Rain Pushes Plaza Cup Semifinals to Monday
©Colette Lewis 2010--
Coral Gables, FL--
Monday's schedule for the Tennis Plaza Cup will be packed with matches after rain on Sunday washed out the bulk of the action at the four sites.
The girls 14s and boys 18s were the only two divisions to nearly complete quarterfinal round of singles when the skies opened around 11:30 a.m. And the two matches that had not finished were completed after a six hour delay, on the two new courts at Salvadore Park, the only two courts that were playable after the heavy rain.
The four girls 18s quarterfinal matches were in various stages of completion, with top seed Bianca Sanon up a set on Lindsay Graff. No. 8 seed Sherry Li had taken the first set against Reeree Li, and in another matching surname battle, No. 6 seed Jacqueline Crawford and Samantha Crawford were early in the first set. Deborah Suarez and Lynn Chi were on serve late in the first set.
Boys 18s top seed Danny Riggs advanced to the semifinals with a 6-0, 3-6, 10-6 victory over No. 6 seed Alex Sidney, and as he had done in his first round match Saturday, Riggs took control in the late stages of the match tiebreaker. At 4-4, Riggs won four consecutive points, the last one on a rare ace, and after a change of ends made it five straight points to give himself five chances to finish it off. Sidney save two, but again Riggs came up with a big first serve and Sidney's return found the net.
Riggs will play No. 3 seed Zachry Bruchmiller, who beat John Banks 6-4, 7-5. The bottom half of the boys 18s draw features two unseeded players--Michael Rinaldi and Zachary Krumholz. Rinaldi, who has yet to lose a set, had little difficulty with Alex Calott, taking a 6-2, 6-2 decision in their quarterfinal contest. Krumholz, who had survived two match points in the second round on Saturday, defeated unseeded Connor Evins 6-2, 6-4, in a match that was finished under the lights at Salvadore Park.
Girls 14s top seed Mia King also was required to return to the court after the rainstorm, leading 6-4, 5-5 ad out with her opponent, No. 7 seed Caroline Henderson serving. King won that point, giving her a chance to serve for the match, but she wasn't able to finish it quite that quickly, with Henderson forcing a second set tiebreaker.
There were many long points during the match tiebreaker, with both girls hitting deep shots that still gave them some margin for error. King's first match point came at 6-5, but Henderson played another patient point, and an exchange of short crosscourt forehands ended with Henderson pulling King so far wide that she couldn't keep her response in the court. On the next point, King used the surprise tactic of a slice backhand and that change of pace and rhythm produced an error from Henderson. On her second match point, King again used surprise as a tactic, quickly coming to the net and putting away a swinging volley for the 6-4, 7-6(6) victory.
King will play No. 5 seed Alexis Aranda, who has lost only five games in three matches, and today beat unseeded Olivia Thaler 6-0, 6-1. The bottom half semifinal will feature a pair of unseeded players, with Shilin Zu facing Bridget Forster. Xu downed unseeded Johnnise Renaud 6-1, 7-5, while Forster came back for a 1-6, 6-3, 10-5 win over No. 2 seed Rasheeda McAdoo.
Due to the rain, the doubles portion of the tournament has been abandoned, but consolation matches will continue, although the entire consolation tournament will not be completed.
For complete scores, see the TennisLink site.
1 comments:
Great win for Alexios Halebian today in beating the 531st ranked player in the world 7-6, 6-1. Hopefully he can back it up with another win tomorrow to qualify for his first professional main draw. This kid seems to like the dirt.
In other news, Kudla continues to roll and Britton continues to struggle - big time. In his defense, he's played on nothing but clay since the U.S. Open, which obviously isn't his surface. Still, he shouldn't be having this much trouble.
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