Top seed Carleton Falls in First Round at Spring Nationals

Top seed Carleton Falls in First Round at Spring Nationals ~~~
©Colette Lewis 2006
Mobile--

The first day wasn't two hours old when the biggest upset possible occurred, with top seed Reid Carleton bowing out courtesy of Eric Quigley 6-4, 7-5. Quigley, a high school sophomore from Pewee Valley Kentucky, kept the pressure on the number one seed with his willingness to come to the net, and Carleton's passing shots were frequently off target. The second set was extremely close, and at 4-5, when Quigley might have been expected to show some nerves, he held, then broke and held again to complete the upset.

There were no other surprises in the boys draw during the partly cloudy and breezy day, although second seed Davey Sandgren dropped the first set of his match against Justen Roth, creating the possibility that neither half of the draw would avoid the ultimate upset. But Sandgren, a red-shirt freshman at the University of Tennessee (who actually wore a Volunteer orange shirt Sunday), found his rhythm in the second set and took a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 decision.

The fourteen other boys seeds all moved into the second round.

On the girls side, top seed Kristy McVitty had no difficulty in her first round match, but several other seeds tumbled out on Sunday afternoon. The most surprising loss was probably that of Kristy Frilling (a 5 seed) who was dismissed by Kristen Rafael of Grand Prairie Texas 6-2, 6-3. Frilling had traveled to Australia and qualified for the Junior Open there, but her international experience did not give her any advantage on Sunday. Other girls seeds exiting early were all ranked ninth--Nicole Kantor, Elyse Steiner and Keilly Ulery.


One highly anticipated contest that turned out to be surprisingly one-sided featured second seed Reka Zsilinska and unseeded Lyndsay Kinstler. Kinstler had beaten top seed Zsilinszka in the semifinals of the 16s Nationals last summer in San Diego, and went on to capture the gold ball; Kinstler had also beaten Zsilinszka at the Orange Bowl in 2004.

But Zsilinszka owns a national championship of her own--the 14s title--so this was not a typical first round match, although the 6-1, 6-1 score may indicate otherwise.

"I'm so used to seeing her in the semifinals," said Zsilinszka, a chatty and intense junior from Fayetteville North Carolina. "After the first game went about fifteen minutes, I said, 'okay this is going to be a battle' and I was prepared for it, but she just didn't play that well."

Despite the lopsided score, points and games were often lengthy, but Zsilinszka, a finalist last year in Mobile, had an answer for every shot Kinstler tried.

Zsilinska faces unseeded Laurel Bolesky on Monday, understandably feeling that she's already cleared a major hurdle on her way to the finals.

For full draws including first round doubles action, see usta.com