Six Americans Advance to Third Round at Les Petits As, but None Remain in Australian Open Singles; More on Capra's Signing; Roditi's Path to TCU
I'm getting time zone whiplash trying to keep up with Les Petits As in France (6 hours ahead of EST) and the Australian Open in Melbourne (16 hours ahead), so I apologize if this information is not applicable by the time you read this.
Wednesday in Tarbes, all four U.S. boys making the trip--Stefan Kozlov, Henrik Wiersholm, Eduardo Nava and Francis Tiafoe--won their second round matches to advance to the round of 16. After their performance at Teen Tennis, where Kozlov defeated Wiersholm in the final, they were given the top two seeds at Les Petits As. Nava and Tiafoe weren't seeded, but they are among 11 unseeded boys to advance. Nava defeated No. 8 seed Evgeny Tyurnev of Russia in the first round, with Tiafoe beating No. 9 seed Dominik Stary of the Czech Republic, also in the first round. Kozlov and Wiersholm, the top seeds in doubles, are through to the quarterfinals and are the only seeded team remaining.
The seeding has held up much better in the girls draw, with only three seeds losing in the first two rounds. Kenadi Hance lost in the first round, and Nicole Frenkel lost in today's second round, leaving No. 16 seed Carolyn Xie and No. 8 seed Julia O'Loughlin as the last remaining Americans. Xie will play top seed Francoise Abanda of Canada in Thursday's third round, while O'Loughlin, a Teen Tennis semifinalist, meets No. 10 seed Anna Sviripa of Ukraine. Both U.S. teams are out of the girls doubles draw. For complete results, see the tournament website.
Thursday in Australia, all three remaining Americans were defeated in straight sets. Unseeded Christina Makarova was leading No. 5 seed Monica Puig, who lives in Miami, but plays under the Puerto Rican flag, 5-3 in the opening set, but lost four games in a row to lose the first set, with the final score 7-5, 6-2. Puig will play No. 14 seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, who defeated unseeded Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-3. Bouchard has a 2-1 head-to-head record against Puig, but Puig won their last match 6-3, 6-1 in November's Yucatan Cup. For more on Bouchard's win over Lauren Davis on Wednesday, see this story by the Montreal Gazette's Stephanie Myles.
The other semifinal has No. 8 seed Caroline Garcia of France facing No. 2 seed An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium.
Mitchell Krueger fell to top seed Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2, but it wasn't quite as straightforward a defeat as it sounds, as the second set was nearly an hour in length. Vesely will play No. 4 seed George Morgan of Great Britain in the semifinals. Morgan overcame No. 8 seed Jeson Patrombon of the Philippines 5-7, 7-2, 6-3. Qualifer Mac Styslinger, who was a subject of this "Junior Watch" segment on the Tennis Australia website, fell to No. 6 seed Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain 6-3, 6-2.
Krueger and his partner are just taking the court now at 11 pm here in the U.S. For complete draws, see australianopen.com.
The USTA sent a press release out today regarding Beatrice Capra's decision to attend Duke, including remarks from Patrick McEnroe.
Over at Tennis Recruiting Network, Granger Huntress of the Texas College Tennis blog has written a feature on TCU's new head coach David Roditi. I met Roditi when he was a very popular USTA National Coach, and I believe the USTA's loss is TCU's gain.
2 comments:
everyone seems to be beating up on "diminutive" Luren Davis. But I guess the have a right, she is very cocky. and in fact she has been put into place. Kudos to Bouchard.
ItA regionals starts tomorrow, does anyone know if USC has a new live scoring - old one is not working?
Post a Comment