Bryde Saves Five Match Points to Advance to Third Round at International Hard Court Championships; Ten Americans Reach Second Round of US Open on First Day of Qualifying

©Colette Lewis 2015--
College Park, Maryland--

Monday's heat and humidity gave way to much more pleasant conditions for the second round of the ITF Grade 1 International Hard Court Championships, and after a dozen seeds lost in the opening round, Tuesday saw only three fall, all in the girls draw, with US girls responsible for those upsets.

Qualifier Madison Battaglia defeated No. 3 seed Wushuang Zheng of China 6-1, 6-3 at the University of Maryland site, and qualifier Clarissa Hand also took out a seed there, beating Destanee Aiava of Australia 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. USTA National 16s champion Abigail Desiatnikov, a wild card, topped No. 10 seed Deria Nur Maliza of Indonesia 7-6(0), 6-4.

Desiatnikov, just 14, will play an even younger American in the third round Wednesday when she takes on 13-year-old Amanda Anisimova. Anisimova defeated Gabby Pollner 7-5, 6-2 to reach the third round of a Grade 1 for the first time.

Top seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia and No. 2 seed Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia had no difficulty moving into the third round, with Kalinskaya, the French Open girls finalist, defeating qualifier Dalayna Hewitt 6-2, 6-2 and Mihalikova, the Australian Open girls champion, beating Maria Mateas 6-0, 6-1.  Kalinskaya's opponent on Wednesday will be 13-year-old Caty McNally, who defeated Mihika Yadav of India 6-3, 6-0.

One day after getting a big win over Yunseong Chung when the top seed from Korea retired after losing the first set 7-5, Trent Bryde had another memorable victory at the ITF Grade International Hard Courts, saving five match points to defeat Juan Carlos Aguilar of Bolivia 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 to move into the third round.

With Aguilar serving for the match 6-5 in the second set, Bryde fought off four match points, but that appeared to be for naught when he went down 5-1 in the ensuing tiebreaker. Six points later, he had earned a third set, closing it out on a forehand volley, which he followed with a huge roar.

Down 4-1 in the third set, Bryde was again one point from a loss, but he saved match point No. 5 with yet another forehand volley winner with Aguilar serving at 5-3, 40-30. Aguilar didn't betray much frustration when so many opportunities slipped away, but a couple of double faults, one in that ninth game and another at 5-all indicated the stress he was feeling.  Although Aguilar had not made many unforced errors when building his lead, they began to accumulate in the late stages of the three-hour and 15-minute marathon, and a backhand long gave Bryde a chance to serve for the match. A forehand winner helped Bryde take a 40-15 lead, but Aguilar's forehand forced an error from Bryde.  Bryde didn't wait to engage in a rally on the second match point, playing a textbook serve-and-volley point to complete the comeback.

"I've actually been working on that," Bryde said. "I've been serving a lot better and coming in a lot more off of it. It's helped me a lot."

Bryde applied pressure and played more aggressively on several of the key points of the match, but Aguilar also appeared to be getting tight as the chances slipped away.

"I felt he was definitely nervous," said Bryde, who recalls saving seven match points several years ago in a sectional match. "I pressured him a lot on those points; I tried to play as if I had nothing to lose, but on some of those, he did have some loose errors. I did try returning deep and coming in, because I knew he would get tight when I would come in and he'd either give me a floater or he'd miss it."

Bryde, who turned 16 on Monday, admitted he was still processing the endings to his last two wins.

"First day, shocking, the guy just retires, and the next day, I just, I don't even know how to describe it," Bryde said. "I just came up clutch, and somehow I won. Both matches, I don't know how I won, but I won."

Bryde will play friend and rival Oliver Crawford for a place in the quarterfinals after Crawford, a qualifier, defeated wild card Nikolai Parodi 6-3, 6-4.

"We've actually played a lot," Bryde said. "He beat me two or three times a while ago, a couple of years ago, but the last two times I've played him, I beat him both times. But he's a really tough opponent, makes a lot of balls and really makes you work for every point."

As in the girls round of 16, there are seven Americans remaining in the boys draw, with No. 5 Nathan Ponwith the only seed. Ponwith defeated lucky loser Zummy Bauer 6-1, 6-2 and will play No. 12 seed Lev Kazakov of Russia Wednesday.

Ten of the 19 Americans in action won their first round qualifying matches at the US Open today, including six teenagers.  Wild cards Noah Rubin, Tommy Paul, Raveena Kingsley, Vicky Duval and Claire Liu won, as did CiCi Bellis.  Below are the results of the Americans in action today, followed by a list of the 15 who will play their first round matches on Wednesday.

Wins:
Raveena Kingsley (W) def. Andrea Hlavackova CZE [30] 6-3, 6-4
Vicky Duval (W)  def. Luksika Kumkhum THA 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
Shelby Rogers def. Grace Min 6-4, 6-3
CiCi Bellis def. Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
Melanie Oudin def. Elitsa Kostova BUL 6-3, 7-5
Jessica Pegula def. Shuko Aoyama JPN 6-1, 3-6, 6-4
Claire Liu def. Veronica Cepede Royg PAR 4-6, 7-5, 6-2
Noah Rubin (W) def. Liang-Chi Huang TPE 6-2, 7-5
Dennis Novikov def. Gastao Elias POR 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4
Tommy Paul (W) def. Blaz Rola[24] SLO 6-3, 4-6, 6-4

Losses:
Maximo Gonzalez ARG def. Jarmere Jenkins 6-2, 6-4
Julia Glushko ISR def. Julia Boserup 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
Mayo Hibi JPN def. Edina Gallovits-Hall 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
Matthew Ebden[26] AUS def. Michael Mmoh 6-3, 6-2
Alla Kudryavtseva[15] RUS def. Alexa Glatch 7-5, 2-6, 6-2
Jan Mertl CZE def. Alexander Sarkissian 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
Romina Oprandi[22] SUI def. Tornado Alicia Black 6-4, 6-0
Luca Vanni[19] ITA def. Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-3

Wednesday’s First Round Qualifying Matches involving Americans
Naomi Osaka (JPN) vs. Katerina Stewart (USA)
Jesse Witten (USA) vs. John-Patrick Smith (AUS)[18]
Mitchell Krueger (USA) vs. Niels Desein (BEL)
Usue Arconada (USA) vs. María-Teresa Torró-Flor(ESP)[19]
Elizaveta Kulichkova (RUS)[7] vs. Jennifer Brady (USA)
Bernarda Pera (USA) vs. Renata Voracova (CZE)
Daniel Nguyen (USA) vs. Philip Bester (CAN)
Jennifer Elie (USA) vs. Shuai Zhang (CHN)
Ipek Soylu (TUR) vs. Maria Sanchez (USA)
Alejandro Gonzalez (COL)[15] vs. Marcos Giron (USA)
Stefan Kozlov (USA) vs. Guido Andreozzi (ARG)
Anna Tatishvili (USA)[16] vs. Ksenia Pervak (RUS)
Christian Lindell (SWE) vs. Reilly Opelka (USA)
Taylor Townsend (USA) vs. Pauline Parmentier (FRA)
Kiki Bertens (NED)[8] vs. Robin Anderson (USA)