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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Mmoh, Jorovic Win ITF Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup; Porter, Quiroz Take USTA Clay Court Invitational Titles; Ymer Davis Cup Hero for Sweden; Inglot and Huey Capture Basel Doubles Title

A lot going on today in the tennis world, so I'll save the Pro Circuit recap for Monday.

For the first time since Ryan Harrison won the title in 2007, an American has won the championship at the ITF Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup.  Fifteen-year-old Michael Mmoh, who trains at the IMG Bollettieri Academy in Florida, defeated No. 14 seed Jumpei Yamasaki of Japan 6-2, 7-5. It was the first Grade A final appearance for the No. 2 seed, who had reached the quarterfinals of the tournament in 2012.

No. 4 seed Ivana Jorovic of Serbia won the girls singles title, defeating top seed Varvara Flink of Russia 6-1, 6-4.  Due to all the rain during the week, Mmoh had to play two doubles matches after winning the singles; after he and partner Akira Santilian of Australia, seeded No. 3, won their semifinal, they met top seeds Duck Hee Lee of Korea and Simon Soendergaard of Denmark in the final, with Lee and Soendergaard posting a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

The girls doubles title went to Shilin Xu and Xiaodi You of China, the No. 4 seeds, who defeated Japan's Kyoka Okamura and Australia's Olivia Tjandramulia, the No. 7 seeds, 6-1, 5-7, 10-5 in the final.

For a complete account of the singles finals, see the ITF Junior website, which features quotes from Mmoh on his title.

At the USTA Clay Court Invitational at Disney, USTA junior Peggy Porter and Roberto Quiroz of Southern Cal won the singles titles.  Porter defeated 14-year-old Sofia Kenin 6-2, 6-2 in the women's final, which I was able to watch via the streaming provided on ESPN3.

Kenin had some success with her excellent drop shot on the green clay, but her serve was shaky and she made more errors than usual.  Porter seemed to handle the occasion better, although there were hardly any fans present to add ambience to the event. Just having television cameras present can be unnerving, but Porter played consistently well, attacking when she had the opportunity and staying in points as long as she needed to.  Kenin double faulted on set point in the opening set, and continued to struggle with her serve, with Porter holding much more easily. Kenin did have one opportunity to get back on serve in the second set, with Porter serving at 4-2, 30-40, but Kenin missed a crosscourt forehand wide, Porter came back to hold, and Kenin was broken in the next game for the match, with Porter making a difficult overhead on match point.

I was not able to watch the men's final, although I did see some of Martin Redlicki's 7-6(2), 6-2 semifinal win over Florida State's Cristian Gonzalez Mendez in the morning. Redlicki's serve was effective in that match, but the 6-foot-5 left-hander's advantage there didn't carry over to the final against Quiroz, who is also a left-hander.  Quiroz, who had beaten teammate Max De Vroome 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the morning semifinal, showed no signs of fatigue in the final, beating Duke recruit Redlicki 7-5, 6-0.

The men's doubles championships went to Tennessee's Brandon Fickey and Jarryd Chaplin, seeded 3-4, who defeated North Florida's Norbert Nemscek and Jack Findel-Hawkins, the No. 2 seeds, 7-6(4) in the final. For more on that final, see the Tennessee website.

The women's doubles final was played Saturday night, with the top-seeded Texas A&M pair of Cristina Stancu and Stefania Hristov beating unseeded Marie Casares and Ashleigh Antal of Vanderbilt 8-5.

Complete draws are available at the Florida State website.


I mentioned earlier in the week the two Davis Cup relegation ties on the schedule this weekend, and while the current and former collegiate players making up most of the South African team went down to Russia 5-0, with 17-year-old Russia Karen Khachanov picking up a singles win Friday, it was another 17-year-old who made news today. 2012 Orange Bowl finalist Elias Ymer finished Sweden's dramatic comeback from 2-0 down, winning the fifth rubber over Martin Pedersen of Denmark 7-6(3), 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-5.  For more on the Swedish heroics, which began with a doubles win by former college players Robert Lindstedt (Pepperdine) and Johan Brunstrom(SMU), see this article from the Davis Cup website.

Last month I spoke with former Virginia All-Americans Treat Huey and Dom Inglot about their success as a doubles team for this Tennis Recruiting Network article. While they didn't specifically mention the World Tour Finals as a goal, they did talk about finishing the year strongly, and their title today in Basel keeps them alive in the hunt for one of the last three available spots in London next month.  Huey and Inglot defeated another unseeded team, Julian Knowle and Oliver Marach of Austria, 6-3, 3-6, 10-4 to win their second ATP doubles title, and their first this year.

For more on their title, and their prospects for London, see this article from the ATP website.

2 comments:

Johnny said...

Bizarro is sending your 15 yr old all the way to Japan for a tennis tournament. They don't have tournaments in US ??

College tennis fan said...

I enjoyed ESPN3's coverage of the Clay Court Invitational. Always enjoy watching college tennis. It's a little crazy to think that the two best quality, in my opinion, televised college tennis events are a clay court event without top ten guys and any home-men's or women's-match for the Texas Longhorns (TLN).