Seeds Continue to Fall at U of I's Chanda Rubin Event

©Colette Lewis 2005~~~

It was another unseasonably warm day at the Chanda Rubin ITF on the campus of the University of Illinois Wednesday, and many of the seeded players couldn’t take the heat that their opponents applied.

On the boys side, the number three seed Sergio Rojas joined second seed and Tuesday’s casualty Andrew Thomas on the sidelines when he fell to unseeded Zach Nichols 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Nichols, 16, of Amarillo Texas, played his best when it counted most, breaking the seventeen-year-old Pervuian at four all and then serving out the match.

Most of the top boys seeds have fallen by the wayside in the first two days. Attila Bucko, the top seed and winner of the recent ITF in Atlanta, has had no trouble advancing, but only four other seeds remain in the last 16 and only one, Rook Schellenberg (9), is seeded in single digits.

One of the day’s most competitive matches was a battle of New York boroughs, as fifteenth seed Adam El-Mihdawy of Queens won an emotional match with friend and roommate Alex Vasin of Brooklyn 7-5, 7-6 (5).

Another rising star from New York, this one on the girl’s side, is fifteen-year-old Shinann Featherston. Playing in her first ITF event, Featherston eliminated the sixth seed Gabriela Blaskovicova 6-3, 6-4. Featherston is continuing her stellar play of the summer, when she won the consolation tournament at the 16 Clay Courts and finished in sixth place at the Nationals. She meets unseeded JJ Jenkins in the round of 16 Thursday.

In addition to Featherston’s opponent, several other seeds were bitten by the upset bug, with fourth seed McCall Jones falling to Missy Clayton and seventh seed Isabell Ohlinger losing to Chichi Scholl, both in straight sets.

Top seed Kirsten Flower has yet to lose a game in the tournament, with a bye on Tuesday and a 6-0, 6-0 victory Wednesday. Flower will play sixteenth seed Shoko Okuda on Thursday.

Both the top seeded teams in doubles advanced to the quarterfinals, with Flower and Jones prevailing in three sets and Vlad Mavropulos Stolyarenko and Thomas battling through two close sets.

The summer-like weather is expected to come to an end Thursday, but the thirty-two players left will generate plenty of heat over the next few days. I only wish I could stay to watch it all.