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Monday, April 5, 2010

Bad Day for Boys 18s Seeds at International Spring Championships


©Colette Lewis 2010--
Carson, CA--

The spring storm that caused a three-hour delay Monday at the International Spring Championships left quickly and so did all seven of the boys 18s seeds who played their first round matches on Monday, among them the 2, 4, 5 and 7 seeds.

Wild card Spencer Newman defeated second seed Dennis Novikov 7-5, 6-3, and while the gusty winds didn't make for an especially pretty match, it was a very competitive one. Played on the feature court, court 4, the match drew a large number of spectators, who witnessed a change in momentum approximately every three games.

Newman took a 4-2 lead in the first set, with Novikov donating several backhand errors. Then Novikov took a 5-4 lead, serving for the first set. It was then Newman's turn to win three games in a row, taking the set when Novikov made yet another error on his backhand. Newman got an early break in the second set, but failed to hold it, and Novikov got back in the match when he held for 3-3. That would be the last game he would win, as Newman broke to take a 5-3 lead, then held at love to complete the victory.

Another wild card, Dan Kosakowski, a UCLA recruit from nearby Downey, Calif., also took out a seed, defeating No. 5 Alexis Carlos of Mexico 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. Carlos became increasingly frustrated by the tricky wind and when he was broken at love serving at 3-5 in the third set, the racquet that produced the forehand error didn't survive.

Gonzales Austin came back to defeat No. 4 seed Darian King of Barbados 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3; Bjorn Fratangelo downed No. 7 seed Diego Acosta of Ecuador 6-2, 6-3 , Chase Curry beat No. 10 seed Vitor Galvao of Brazil 6-3, 6-3, Dan McCall defeated No. 12 Gabriel Flores Ruiz of Puerto Rico 6-1, 6-3, and wild card Dennis Mkrtchian, last year's 16 champion, beat No. 14 seed Michael Zhu 6-1, 6-3.

Top seed Raymond Sarmiento will play his first round match on Tuesday, as will eight other boys 18s seeds.

In the girls 18s first round, five of the matches scheduled for Monday were postponed until Tuesday, including those involving No. 13 seed Rachel Kahan, No. 10 seed Rio Kitagawa, No. 2 seed Grace Min, No. 16 seed Julia Elbaba and unseeded Victoria Duval. The only seed to fall in the girls 18s was No. 4 Jessica Pegula, who retired trailing Gabrielle Andrews 6-4, 4-3.

I watched the second set of the Kyle McPhillips - Sabrina Santamaria match, which Santamaria won 6-4, 6-3. McPhillips was on the defensive most of the time, and both Santamaria's depth of shot and the wind gave McPhillips fits. She refused to give up her position on the baseline, but with Santamaria hitting so deep and the ball being pushed around by the wind, McPhillips was often unable to position herself correctly to strike the ball. Santamaria, a wild card who won the Claremont ITF tournament on Saturday, was the more confident player, and she looked more balanced and better prepared to strike the ball no matter where it landed.

In contrast to the boys 18s, all 16 seeds in the boys 16s division won their first round matches. Top seed Tyler Gardiner defeated Brandon Clark 6-4, 6-2 and No. 2 seed Anthony Tsodikov downed Brandon Chao 6-0, 6-0. Many of the girls 16s matches were still on court at 9 p.m. PDT.

For draws and results, see the tournament website.

11 comments:

Enough is enough said...

Colette

I'm getting a little tired of listening to all this talk about what the USTA does or should do to develop American tennis players.
Does the NBA develop basketball players? No! Does the NFL develop football players? No! Well why does everyone think that the USTA should be solely responsible for the development of tennis players.

Give me a player who has a hunger to succeed with "heart and determination" and stick them on a wall and see what happens. Who needs the USTA!

lolatprevious said...

because tennis=football amirite?

Man in the Moon said...

Enough is enough--
you are correct in the thought- but off base in the execution...

NBA, NFL is equivalent to the ATP.

USTA is equivalent to US Golf Association, US Swimming, Figure Skating, Gymnastics, Skiing,Fencing, etc.

All the other Federations do not develop world class champions --

The USTA should stick to running tournaments and providing a platform for US players to grow the game, and run the US Open.

USTA can not win the game of making champions- for a boatload of reasons.

Which have been discussed on this forum for years.

From the Outside said...

Man on the Moon

You are right in most ways. The usta can do a better job at "providing a platform" for players to develop especially at an earlier age. Most importantly, at an earlier age.

In my opinion "Champions are not made" by others, they are self-made. They are in an environment to succeed, with the right role models (coach/parent/friends, etc). You cannot say, they "can't" under the usta's umbrella, because you don't know. They have been supplemental coaches since the beginning until 2years ago. Their program is just getting started.

Yes--most, maybe all, of the future us champions will come from private enterprises: clubs, academies, private coaches, colleges, etc.

Junior coaches' goal...an academy who coaches juniors goal...should be to create an envirnoment for champions to grow.

If US Tennis is lacking, then EVERY tennis enterprise is lacking.

john said...

ya what are you talking about enough is enough?? the nfl and nba are not the same as the usta. usta provides help for players to do well at ATP(NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB). the comparison is not right.

that's like saying, "why should tennis coaches try to help improve their players?" makes no sense because that is what they are suppose to do or at least try to help and do.

Eric Amend said...

Man on the moon = broken MP3 file!!

no worries said...

enough is enough,
understand where you are coming from, but football and basketball players attend highschool for the fundamentals of the game, college is where the coaching and the athletes are created. my brother is assistant manager of an nfl team. he travels all over the country to recruit players. the problem is these sports have guys who specialize in one thing and that creates a team. they do seek private coaching, but at their own personal expense. the usta shuld only support activity (tourneys) and maybe help out financially to the under priveledge (coaching and traveling). That is when it would get sticky, in terms of who should be helped. my journey with my child will end in a couple of years(hopefully to a d1 college scholarship). i do not see things changing anytime soon. the cost is crazy and the sacrafice is never ending. i think when those 2 things are figured out, we will see some great champions.

Man in the Moon said...

From the outside...
agree 100 % with everything you said...

Results? said...

Colette

Is there a website that gives result updates for the tournament in Carson?

It would be really nice to know some results throughout the day.

Everyone on the East Coast don't find out until the next day because of the time change.

Markus said...

I noticed that all 18s boys seeds that lost on the first day got their high ranking from playing south/central american and carribean tournaments. Perhaps it is an indication of the competition level at these events: questionable?

Colette Lewis said...

@Results?
No, they only upload results once a day, after all the matches are done. There is no updating on site throughout the day either.