, saw some positive signs in early in their first meeting. “We had a couple of really long games in the beginning and I really though I could have a chance to beat her,” said Plotkin. “She hits really flat and pounds everything, and actually I like that style. I like to have a poundfest out there.”

Plotkin also took confidence from her first round win over Marrit Boonstra.

“Once you get by a round with two tiebreak sets and you’ve fought your way through that, anything’s possible.”.

Plotkin’s win overshadowed another upset—Jamie Hampton’s elimination of fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the first round. Hampton, a fifteen-year-old from Alabama, won the USTA 18s Clay Court Championship in July, and the wild card recipient put the fifth ranked Wozniacki on notice at the start, taking the first set 6-2. About the time she was expected to crumble, after dropping the second set 6-2, Hampton instead recharged and took the final set 6-4. Her reward—a second round match with unseeded but dangerous Yaroslava Shvedova, the winner of the ITF Grade 1 Canadian Open last week.

The boys’ top seeds negotiated the waters more predictably Tuesday. World number one Donald Young dropped the first set to a confident Phillip Bester, who was a finalist at the Canadian, but the top seed continued his domination of the IMG Bolliettieri Academy player with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 first round singles win.

Second seed Marin Cilic, the French Open champion, was also tested in his second round match with wild card Wil Spencer. Though down an early break, Spencer, who turns 16 on Thursday, fought back to force a first set tiebreaker. “I was too relaxed,” said the six-foot six-inch Croatian, who had beaten Spencer in last year’s U.S. Open junior qualifying tournament. Cilic played a nearly flawless tiebreak, and although Spencer pestered him in the second set, the ITF’s second ranked player prevailed 7-6, 6-4.

Alex Clayton, who was recently named a Davis Cup hitting partner for the U.S. team traveling to Belgium later this month, battled the 14th seed Evgeniy Kirillov of Russia to a third set tiebreak, but fell just short in a riveting match of high quality tennis. Kirillov won 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).

Tim Smyczek, a Wimbledon semifinalist, was not seeded, but the 26th ranked righthander from Wisconsin certainly played at a higher level than Thiemo de Bakker, the ninth seed from the Netherlands, eliminating him 6-1, 7-6 (0) in a second round encounter.

Alex Kuznetsov, the fifth seed, defeated fellow American Dennis Lajola 6-3, 6-2.

Seeded U.S. boys to fall included 16th seed Jesse Levine, who dropped a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 decision to Venezuelan Piero Luisi, and 2004 Orange Bowl champion Tim Neilly who also failed to win a game in his final set, although his was the second. He was defeated by Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-4, 6-0.
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