Krajicek and Roy Meet for Boys' Championship; Brodsky and Larcher de Brito are Girls Finalists

©Colette Lewis 2006
Philadelphia PA--

"It was hard work for a birthday present."

That's how Austin Krajicek described his come-from-behind semifinal victory over Devin Britton on the day he turned sixteen.

Down a set and a break to his roommate at Bollettieri's, Krajicek managed to "hang around" as he described it and eventually take a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 decision to earn a spot in the final.

"He was up a break in the second; he served for it," said Krajicek, who is a distant cousin of the former Wimbledon champion Richard. "You've got to give credit to him--there were a couple of close calls (in that game.)"

Britton, a 15-year-old from Mississippi, who, like Krajicek, was unseeded, took control of the first set with an early break, and executed his classic serve-and-volley game so well that Krajicek couldn't find any chink in the armor.

"I was kind of subdued in the beginning," Krajicek said. "I wasn't as into the match as I was in previous matches. After I won the second set, I knew I had a good shot at coming out on top, so I was going to be positive, forget about being negative."

The third set, however, began the same way as the previous two, with Krajicek down a break. Serving at 1-4, the lefthander was down a break point, and had Britton capitalized there, he would have been serving for it at 5-1. But the match turned there, with Krajicek "finding a way to grind out that game", and Britton never recovered, losing the next four.

"Luckily at the key points I was able to stay positive," said Krajicek. "One point in the third set would have cost me the match, in the second set too. It was a close match, but luckily I got it."

Britton had recently defeated Krajicek in an Easter Bowl consolation match, so Krajicek had expected another friendly battle.

"Devin and I live together, and we're cool, but we always have tough matches," Krajicek said. "We always play really good when we play each other and it's good; we push each other along. I'm glad I get to play a guy as good as him. It helps me too."

In Saturday's final, Krajicek will see another player with a proven grass court game, top seed and defending champion Rupesh Roy, who defeated his doubles partner Brad Cox 7-5, 6-2.

Roy has had little opposition this week, but he was in danger of losing his first set of the tournament, when serving at 4-5 in the opening set, he found himself down 0-40. But he worked his way out of that hole, then broke a dispirited Cox the next game, and never looked back. En route to his title in 2005, Roy had also beaten Cox, two rounds earlier than this year.

The 17-year-old from India was not originally expecting to compete on U.S. grass this year, but when visa problems kept him from playing in the French Open Junior Championships, he returned to Philadelphia.

"I am playing Roehampton and Wimbledon," said Roy, who is now 56th in the ITF Junior rankings. "My coach said it's better to play grass courts and get ready for them."

In the girls semifinals, 13-year-old Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal surprised top seed Lindsay Burdette 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the second set.

Playing in only her second ITF tournament, Larcher de Brito has already established a reputation for comebacks. In her first event, the Grade 1 in Carson in April, Larcher de Brito fought back from a set and 5-0 down to win her quarterfinal match with Kristy McVitty, and she showed the same determination in Friday's semifinal.

"I changed my mentality," Larcher de Brito said when asked what led to the turnaround. "I was missing everything and I was just rushing too much. I started taking my time more and relaxing instead of tensing up a lot."

Larcher de Brito began serving more consistently and cutting down on her errors, and suddenly she had won five consecutive games. But the prosperity wouldn't last. Serving for the second set at 5-4, Larcher de Brito couldn't hold, and in the ensuing tiebreak, she was down 5-2 before taking the final five points.

"I wish I could go up in a set and stay up," said the Nick Bollettieri protege, whom she called directly after her win. "Always being down puts a lot of pressure on me."

In the third set, it was Burdette playing from behind, and a now-confident Larcher de Brito hit her punishing groundstrokes with even more authority. Burdette, unaccustomed to being on the defensive, couldn't make her way to the net to finish, and Larcher de Brito didn't waiver when she had the opportunity for the upset.

Larcher de Brito will face another challenge in Saturday's final, as Gail Brodsky, her opponent, has won all their meetings, one as recently as last December in the Junior Orange Bowl 14s quarterfinals.

The fourth seeded Brodsky reached the final with a 6-4, 6-4 win over unseeded Julia Boserup. In each set Brodsky, who recently turned 15, bore down when Boserup was serving at 4-5, and broke the 14-year-old from Southern California.

"In the first set I was serving pretty well," said Brodsky, who is from Brooklyn New York, but trains at the Weil Academy in Ojai California. "I practiced a lot yesterday. But after that, my serve kind of broke down and I didn't know what to do. I started pushing my serve in and she's aggressive, and she just started killing them."

Fortunately for her, Brodsky was able to break back both times Boserup broke her early in the second set, putting herself in position for the crucial late break that gave her the match.

Looking ahead to the final, Brodsky knows better than to take Larcher de Brito lightly, even with her success against her in the past.

"I've played Michelle two, three times, and every time we've played it's been a long, tough match," Brodsky said. "But I'm definitely happy to be in the finals."