Girls Move Indoors for Second Round at ITF Pan-American
©Colette Lewis 2008--
Tulsa, OK--
Wet courts from light rain overnight sent the second round of girls singles indoors Tuesday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Tulsa. The precipitation returned by 3 p.m., but by that time 11 of the 16 boys singles matches had been completed outdoors. One of the matches that wasn't, between Spencer Newman and No. 4 seed Ryan Lipman, was at 3-2 in the third set, and Lipman was relieved to have extended the match to that stage after dropping the first set to the 15-year-old from Florida 6-1.
"He was not nervous at all," said Lipman. "He came out free swinging and I was a little uptight, playing a little dude, a younger guy. I got up early in the first game 30-0, he made a couple of errors and I'm thinking all right...but after that he didn't miss the whole set it seemed like."
Lipman was unable to shake Newman until 3-3 in the second set, when he began to take more control of the points, to earn the second set by a score of 6-3.
"I picked up the tempo, started hitting through the ball and that helped me a lot," said Lipman. "I was just massaging it and he was dictating, and he was killing me doing that."
When the match moved indoors, Lipman was up a break, and looking much more relaxed than Newman, the 18-year-old from Nashville won the last three games for the 6-2 third set. Although Lipman said he prefers to come into a tournament as an underdog, he acknowledged that mindset wasn't going to work in his match against Newman.
"I can't really be an underdog when I'm playing a little guy who's three years younger than me," said Lipman, who won the last U.S. ITF, a Grade 4 in Atlanta. "I'm one of the oldest kids in the tournament, which is weird, because two years ago I was one of the youngest guys."
In the round of 16, Lipman will also be the favorite against No. 13 seed Maurico Astorga of Mexico, who also needed three sets to down a younger opponent in a match finishing indoors, defeating 15-year-old Jeremy Efferding 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
The other seeded players in the top half advanced as expected, with Denis Lin the only unseeded player getting through to the third round. In the bottom half, three unseeded boys remain, and two will play each other in the third round, with Canadian Edward Nguyen, who had upset No. 1 Tennys Sandgren in the first round, taking on Campbell Johnson. Qualifier JT Sundling prevailed over No. 9 seed Jordan Cox 6-4, 7-6(3), staying calm despite letting three match points slip away serving at 6-5, 40-0 in the second set. Sundling faces No. 8 seed Julien Uriguen of Guatemala, who won the last 11 games of the match after trailing Junior Ore 5-2 in the first set in a 7-5, 6-0 victory.
No. 15 seed William Parker squeaked by Brian Fang 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6) in the only match of the day decided by a third set tiebreaker, and will meet No. 3 seed Bo Seal, who had the opposite experience in his second round match, beating Shane Vinsant 6-0, 6-1.
In the second round of girls singles, the 13-year-olds from Florida continued to roll, with Madison Keys, No. 6 seed Sachia Vickery and Breaunna Addison all advancing. One is guaranteed to lose in the third round however, as the unseeded Keys and Addison meet each other for a quarterfinal berth.
Chanelle Van Nguyen had no trouble with No. 13 Kerrie Cartwright of the Bahamas in a 6-2, 6-2 win, and Rachel Kahan fought past No. 12 seed Khristina Blajkevitch of Canada 7-6(5), 6-2 in a match that featured such tremendous groundstroke pace from both players that the sound echoed throughout the indoor facility.
Two more seeds fell in the bottom half with No. 14 seed Alexandra Cercone losing to 14-year-old Blair Shankle 6-2, 6-1 and No. 15 seed C.C. Sardinha on the wrong side of a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 decision with Fidan Manashirova.
The first round of girls doubles was played indoors Tuesday evening, and with more rain in the forecast on Wednesday, the possibility exists for more indoor matches, which unfortunately, doesn't allow for good photos.
For complete draws, visit the TennisLink site.
1 comments:
Congrats to Ryan. It's always nice to see 2 local players doing well. Nashville and Middle Tennessee are so pleased to see the progress.
Post a Comment