Top Seeds Kick Off Easter Bowl ITF with Victories, No. 4 Seeds Out as Weather and Action Heats Up in San Diego

©Colette Lewis 2021

San Diego CA--

The seeds took the courts for the first time Wednesday at the ITF Grade B1 Easter Bowl, with top seeds Madison Sieg and Juncheng (Jerry) Shang taking straight-sets victories in their initial appearances on the Barnes Tennis Center courts.

Neither Sieg, who beat wild card Gracie Epps 6-2, 6-1, nor Shang, who downed Cooper Williams 6-3, 6-2, played last week's Grade 1 International Championships of Southern California, but they didn't seem to need any time to adjust against players who had.

No. 2 seed Bruno Kuzuhara posted a routine win, taking out qualifier Alexander Chang 6-2, 6-0, and No. 3 seed Alex Bernard defeated wild card Preston Stearns 6-2, 7-6(6). No. 4 seed Ozan Colak, didn't have the best birthday, with the 17-year-old losing to wild card Jayden Templeman of Canada 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Templeman, like Shang, who plays under the Chinese flag, is eligible to compete in the ITF Closed event due to either his formal immigration status or as a holder of a dual passport. Templeman was removed from the Easter Bowl entry list in error, and the only way to rectify the mistake was to award him a wild card. 

No. 2 seed and IOSC champion Alexandra Yepifanova got off to a slow start in her match with Katja Wiersholm, but she recovered to post a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory. No. 3 seed Elvina Kalieva beat Kathryn Treiber 6-4, 6-0, but No. 4 seed Valencia Xu was blanked by qualifier Liv Hovde 6-0, 6-0. 

Another top seed, No. 5 Ashlyn Krueger, the reigning Orange Bowl champion, lost to friend and doubles partner Sarah Hamner 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

"It's always hard playing Ash because she's my best friend," said Hamner, who split two meetings with Krueger late last year in ITF Grade 4s in Florida. "We were a little bit disappointed in the draw, but what can you do?"

Never far apart during a tournament Hamner and Krueger train together, room together and even warmed up together prior to their match today.

"We are both super competitive, so we know when we're in the match we're not friends and we've got to stay focused," said the 18-year-old South Carolina recruit. "About 30 minutes before we thought we were going to play, we just kind of separated, to zone in and focus."

Hamner said her serve played a key role in her victory.

"Ash is a great server--she's very tall--so I knew I needed to bring my A game for serves," Hamner said. "In the second set, she was on fire, crushing the ball, moving me like crazy. In the third, I just tried to focus, take deep breaths, just take one point at a time. Everyone says that, but I really tried to focus on each point, and take deep breaths before each serve, because I really needed to make my first serves. My first serve was important, and I returned well so that helped a lot."

Hamner's opponent on Thursday will be No. 9 seed Qavia Lopez, who defeated qualifier Julia Fliegner 6-2, 1-6, 7-5.

Five boys seeds exited in their first match, including No. 8 seed Victor Lilov, who lost to Sebastian Gorzny 7-6(3), 6-3. Gorzny, who has found his form over the past two months, was pleased with his performance Wednesday.

"I just think I've played a lot of matches and I'm kind of in a groove," said the 17-year-old, who made the Las Vegas Grade 4 singles final two weeks ago and won the doubles title at last week's IOSC. "I'm hitting the ball well, good timing and I'm pretty confident."

Although Gorzny had not played Lilov before, he had been aware of his results for years.

"He's always been on the top, since I was playing 12s and 14s, and that's my first time playing him in singles, so it was a good win," Gorzny. "I think today everything was working today. My backhand sometimes breaks down, but today it was really good. I made returns, made him play, played pretty well."

Gorzny can focus on singles this week, because his doubles partner, Nathan Cox, and his opponent in the final round of qualifying Eugenio Gonzalez Fitzmaurice, were defaulted from the tournament due to an irregularity in reporting the score of their match.

"I'm kind of bummed out, because we played really well together and could have won another title together," said Gorzny, who could not play with another partner due to ITF rules. "But it is what it is. I don't know that exact details; I just know they made up the score or something, broke the rules."

Gorzny said he has always thought he could compete at the level of the players ranked ahead of him, but hadn't been able to put all the parts of his game together.

"I feel like I've always been there, but I haven't performed up to their level," said Gorzny, who is from Southern California, but is currently training at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton. "So I'm finally playing at that level consistently."

Gorzny's opponent in the third round is No. 10 seed Aidan Kim, who advanced when Alexander Frusina retired at 2-6, 6-1, 4-2.

Two boys matches went over three hours, with Colton Smith saving a match point in his 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over No. 9 seed Benjamin Kittay, and No. 11 seed Azuma Visaya beating Sebastian Sec 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-4.

Wednesday was the first day in this two-week stretch that could accurately be called hot, with temperatures in the low to mid 80s, and play was slowed not only due to highly competitive matches, but also to players using their towels much more frequently than before.

The seeded teams in doubles also played their first matches this afternoon, with top seeds Kalieva and Yepifanova coming back for a 1-6, 6-3, 10-7 victory over Meera Jesudason and Akari Matsuno. Jack Anthrop and Shang defeated Rohan Murali and Bryce Nakashima 6-2, 6-2.

The top singles seeds in the 16s, Natalie Block and Emon von Loben Sells, earned straight-sets victories in today's second round, but girls No. 2 seed Yichen Zhao lost to wild card Stephanie Yakoff 6-2, 7-5. Boys No. 4 seed Greyson Casey lost in Tuesday's first round, as did girls No. 3 seed Karolina Jacobson.