Top Seeds Fall in Semis in Florida Sectional; Devvarman Takes Futures Title
©Colette Lewis 2008--
Tampa, FL--
Two brief rain showers extended an already long day well into the evening at the Florida 18s sectionals, with the doubles finals finishing under the lights at the City of Tampa Hillsborough Community College Tennis Center.
With the quarterfinal match between unseeded Bianca Sanon and No. 7 seed Danielle Collins taking over four hours to complete, not including the two rain delays, the girls' schedule was understandably drawn out. Unsurprisingly, Collins, the winner of the 6-2, 6-7 (2) 7-6 (3), had nothing left for her semifinal, losing to unseeded Jacqueline Kasler 6-3, 6-0. Kasler will face No. 4 seed Cassandra Herzberg, who ousted top seed and defending champion Kelly Kambourelis 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals. The girls tournament is played on clay, while the boys compete on hard courts, which take longer to dry, and delays totaling over two hours also pushed start times for doubles late into the evening.
The three-set semifinal between No. 2 seed Sekou Bangoura Jr. and No. 3 seed Billy Federhofer also was responsible for the late doubles finish, as both were in the doubles semifinals. Federhofer had a match point serving at 5-4 in the third set, but Bangoura saved it and won the next three games to pull out the 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 win. Federhofer was cramping late in the match, but an hour later he was back out on the court for the doubles. He and partner Creighton Blanchard, the top seeds, failed to reach the doubles final, however and Bangoura and his partner Kurthan Anbarci, the second seeds, also bowed out in the semifinals.
In Monday morning's singles final, Bangoura will face No. 4 seed Eugene Dolgovykh, who dispatched top seed Blas Moros 6-4, 6-2. Dolgovykh's lengthy 7-6(6), 7-6(4) quarterfinal win over Aaron May meant a later start for his contest with Moros, but the big-serving Dolgovykh earned his finals berth long before Bangoura.
With the showers came cooler temperatures and the few family members viewing the doubles finals were layering all the clothing items they could find against the evening chill. The girls doubles final, between the unseeded teams of Brittany Borsanyi and Sanon and Jamie Mera and Jennifer Miller, finished first, with Sanon ending her arduous day on a winning note. Borsanyi and Sanon broke at 4-4 and didn't lose another game taking the championship 8-4.
It was after 8 p.m when the boys doubles title was decided in favor of Patrick Whitner and Spencer Wolf, the No. 4 seeds, who outlasted No. 3 seeds Joel Samaha and Connor Smith 9-7.
The feed-in consolation will require three matches on Monday, with a tiebreaker in lieu of a third set. The main draw and third place matches will begin at 9 a.m. For complete results, visit the TennisLink site.
In the Tampa Futures, NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman of Virginia added the singles title to his doubles win, taking down top seed Dusan Vemic of Serbia 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Audra Cohen fell in the women's singles final 6-4, 6-0 to Russian Anastasia Pivovarova.
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