Guillermo Ousts Min as Girls Play Into the Night at Easter Bowl
©Colette Lewis 2010--
Rancho Las Palmas, CA--
After a morning shower set back start times by two hours, and a rain shower in the afternoon caused another brief delay, the start of the girls 18s competition at the Easter Bowl was pushed back to the early evening, and was completed under the lights.
Top seed Lauren Davis completed her first round match in the rapidly declining temperatures accompanying the fading daylight, beating Katie Goeppel 6-4, 6-4, but No. 2 seed Grace Min was not as fortunate. One of the last matches to take the courts at the Rancho Las Palmas Country Club, Min and Lorraine Guillermo started on Court 4 but later moved to Court 3 for better lighting. That change and a score dispute didn't bother Guillermo at all, as the 16-year-old from Walnut, Calif. came away with a 6-3, 6-4 win.
There was a long delay midway through the match.
"We finished the first set, and I was up 1-0, but she thought we had just finished the first set," said Guillermo. "After a while, she realized that I was right, so we ended up at 6-3, 1-0."
Guillermo gave credit to her backhand as the key to her win, while also saying, "I served pretty well in the beginning, so that put me up."
Next up for Guillermo is International Spring Champion Krista Hardebeck, who won her sixth match in the past six days with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Leyla Erkan.
In addition to Min, two other seeds lost in the opening round of girls 18 play: No. 10 seed Denise Starr, who fell to Catherine Harrison 6-3, 6-2, and No. 15 seed Hai-Li Kong, who lost to Emina Bektas 6-3, 7-6(3).
The girls 18s draw lost No. 7 seed Sachia Vickery to illness, so the much-anticipated match between she and Victoria Duval was not played. Duval played alternate Jordan Brewer instead, winning 6-4, 6-1.
In the boys 16s, top seeds Nolan Paige and 2009 14s Easter Bowl champion Mackenzie McDonald won handily, but there were two surprising early exits. International Spring Champion winner Jordan Daigle and finalist Thai Kwiatkowski were both defeated, with Daigle losing to Erik Nordahl, a No. 17 seed, 6-1, 6-2, and Kwiatkowski falling to unseeded Jose Gracia 6-0, 5-7, 6-2.
Top seed Kyle McPhillips and No. 2 seed Brooke Austin easily advanced to the second round of the girls 16s championships.
In the 14s, which are a day ahead of the 16s, boys top seed Daniel Kerznerman and No. 2 seed Noah Rubin are through to the round of 32. Girls top seeds Gabrielle Andrews and Katrine Steffensen are also safely into Tuesday's third round.
The boys 18s will begin on Tuesday, with the marquee match featuring top seed Raymond Sarmiento against USTA Spring National champion Bjorn Fratangelo. Last year it was Sarmiento who had drawn the No. 1 seed, Denis Kudla, whom he went on to defeat in a third-set tiebreaker. This year the shoe is on the other foot, with Sarmiento now the player facing the dangerous floater.
For complete results and draws, see the TennisLink site for the USTA and ITF events.
Also, on Tuesday night at 6:30, Wayne Bryan will be presenting a program for all players and their parents and coaches entitled "The Journey Through Junior, College and Pro Tennis." For more details on the talk, sponsored by Prince, see the Easter Bowl website.
13 comments:
I wasn't at the Min match where they had the scoring dispute. Maybe these two girls were different. Maybe they loudly said the score at each point? Maybe?
However, I am not surprised at all at having a dispute. These teenage girls will generally not say the score. I think the better they get, the more they think it is not cool to say the score. It is so annoying. Sometimes the court will have scorecards and they still won't use them. I see this at all levels.
So the younger girls see this and then they too stop saying the score in their matches.
This really should not be tolerated.
Agree! Agree! Agree! Why bother publishing something called The Code and have officials get certified once a year if you're not going to enforce the rules of the game at the junior level? The server should call the score, period. The receiver should not be allowed to call the score in an act of inappropriate junior gamemanship.
i am laughing so hard at you two. people know the score when they are playing, in the older age groups you do not have these problems. real tennis matches may have a bad line call or two, but score disputes do not happen in real tennis matches
tennis,
they are referring to lawn tennis not real tennis.
But one of the points of this article was that they DID have a scoring dispute. One player had to be reminded of what the real score was, after a long delayed discussion.
"tennis" - glad you are laughing but you couldn't be more wrong. Scoring issues and debates occur at the older age levels even up to the professional level. Remember what happend to Venue recently??
Yeah, but calling out the score clearly would not have made a difference in this situation since it was on a game dispute rather than point.
Sorry ABC, I respectfully disagree-- it sure would have helped. Calling out the "game" score is part of calling out the score.
I am playing you ABC. You are ahead 3-1. It is my serve. I go up to serve. I say "1-3, love-love", and I serve.
Takes away the problems! Say the score. If the server at the start of the 2nd set of the Min match had said, "New set, 0-0", would that not have stopped their "long discussion"?
Can you imagine a basketball game without keeping the score, hoping everyone keeps the score correctly in their heads? Well hey, why bother writing down a golf score? We'll all remember, right?
No matter if you call the score out or not there will always be the kids that change the score out of frustration because they feel that a close call was in or something along these lines. Use the scorecard so they cant change the game score. That is the only solution. Calling the score out in the game is going to do nothing. Really this is a discussion about scores in junior tennis matches being confused and maybe having to replay a few points. The bigger problem would be why is everyone so worried about scores at this level anyways? this is a developmental stage. Let the kids compete and if they get the score mixed up its there own faults for letting it get that way.
1-0 me.
welcome to junior tennis. shame on min if she lt that get to her and was referring back to that through the rest of the match. you do not get to this tourney without experience. to me it seems as an excuse. in florida it is very common for kids to intentionnally confuse the score and change it around. i have witnessed it alot, even when score card are being used. i would be surprised if i didn't see it at a tourney. it is all about winning and some kids will do everything and anything to walk off he court with the balls in their hands. the question is can you be tough enough to let it go and keep competing. at this level it should be yes, whether it was an honest mistake or not. you cannot cheat a whole entire match from beginning to end. when you see the score cards are not being changed by your opponent change them for he or she and let the official know. if your opponent is not calling the score out, bring he or she to the net and tell them you will be more then happy to do that for them and also, let the official know what is going on. it is up to the coaches and parents and players to incorporate this into their training, it will take some of the pressure away for them and they will having good coping skills to handle this situation. once again, i find it hard to believe this is mins first go around with that kinda of a situation, whether it was intentional or not
welcome to the cesspool of usta junior tennis
the game score should be posted at court side. if scorekeepers were not provided than that is incompetence by the tournament director. the score should be caled at each point but that does not stop the cheaters. in fact having a ref on the court does not stop the cheaters as many scoring disputes occur with usta referees present.
Maybe you are making a big deal out of nothing (cesspool of USTA junior tennis?). They disagreed about the score, settled, and went on finishing the match.
Happens in juniors, adults, pros.
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