Top Three Boys Seeds Fall in Third Round of ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed; Gauff Makes WTA Linz Quarterfinal; Texas's Sigsgaard, Miami's Perez-Somarriba Top Seeds as ITA All-American Championships Begin in Tulsa

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Nicholasville KY--

Top seed Andrew Dale, No. 2 seed Joshua Lapadat and No. 3 seed Aidan Mayo all saw their dreams of a ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed title end Wednesday morning at the Top Seed Tennis Club, with unseeded Ben Shelton, No. 15 seed Victor Lilov and No. 16 seed Daniel Milavsky keeping their hopes alive by advancing to the quarterfinals.

Shelton received a wild card into this event, his first ITF Junior Circuit tournament, and he was able to overcome a slight stumble in the second set to take out Dale 6-3, 7-5.  Dale had needed three sets and three hours to win his first round match and had another close win in the second round, so Shelton could see his path to a victory today.

"I saw in some of his earlier matches some of the things he was struggling with indoors, and I tried to expose them a little bit today," said Shelton, who celebrated his 17th birthday today. "I felt pretty comfortable, because he was pretty predictable with his shots and I felt like I was a step ahead of him in rallies. I felt comfortable extending the rallies and making him work."

Shelton lives in Gainesville Florida, where his father Bryan is the men's coach at the University of Florida, so he has access to the rare indoor courts in that state.

"UF has indoor courts so I was able to hit on those the last week or two," said Shelton, who has not been able to travel the ITF Circuit due to being enrolled in regular school.

Shelton, who like Dale is left-handed, went up a break in the second set and had a chance to serve out the match at 5-4, but Dale got even, only to drop serve again.

"I was a little tight," Shelton admitted of his first attempt to end the match. "But I was pretty much in control of the match. All the pressure was on him, he was the 1 seed, and I was up a set and the score was even."

With his second opportunity, Shelton took advantage, hitting three aces in the game, with the last two coming at 30-15 and 40-15.

"I just wanted to make him uncomfortable with my serve," Shelton said. "I've been serving pretty well the whole tournament and I thought if I could get a few free points with the last game, it would be tough for him to break me and I did that."

Shelton will face unseeded Welsh Hotard in Thursday's quarterfinals, after Hotard defeated No. 6 seed Hunter Heck 6-1, 6-0.

Lilov had lost to No. 2 seed Lapadat 6-2, 6-3 just two weeks ago at the Grade 2 in Montreal, but today he turned the tables for a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

"The first today was one of my better sets that I've played all year," said the 15-year-old, who is from Raleigh North Carolina, but is now training in Florida. "I honestly think I've improved the last two weeks, and I focused on my serve, being aggressive and taking his time away. I came out aggressive and I don't think he was expecting it, because last time he was the one who was coming out really aggressive. I don't think he played as well this time, especially in the second set. I think in the second set, the level dropped, from me and him, but he's a really good player, and it was a good win."

After cruising through the first set, Lilov got an early break in the second, but gave it back in the sixth game, and shouted an obscenity that the officials monitoring the courts either didn't hear or didn't understand, as he did not receive a code violation.

"I should have said it in Bulgarian," Lilov said. "I don't think the refs heard it, but I need to watch my mouth."

The frustration that prompted that outburst didn't last long, as Lilov broke back at love and made the second break stand up.

"It was a good game to bounce back on, because if he had held serve, it would have been much more difficult," Lilov said.

Although he doesn't love indoor tennis, Lilov has experience, and success, in his past to draw on this week.

"I used to practice a lot indoors, not anymore unfortunately, since I'm in Florida now," said Lilov, who won both Bolton and Les Petits As indoors in 2018. "I've won some tournaments indoors too and I think my game suits it. I like to come in and I'm pretty aggressive."

Lilov will play wild card William Cooksey who defeated unseeded Adit Sinha 7-5, 6-4.

No. 4 seed Alex Bernard is the highest seed remaining now, and he advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded Ozan Colak. He will face his fourth straight unseeded player in JJ Tracy, who beat unseeded Zachery Foster 6-2, 6-4.

Milavsky won the only three-setter of the day in the boys third round, after Mayo had served for the first set at 5-3, coming back for a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 victory. Milavsky, a Harvard recruit, will face No. 8 seed Cash Hanzlik, who beat No. 11 seed Bruno Kuzuhara 6-0, 6-4.

Top seed Alexandra Yepifanova dropped her first set of the tournament to No. 14 seed Gianna Pielet, but recovered for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory to set up a rematch with unseeded Reese Brantmeier, who beat unseeded Zoe Hitt 6-0, 6-0. Brantmeier led Yepifanova 6-4, 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the US Open Junior Championships last month, before Yepifanova reeled off eight straight games and rolled to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win.

The other quarterfinal in the top half will also feature a recent rematch, with No. 3 seed Robin Montgomery taking on No. 7 seed Ellie Coleman. The pair met in the second round of the Grade 1 in College Park in August, with Montgomery winning that one 6-3, 7-6(1).  Montgomery defeated No. 15 seed Annabelle Xu of Canada 6-0, 6-1 today, while Coleman got by wild card Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-3.

No. 4 seed Jada Bui of Canada is the only non-US player in the quarterfinals of the boys or girls draws. She defeated qualifier Eleana Yu 6-3, 6-3 and will take on unseeded India Houghton, who beat No. 10 seed Elaine Chervinsky 6-3, 6-0. No. 11 seed Ava Catanzarite took out No. 6 seed Kailey Evans 6-2, 6-3 and will face 14-year-old wild card Isabelle Kouzmanov, who got by Elise Wagle 7-6(4), 1-6, 7-5.  Wagle served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but Kouzmanov stepped up her game to get the break, then hit seven consecutive winners to go up 6-5, 40-0 with Wagle serving to force a third set tiebreaker. The streak of Kouzmanov winners ended on the first match point, when Wagle netted a backhand.

The second round of doubles concluded today, with the top two seeds in both boys and girls draws advancing. After a bye in Tuesday's first round, top girls seeds Yepifanova and Lauren Anzalotta of Puerto Rico were down 6-1, 5-1 to Elaine Chervinsky and Makayla Mills before claiming a 1-6, 7-6(5), 10-8 win. Chervinsky and Mills served for the match at 5-2, 5-4 and 6-5 and had two match points at 5-4, but they were unable to close it out. No. 2 seeds Bui and Evans beat Ariana Arseneault and Allie Gretkowski 6-4, 7-6(8).

Boys top seeds Heck and Stefan Leustian defeated the Canadian team of Samuel Paquette and Marko Stakusic 6-1, 6-1 and No. 2 seeds Mayo and Lorenzo Claverie of Venezuela beat Foster and Billy Suarez 6-3, 6-4.

Coco Gauff lost in the final round of qualifying at the WTA event in Austria, but made the main draw as a lucky loser and has now advanced to the quarterfinals. She defeated Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland in the first round and made the quarterfinals when Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine retired with an injury trailing 4-6, 6-4, 2-0. Gauff is the youngest quarterfinalist in a WTA event since Sesil Karatantcheva in 2005 and she will make her WTA Top 100 debut next Monday. For more, see the WTA's article.

The main draw of the ITA All-American Championships began today in Tulsa, but rain has disrupted play with first round women's singles matches not yet complete and women's doubles cancelled.

Men's top seed Christian Sigsgaard of Texas has advanced to the second round, as has No. 2 seed Oliver Crawford of Florida. No. 2 women's seed Makenna Jones of North Carolina is through, while 2019 NCAA champion Estela Perez-Somarriba, the top seed, has yet to finish.

The singles scores update (as of 7:40 pm Central Time) is available here.