Two Surprises in Carson Monday

©Colette Lewis 2006
Carson CA--
The first surprise was the weather--although it did rain, it wasn't the unrelenting torrent predicted. And Reka Zsilinszka, a wild card, waited out the rain delay to oust top seed and ITF top ten ranked Julia Cohen 6-1, 6-4.

Zsilinszka had her twenty-four match junior winning streak snapped in the finals of the College Station Texas ITF on Sunday, and had arrived in Los Angeles barely twelve hours before her match at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

"I was so tired. I had played a three or four hour match yesterday, and this was my seventh day in a row," said Zsilinszka, who was up 4-0 in the first set when rain forced a stoppage of play Monday morning. "She plays a game very similar to mine, and I was a little bit steadier, but it was a lot closer than the score would indicate."

Cohen was serving up 3-2, 40-15 in the second, but that especially lengthy game, in a match with a plethora of them, went to Zsilinszka. After calling a trainer for a shoulder injury at the next changeover, Cohen returned to the court and forced Zsilinszka into several uncharacteristic errors breaking her to even the match at 4-4. But the first point of the ninth game, in a rally of at least forty shots, went to Zsilinszka and with a break and a hold she had a started a new streak.

Excited by the prospect of a day off on Tuesday, Zsilinszka was eagerly looking forward to some rest and a chance to take in Ice Age 2 at the movie theatre.

Julia Boserup eliminated 13th seed Missy Clayton 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and Melissa Saiontz defeated 15th seed Eleanor Peters 7-6 (7), 6-4 for the only other upsets in girls action Monday.

On the boys side, there was a near upset, as unseeded Jarmere Jenkins was up 5-2 in the third set on Dennis Lajola, but the fourth seed fought off four match points, and then ran out five straight games to take a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 decision. Asked if he'd ever fought back from that far down before, Lajola had some very recent history to draw on.

"Actually in Bangkok I was down 3-6, 2-5 in the semis and came back to win," said Lajola of the Grade 1 event in Thailand last month. "But he didn't have as many match points. Jarmere played really well, but missed that overhead on his first match point, and I just hung in there."

Jeff Dadamo upended 16th seed Cesar Ramirez of Mexico 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 but no other boys seeds fell on Monday. Top seed Pavel Chekhov earned a straight set victory over wild card Andy Magee 6-2, 7-6 (2), and third seed Jamie Hunt advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Calvin Kemp. Fifth seed Clint Bowles was pushed to the limit before taking down Brad Klahn 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (7).

Rain remains in the forecast for Tuesday, with everyone hoping it is only the quick shower that disrupted play on Monday.