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Sunday, February 19, 2017

Anisimova, Bryde Claim Grade A Porto Alegre Titles; Ohio State Wins Thriller to Reach Team Indoor Final Against Virginia; Harrison Claims First ATP Title; Dolehide Wins Surprise $25K


Amanda Anisimova captured her second Grade A title, while Trent Bryde collected his first in the finals of the Campeonato Internacional Juvenil de Tenis in Porto Alegre Brazil.

Top seed Anisimova, who had reached the final last year, defeated No. 7 seed Sofia Sewing 7-5, 6-1 to add the Porto Alegre title to her 2015 victory at the Grade A in Mexico City.  The 15-year-old has had her best results on red clay, with the two Grade A titles and an appearance in the final of the French Open last year.

Anisimova and Sewing traded breaks in the fifth and sixth games of the first set, and it looked like Anisimova would again miss an opportunity to consolidate when she broke Sewing for a 6-5 lead, but went down 0-40 serving for the set.  She won the next five points however, and Sewing never really recovered. The 17-year-old from Miami held in the first game of the second set but Anisimova raised her level and won the final six games of the match.

Bryde, seeded No. 8, defeated unseeded Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi of Argentina 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-3.  Bryde wiggled out of a tough spot in the opening set, breaking the 17-year-old left-hander serving for the set at 6-5, but in the tiebreaker, Grassi made one mini-break stand up to claim the first set.

In contrast to the level he had shown in the tiebreaker, Grassi immediately fell apart in the first game of the second set and Bryde, also 17, had no difficulty rolling through the set.  The first four games of the third set went to the server, but Grassi failed to hold serve in his next three attempts, while Bryde held once to go up 5-3, which was enough to add the singles title to the doubles title he won on Saturday.

For more on the finals, see the ITF junior website.  The finals can be viewed on YouTube here.

At the ITA Men's National Team Indoor Championships in Charlottesville today, No. 2 seed Wake Forest and No. 3 seed Ohio State battled for nearly four hours before the Buckeyes earned a 4-3 victory.  The match stood at 3-3 when Wake Forest's Petros Chrysochos, No. 1 in the nation, won the second set from Mikael Torpegaard, No. 2 in the nation, in a tiebreaker, saving a match point when serving at 4-5 40-40. Chrysochos went up 3-0 in the final set, just as he had in sets 1 and 2, but Torpegaard came back, saving a match point himself with Chrysochos serving at 6-5 40-40 in the third. Torpegaard had been overruled three times in the match and received a point penalty in the tenth game, so he could not afford another overrule, which would have resulted in a game penalty. With all that tension, it was Torpegaard who prevailed, taking the tiebreaker to claim the place in the final with his 7-6,(7), 5-7, 7-6(4) victory.

The rematch of last year's final between No. 1 Virginia and No. 5 North Carolina went to the host Cavaliers. Virginia won the doubles point easily, and while the singles matches were closer, Virginia was able to close out the Tar Heels 4-0.  Virginia will compete for its sixth Indoor title beginning at 11 a.m. Monday, while Ohio State is aiming for its second.

A big match in women's tennis saw No. 1 Florida defeat No. 5 and NCAA champion Stanford 4-1 in Gainesville. Florida won the doubles point and got singles wins from Ingrid Neel at 2, Brooke Austin at 4 and Belinda Woolcock at 1.  Florida had beaten NCAA finalists Oklahoma State 4-2 Saturday night.  Florida has now won 163 straight home matches, (the headline is off), the longest current home winning streak for any NCAA sport.

The last time Florida lost a home match was in 2004, when Ryan Harrison was 12 years old.  Now 24, Harrison is an ATP champion, having claimed his first title today at the 250 event in Memphis with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia. Harrison's pro career started with great expectations at the age of 15, but the past nine years have been difficult for him, with bad draws, injuries and confidence issues contributing to his uneven results. Greg Garber at ESPN spoke with Harrison about the ups and downs of his career earlier this week. With the title, Harrison is expected to return to the Top 50 for the first time since 2012.

Brian Baker won his first ATP title, winning the doubles championship in Memphis with Nikola Mektic of Croatia.  Baker and Mektic beat Harrison and Steve Johnson 6-3, 6-4 in the final.


The rain in Arizona finally stopped long enough to allow completion of the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Surprise, with 18-year-old qualifier Caroline Dolehide picking up her first title at that level with two wins today.  Dolehide, who has committed to UCLA for 2017, defeated No. 2 seed Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals, then followed with a 6-3, 6-1 win over wild card and former USC star Danielle Lao in the final.   The doubles title went to Duque-Marino and Nadia Podoroska of Argentina, with the No. 2 seeds beating lucky losers Usue Arconada and Sonya Kenin 4-6, 6-0 10-5 in the final.

At the $15,000 Futures in Orlando, top seed Michael Linzer of Austria defeated unseeded Facundo Arguello of Argentina 6-3, 6-0 in the final.

1 comments:

Seasoned ITA Official said...

I remember a couple of years back being chewed out by the Ohio State Asst Coach after I overruled Torpegaard for the second time in the match. The Asst stated Torpegaard had never been overruled before! After I assessed a Coach's Code of Conduct warning for his mouthing off, the rest of the match was uneventful. Interesting what happened to Torpegaard at the Indoors.