Long Day at Pan American Closed Ends with Girls Semifinalists Set; Spizzirri Reaches Boys Final; Juvan and Burel Vie for Youth Olympic Games Gold; Kinnear, Rinaldi Take Over as Head of Men's and Women's Tennis at USTA

©Colette Lewis 2018--
Charlotte NC--

Friday dawned clear and cool, perfect conditions for an ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed schedule that required several competitors to play three singles matches.

No. 3 seed Eliot Spizzirri was one of those who opted to play three matches, and he now finds himself in his first Grade 1 final, awaiting his opponent.

The boys had completed their second round of singles prior to the two-days of rain that kept any matches from being played Wednesday and Thursday. That meant only two matches were absolutely necessary to get the boys to the semifinals, but Spizzirri and No. 11 seed Marcelo Sepulveda Garza of Mexico agreed to play a third match.  Spizzirri had already beaten No. 16 seed Alexander Bernard 6-3, 6-2 and No. 5 seed Liam Draxl of Canada 6-3, 6-3, avoiding the match tiebreakers that constituted the third set. Sepulveda had beaten wild card Joshua Lapadat in straight sets Friday morning, but his 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 win over top seed Tyler Zink in the quarterfinals was a real battle, so it was surprising that he agreed to a third match. He may regret that decision now, with Spizzirri dominating in a 6-2, 6-1 semifinal victory.

"Three matches is a lot for me," said the 16-year-old from Connecticut. "My back's been hurting a little bit for the past couple of weeks, but I've been managing it pretty well and I'm going into the final feeling pretty good about my back."

Spizzirri said that he's noticed that his back issues have actually had a positive impact on his serving.

"I've definitely been working on my serve and my return a lot," said Spizzirri, who earned a substantial number of free points on his serve against Sepulveda. "Actually, it's kind of crazy, because my back is affecting my serve a little bit, but I'm actually managing to serve bigger, even with this injury. I don't really understand it; maybe it's because I'm not trying to force it too much. But I'm serving really well and with confidence."

Spizzirri will face the winner of Saturday morning's semifinal match between unseeded Andres Martin and No. 2 seed Govind Nanda, who agreed that two matches was enough for Friday.  Nanda defeated No. 15 seed Daniel Salazar of Colombia 6-3, 6-1 and No. 9 seed Alex Lee 7-5, 6-3.  Martin took out No. 4 seed Taha Baadi of Canada 6-1, 6-4 and then beat No. 6 seed Ronan Jachuck 6-7(2), 6-4, 10-4 in the quarterfinals.

The win over Baadi was particularly satisfying for Martin, who had falled to Baadi in the quarterfinals of the Grade 2 last month in Montreal.

"From that match, I was, OK, I understand how to play him this time," said Martin, a 17-year-old Georgia Tech recruit. "I worked on my backhand, because it was struggling in that tournament. I worked on going line and cross court, hitting my spots, and that actually helped me today, in both matches, so I'm happy for that."

Martin said he spent most of the two rain days playing video games.

"We were just playing video games the whole time," Martin said. "A little bit of Fortnite, and this game called Mario Party. I've done a little bit of studying--I've been taking my calculus test for three days now in my online schooling."

Martin and Nanda played in the second round of the ITF Grade 1 International Spring Championships back in April, with Nanda earning a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

The girls, who did not complete their second round on Tuesday, faced the prospect of three matches on Friday just to reach the semifinals and two of the semifinalists negotiated all three.  No. 3 seed Chloe Beck defeated unseeded Alexandra Yepifanova 6-2, 4-6, 10-4; No. 16 seed Hina Inoue 6-1, 6-4; and unseeded Canadian Ariana Arseneault, the only non-American in the quarterfinals, 6-3, 6-0.  She will play No. 2 seed Elli Mandlik in the semifinals, after Mandlik earned wins of Daria Tomashevskaya of Canada 6-3, 6-0; Elvina Kalieva 6-3, 6-3 and No. 7 seed Vanessa Ong 6-3, 4-6, 10-7. 

The two girls semifinalists in the top half only needed to play two matches to advance, with No. 11 seed Savannah Broadus defeating Jaedan Brown 6-2, 6-4 in the second round and No. 6 seed Kacie Harvey 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 in the third round. Broadus's day ended there, when Emma Navarro, the No. 4 seed, withdrew with an injury an defeating Emma Jackson 6-2, 7-5 in the third round.

Like Navarro, No. 9 seed Kylie Collins had finished her second round match on Tuesday before all the rain. She defeated No. 8 seed Lauren Anzalotta of Puerto Rico 6-4, 6-4 in the third round, and then took out top seed Hurricane Tyra Black 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Collins, 15, had lost to Black in the quarterfinals of the International Spring Championships and fell behind 3-1 in the first set, but took the next five games to secure the lead.

"I think my footwork was a little slow, but my game plan was there," Collins said. "I just had to pick that up, stay more controlled. I think I was a little bit wild. I stuck to my game plan, played with controlled aggression."

Collins knew that Black's formidable defense can lead to frustration, but she told herself not to assume she had hit a winner.

"I knew from the last time, if I hit a winner, it was going to come back, so I was always ready for the next shot," Collins said. "If the ball was sitting up, I wouldn't always go for a winner, but just open up the court more for the next ball. I was always expecting one or two more balls when I thought it would be a winner."

Collins and Broadus have played doubles together, and hit indoors together during the two rain days, but Collins had to go way back in her memory bank to retrieve a singles match between them.

"Last time I played her was like Little Mo's in Austin," Collins said. "Ten years ago or something, it was a while ago."

Beck and Mandlik haven't played on the ITF Junior Circuit, but Mandlik does have a win over Beck in the USTA 14s Clay Courts four years ago.

Due to the UNC Charlotte football homecoming, the five matches Saturday will be played at the Jeff Adams Tennis Center in Charlotte.

At the ITF Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, No. 4 seed Kaja Juvan of Slovenia and No. 7 seed Clara Burel of France have advanced to the gold medal match. Juvan defeated No. 5 seed Xinyu Wang of China 6-0, 7-5, while Burel downed No. 6 seed Maria Osoria Serrano of Colombia for the second time in two months 6-4, 7-5.  Juvan and Burel will play on Sunday; Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina and Hugo Gaston of France will play for the boys gold medal Saturday.

The boys doubles final is set, with top seeds Sebastian Baez and Diaz Acosta of Argentina taking on Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria and Rinky Hijikata of Australia.

The girls doubles final between Yuki Naito and Naho Sato of Japan and Juvan and Poland's Iga Swiatek will take place on Saturday.

The USTA announced several major changes in Player Development, with Ola Malmqvist, head of women's tennis, leaving that position to become Director of Coaching.  Former Team USA lead National Coach Kathy Rinaldi will take Malmqvist's position, while retaining her Fed Cup Captaincy.  Kent Kinnear, who has been the USTA's Director of Player ID and Development for six years, and a National Coach prior to that, will take over as head of men's tennis. That position, held for many years by Jay Berger, was occupied by former University of Virginia coach  Brian Boland between June of last year and May of this year.

For quotes from Player Development General Manager Martin Blackman, Rinaldi and Kinnear, see this article from the USTA. For more on Kinnear's previous position at the USTA, see this Tennis Recruiting Network article of mine from early this year.