Delcore's Upset of Egger Highlights Day Two of Pan American Closed
©Colette Lewis 2010--
Tulsa, OK--
The girls were on the Michael D. Case Tennis Center courts early on a cool and cloudy Tuesday morning, with seven of the top eight seeds recording straight-set wins to advance to Wednesday's round of 16. Julia Elbaba, the No. 7 seed, was eliminated however, dropping a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Elisabeth Abanda of Canada 6-4, 6-4. Abanda won last week's ITF Grade 3 tournament in her home country.
No. 10 seed Juliana Gajic of Canada was the other seeded girl suffering a loss on Tuesday, with Stephanie Nauta posting a 6-1, 6-4 win. Top seed Lauren Davis's 6-3, 6-4 victory over UCLA recruit Kaitlin Ray may have looked routine, but it took the 17-year-old from Ohio two hours to finally record the win. No. 2 seed Ester Goldfeld also struggled at times, but she took a 6-4, 6-2 decision from Jessica Wacnik. Of the 16 girls singles matches played Tuesday morning, only one went three sets. After saving three match points in her win over No. 15 seed Giuliana Olmos Monday night, Catherine Harrison had another long three-setter against 14-year-old Christina Makarova Tuesday morning, but was unable to capitalize on an early lead. Makarova came back to take a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory, and is one of four unseeded girls in the round of 16, joining Nauta, Abanda, and Whitney Kay.
As the skies cleared and the temperatures warmed, the boys took the courts for their second round of singles. There were a total of four matches that went the distance, with No. 4 seed Shane Vinsant and No. 15 seed Alexios Halebian extended before advancing. Vinsant defeated Harrison Adams 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, and Halebian beat Roberto Cid 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Kalamazoo 16s champion Michael Redlicki recorded his second consecutive three-set win, defeating Spencer Simon 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. The fourth three-set match produced one of the day's four upsets, with Anthony Delcore overcoming No. 5 seed Emmett Egger 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a match that took over two and a half hours to complete.
Egger, who had beaten Delcore at the International Grass Courts this year, started confidently, and after winning the last three games of the first set and the first game of the second, Egger seemed to be in control. But eventually Delcore's speed began to frustrate him, with Delcore tracking down nearly every volley and overhead, and winning most of the backhand-to-backhand exchanges.
"I said you were with him in the first set, so just keep grinding," said the 16-year-old from Omaha, Neb. "Make a lot of balls and let's see what happens, and it turned out well."
In the third set, Delcore got a break at 2-2, and an insurance break to take a 5-2 lead. He couldn't close out the match on his own serve, but he was able to break Egger in the final game, with a couple of good lobs leading to Egger netting his attempts at overheads.
"I wanted to close it out at 5-2, but I kind of played a loose game, didn't make a lot of first serves and gave him a couple of free points," Delcore said. "At 5-3, I was just thinking, you broke him a couple of times before, let's just try to do it again. I had some confidence that if it went to 5-4, I could serve it out with the wind, so that helped give me some confidence to break."
Several times during the match Egger could be heard remarking that Delcore was not missing, with the subtext some surprise at Delcore's level of play.
"I thought I played pretty well," Delcore said. "I don't know about my best, but I played pretty well, pretty scrappy. When he was at net, I made him play a lot of balls, and he was getting pretty frustrated."
Delcore's opponent in the round of 16 is No. 12 seed Filip Peliwo of Canada.
In addition to Egger, three additional seeds fell on the boys side. No. 6 seed Mac Styslinger was beaten by Maxx Lipman 6-2, 6-1; No. 7 seed Alex Petrone lost to Chase Curry 7-6(5), 6-4 and No. 14 seed Edward Nguyen was eliminated by Austin Smith 6-0, 6-1.
The opening round of doubles was played Tuesday afternoon, with top boys seeds Egger and Vinsant surviving a scare from Delcore and Smith to claim a 3-6, 6-0, 10-7 decision. No. 2 seeds Mitchell Krueger and Daniel McCall also won, defeating Tyler Gardiner and Harrison Richmond 6-4, 6-1.
The top seeds in the girls doubles, Madison Keys and Annie Mulholland, advanced with a bye, but No. 2 seed Tristan Dewar and Sachia Vickery were upset by Denise Starr and Deborah Suarez 5-7, 6-4, 10-8.
For complete results from Tuesday's singles and doubles see the TennisLink site.
The order of play can be found at the player development ITF tournament page at usta.com.
2 comments:
Interesting to see tennis players out of Nebraska, hardly a tennis player hotbed, doing well. Delcore beating Eggar, Withtrow ranked pretty high with good results and Sock. Not bad for a state with a small population and terrible weather a good portion of the year.
Talked to Sock today in Austin. Agreed that high school tennis was such a great experience for juniors. Texas coach watching him play. Hope he picks UT.
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