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Sunday, September 3, 2006

Buchanan Upsets Seventh Seed Luncanu; Girls No. 2 seed Wozniacki Defaulted



©Colette Lewis 2006
Flushing Meadows, NY--

Fifteen-year-old Chase Buchanan won his first Grand Slam match on the day Andre Agassi played his final one. Buchanan defeated No. 7 seed Petru-Alexandru Luncanu of Romanian 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.

"It was kind of cool, his career ending, mine sort of starting on the same day," said the wild card, playing his first Grade A ITF event under the lights on court 14.

Supported by a vocal group of friends from his home in suburban Columbus Ohio, Buchanan lifted his play late in the third set, while Luncanu played more tentatively. Luncanu's ill-timed double fault gave Buchanan an opening at 5-6, 15-30, and a blistering return gave him two match points. The first the 17-year old lefty saved with a deft drop volley, and Luncanu worked his way to the net on the second, but his volley found the net. The Columbus crew cheered wildly, and the large crowd that had gathered while waiting to enter Ashe Stadium for the delayed night session left buzzing about the mature play of the young American.

"I thought coming in here I could compete with anyone," Buchanan said. "I kept my head tonight, stayed real positive, and that's something that I had struggled with."


Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, the second seed and 2006 Wimbledon girls champion, had her U.S. Open end in abrupt fashion when she was defaulted for obscene language directed at a line judge during her match with Alexandra Panova of Russia. At 6-4, 1-2, Wozniacki was said to have verbally abused a line judge and after a lengthy delay that left spectators baffled, the tournament referee arrived and Panova was declared the winner.

Four of the seven U.S. girls advanced Sunday, with Chelsey Gullickson, Ashley Weinhold, Lauren Albanese and Madison Brengle taking straight set wins. Albanese took out 12th seed Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 6-3, 6-1, while Brengle's win came at the expense of the U.S.'s Reka Zsilinszka. Melanie Oudin fell to 11th seed Tamira Paszek of Austria while Lena Litvak lost a hard-fought battle with Great Britain's Naomi Cavaday.

Kellen Damico, the no. 13 seed, was upset by qualifier Artem Smirnov of the Ukraine 1-6, 7-5, 6-4. Dennis Lajola fell behind early, but roared back against Andrej Martin of the Slovak Republic to win 7-6(0), 6-0. Four other U.S. boys were defeated on Sunday. Marcus Fugate was eliminated by Antonio Veic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3, Austin Krajicek dropped a heartbreaker to Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia 7-6(7), 2-6, 7-6(9), qualifier Dylan Arnould fell to Matteo Trevisan of Italy 6-1, 6-0 and in the last junior match of the day, qualifier Mateusz Kecki was overtaken by 11th seed Pavel Chekhov 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3.

Qualifier Yoann Re of Canada upset sixth seed Sanam Singh of India 6-1, 6-1 , while on the girls' side, 16th seed Teliana Pereira of Brazil was eliminated by Dilyara Saidkhodjaeva 7-5, 4-6, 7-5.

For complete draws, visit usopen.org. For more photos, see ustaboys.com.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The American boys are a combined 3-12 after the first two days, with three yet to play. When's the last time there was such a low winning percentage among American boys in the U.S. Open? It's a little disconcerting.

Anonymous said...

I watched Sweeting play and this guy is for real. What a talent. I certainly hope he continues on the pro tour as he is the next hope for the US along with Querrey. I hope he doesn't waste all this potential.

Anonymous said...

We watched Sweeting at the Open , and he is the real deal . What a talent ! He seems like, he has a history of cramping . His people should do something about it . Other than Querrey , he has all the goods to succeed in the pro tour !
Goodluck Ryan !