Grass Tennis a Whole New Game for Most Juniors

©Colette Lewis 2006
Philadelphia, PA--

Many of the competitors at the US International Grass Courts at the Philadelphia Cricket Club are new to the surface and during the first round Monday, they got their first chance to see the challenges it presents.

There were plenty of looks of disbelief and swings and misses, as the reliable bounce of the hard courts wasn't going to happen on a regular basis. Long points were still abundant, especially in girls' matches, but often a point ended on a spectacular mishit, not a crisp volley.

Two boys with grass-friendly games used them to advantage on an unseasonably cool and overcast day. Houston Barrick of Tennessee, whose serve-and-volley attack has worked well enough on hard courts to earn him a Top Three national ranking, won his first round match over Corey Huggins 6-0, 6-0. Barrick, who hasn't played ITF events, had to go through qualifying, and he did, winning three matches over the weekend. His comfort level on grass is surely growing with every victory, and even when he wasn't serving, the 17-year-old from Brentwood found his way to the net, often finishing the point there.

Upsets were common in boys' action today, and one of the biggest saw Devin Britton, who also plays a game ideally suited to grass, take out fourth seed Mike Sroczynski 6-4, 6-4. Britton, 15, has won doubles titles in the last five tournaments he's entered, but hasn't had nearly that success in singles and facing the big-serving Sroczynski was a challenge. But Britton, who is from Jackson Mississippi and trains at Bollettieri's in Bradenton, returned well, served just as big, and used his net skills to keep his opponent off balance thoughout the match.

Other boys seeds who fell in Monday's first round were No. 3 Jamaal Adderley, No. 6 Viju George, No. 7 Rhyne Williams and No. 8 Halvar Dil. The top two seeds--defending champion Rupesh Roy and Chris Racz--won in straight sets.

The girls lost three of their eight seeds in first round play Monday: No. 6 Bianca Aboubakare, No. 7 Carolyn McVeigh and No. 8 Gabriela Paz. Lindsay Burdette, the top seed and a finalist last year, is preparing for a trip to Wimbledon next month by playing here. Burdette, who will enter Stanford this fall, took several months off to devote all her efforts to her studies, but she had no trouble finding her game in her first match, defeating Tara Moore 6-3, 6-1. Second seed Lena Litvak also gave her younger opponent a lesson, defeating Sloane Stephens 6-1, 6-0.

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