Bolender Saves Match Points to Reach Grass Court Quarterfinals; Egger Tops No. 2 White in Boys Action Tuesday
©Colette Lewis 2009--
Philadelphia, PA--
Girls top seed Brooke Bolender saved two match points Tuesday afternoon against Nicole Melichar, and by posting that 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5 victory, became one of only two seeded girls to advance to the International Grass Court quarterfinals.
Grass court tennis is not known for producing long matches, but Bolender and Melichar played two-and-a-half hours before they began the third set, which lasted another hour. Due to heavy thunderstorms in the morning, the matches were set back more than two hours, so it was 4 p.m. before their contest finally produced a winner.
Bolender, serving the always nerve-jangling 4-5 game in the third set, saved two match points before finally holding. She broke the 15-year-old Floridian in the next game, and played a very solid final game to pull through. The points in the match weren't lengthy, but the games were, with nearly all of them going to deuce multiple times. After winning a long three-setter in the first round on Monday, Bolender was probably grateful to have received a walkover win in her first round doubles match.
In Wednesday's quarterfinals, Bolender will play the only other seed remaining, No. 6 Annie Mulholland who had a long two-set battle with local wild card Anna Mamalat before emerging with a 7-6(1), 7-5 win. The other top half quarterfinal will feature USTA Boca Raton training partners Chanelle Van Nguyen and Lauren Herring, both of whom disposed of seeds in Tuesday's second round. Van Nguyen came back for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 4 Rachel Kahan, and Herring sliced and volleyed her way to a 7-6(0), 6-3 win over No. 8 Monica Turewicz.
The bottom half of the draw has Rio Kitagawa of Japan facing Fausthyara Peitersz of the Netherland Antilles. Kitagawa defeated unseeded Tristen Dewar 7-5, 6-4, and Peitersz overtook No. 3 seed Kate Fuller 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Breaunna Addison also recovered from the loss of the first set to beat 13-year-old Brooke Austin 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, and will play qualifier Lauren Davis, who defeated Kyle McPhillips 6-4, 6-3.
The boys have three seeds remaining, but No. 2 seed Zachary White of Canada is not one of them, as he fell to Emmett Egger 6-3, 6-3. White had barely escaped against Campbell Johnson in the first round, but Egger kept the pressure on throughout the match, approaching the net at every opportunity and rarely missing a first volley.
Egger's opponent in Wednesday's quarterfinal will be No. 8 Alex Golding of Great Britain, who dismissed wild card Bjorn Fratangelo 6-3, 6-1. No. 4 seed Raymond Sarmiento fell behind Ryan Cheung 4-1 in the second set, but managed to wriggle out of that dilemma and take a 6-3, 7-5 victory. Cheung served for the second set at 5-3, was broken, and then was broken again at 5-5, after a game that must have lasted at least 20 minutes. Sarmiento had no such difficulty in his service game, advancing to a meeting with wild card Hunter Harrington, who beat Alexander Petrone 6-1, 1-6, 6-0.
In the top half of the boys draw, JT Sundling continued to dominate, taking a 6-4, 6-2 decision from qualifier Harrison Abrams, and will meet Dan McCall, who defeated Shaun Bernstein 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. The fourth quarterfinal will feature qualifier Micahel Zhu, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Andrew Korinek, and Dane Webb, who downed No. 7 seed Nathan Pasha 7-6(5), 6-4.
The first round of doubles was completed Tuesday afternoon, and in the boys draw, only one seeded team remains, the top seeds Pasha and Sarmiento. The No. 2 team of Brandon Burke and Rodney Carey lost to Cheung and Sundling 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-8.
In the girls draw, the top seeds of Fuller and Monica Yajima had a bye, and the only seeded team to fall was No. 3 Paola Cos and Jessica Wacnik, who lost to Kerrie Cartwright of the Bahamas and Karen Hernandez of Mexico 6-1, 6-3.
For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.
Lloyd Clayton of yourgameface.com has been shooting the Grass Courts the past two days, and anyone interested in photos from the tournament should contact him through the website. Photos taken should be available for viewing there within two weeks.
5 comments:
would someone please explain the strenghts/potential of Nathan Pasha's game and why the USTA is so high on him.
The U.S.T.A.'s fascination with Pasha has more to do with his ethnicity than his tennis. Good kid though.
Don't reach conclusions without facts. Nathan Pasha is a gifted athlete that is progressing very well under the USTA development program. Good wheels, strokes and attitude. Nathan is ready to make a big breakthrough. To call the ethinicity angle is a low blow.
Be Informed, You are right. He does have good wheels, good strokes and a good attitude. His results for his age have always been good but nothing to write home about. Quite a few other kids who have equal results in the last year or so but do not get the same amount of help from the U.S.T.A. To think this has nothing to do with ethnicity is blind. Look at the majority of kids they take on. They are mostly multi-cultural. Why? Because they are thought of as harder workers, better athletes, and far more hungry than most white kids. I do not necessarily disagree with this to a certain point. There is a lot of truth in it. There are however, some kids who get passed over because of this train of thought. The ethnicity angle is not a low blow or an insult. It is a fact that the U.S.T.A. thinks this way. A white American kid must have results above and beyond multi-cultural kids to get their attention. Thats a fact. How is that a low blow? Look at all the hires within the U.S.T.A. Count the number of white American coaches compared to multi-cultural. Its ridiculous. If you do not see this your head is in the sand.
To Very Common. Perhaps you can make that argument with regard to some other players but you are flat out wrong about Nathan Pasha.
You indicate that his results aren't very good, but you must not realize that he has at least two gold balls in singles and many doubles gold balls. In fact, he just won the USTA Clay Courts singles in the B16s last summer and clay isn't even his best surface as he is a 6 ft. 3 in. power hitter, not a clay court expert.
Not only that, his potential is almost unlimited due to his size and talent. Also, he has world class strokes. His forehand is a better quality stroke technically than virtually anyone else in his age group.
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