Semifinals Up Next at D'Novo All-American

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa, OK--

With a break here between the quarterfinals and semifinals at the D'Novo All-American championships, I thought I would post a short wrap of this morning's matches.

The USC Trojans have two semifinalists in No. 3 seed Robert Farah and unseeded Steve Johnson. Farah downed Michigan's unseeded Jason Jung 7-5, 6-3 despite being unable to hold serve with any regularity. Johnson had another dramatic victory, winning the final five games from unseeded Alex Lacroix of Florida. Lacroix was serving for the match at 5-3, having won the first set 6-2 and dropped the second set 6-3. But Johnson's forehand, which had been erratic throughout the match, suddenly became unstoppable, and although Lacroix didn't play badly, Johnson took the match from him with winner after winner. Johnson had also stared down that barrel in his third round match with Bradley Klahn, breaking the Stanford sophomore serving for the match at 5-4 in the third.

Second seed JP Smith was also down a break in the third set, but the junior from Tennessee won the last four games from Tulsa wild card Ashley Watling to secure a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win and an afternoon meeting with Farah.


Johnson will play Oklahoma's Andrei Daescu, who put an end to qualifier Eric Quigley's run with a 7-6(7), 6-3 win over the Kentucky sophomore. Quigley got off to a slow start, going down 2-0 and 0-40, but he eventually served for the opening set. His first serve eluded him most of the day however, and Daescu scrapped out a 70-minute first set before taking control in the much shorter second set.

For the consolation results, see the ITA tournament website.

Tags: college tennis, Steve Johnson, Andrei Daescu, Rob Farah, JP Smith, ITA All-American Championships, Colette Lewis