Desert Winds Roar in Palm Springs

©Colette Lewis 2006
Palm Springs CA--

There was a little bit of everything at Friday's Easter Bowl: sun, clouds, heat, cold, raindrops and rainbows but it was the wind that turned tennis into an entirely different sport.

The worst of the winds, often gusting over 30 mph, came during the 18s girls and boys quarterfinals in the middle of the day, but Johnny Hamui, the seventh seed, wasn't ready to pronounce conditions the worst ever, especially since he left the court a 7-5, 7-5 winner over third seed Jamie Hunt.

"Everytime you go out on the court when it's like this you think 'this is the worst ever'. In Brownsville earlier this year (at a Futures event) it was cold too and raining, so that was worse," said Hamui, 17.

Hamui, who trains at Saddlebrook, drew on his Thursday comeback against Rhyne Williams when formulating a plan for battling Jamie Hunt. Beaten badly by Hunt at last year's Canadian Open, Hamui knew he couldn't lay back and play passively.

"I tried to do the things I did yesterday," he said of the win he pulled out after trailing a set and 1-5. "Play big, aggressive, brave."

And although palm fronds were whipping by, with dust and grit making it hard to see and difficult to concentrate, Hamui held to his game plan to record the upset and reach his first Grade 1 semifinal.

Hamui will meet his doubles partner and friend Dennis Lajola, who avenged his semifinal loss in Kalamazoo last year with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over unseeded Steve Forman.

"I think it made me focus more," Lajola said of that straight set loss in August. "My game plan was to put pressure on him, cut off his time. I didn't let the wind take over mentally. I stayed calm."

Calm was not a word anyone would use to describe the match that saw unseeded Jamie Hampton eliminate girls top seed Julia Cohen 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. While the winds raged so did Hampton and Cohen, with discussions with the chair umpire as frequent as the wind-induced shanks and whiffs.

Hampton will face sixth seed Kim Couts, who outlasted 14th seed Melissa Saiontz 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Another unseeded semifinalist is Reka Zsilinszka, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over fifth seed Ashley Weinhold.

"I don't like playing in the wind, I don't think anybody does," Zsilinszka said. "I don't mind heat, because you can prepare for that, but in wind, there's nothing you can do."

Weinhold began to mount a challenge late in the second set, putting away volleys and breaking Zsilinzska when she served for the match at 5-2. After an easy hold, Weinhold threatened to get the match back on serve but Zsilinszka finally put it away on her fifth match point.

"I think my game matches up well with hers," Zsilinszka said, even though Weinhold held six match points in the second set of their meeting in Carson last week before succumbing 7-5 in the third. "Because of the conditions, I was able to keep the ball in play more. But every match I win is a big surprise to me."

Zsilinszka's semifinal opponent on Saturday will be 13th seed Andrea Remynse, who like Zilinszka, has not dropped a set in the tournament. Remynse defeated unseeded Hilary Barte 7-5, 6-3.

The other boys 18 semifinal will be a battle of lefthanders when fourth seed Clint Bowles faces Donald Young for the first time.

Young, the top seed and 2004 Easter Bowl 18s champion, battled through the blustery winds on Stadium Court to defeat tenth seed Dylan Arnould 6-4, 6-2, while Bowles took out seventh seed Christopher Racz 6-1, 6-4.

One of the best played matches of the day saw boys 16s top seed Ryan Thacher defeat 16th seed Austin Krajicek 6-3, 7-6 (5). Thacher, the National Winters champion, had faced little resistance in his previous three matches, and when he ran out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, it looked as if he would cruise once again. Krajicek's returns and volleys got him back into the match, however, and he held a set point serving at 6-5 in the second, but when a forehand landed just wide, a tiebreaker decided it.

Second seed Brennan Boyajian and third seed Chase Buchanan also advanced in straight sets, as did fifth seed JT Sundling.

The top four seeds in girls 14s and 16s singles and boys 14s are all safely through to the fourth round.

The ITF event results and draws can be found here, the boys 16s event here, and the girls 16s & 14s and the boys 14s here.