Top Seeds Through to IOSC Semifinals, But Second Seeds Fall; Easter Bowl 12s and 14s Begin with Rain Delays; Easter Bowl ITF Wild Cards

©Colette Lewis 2021
San Diego CA--

Top seeds Bruno Kuzuhara and Alexandra Yepifanova advanced to the semifinals of the ITF Grade 1 International Open of Southern California on a cloudy and cool morning at the Barnes Tennis Center, but No. 2 seeds Elvina Kalieva and Great Britain's Jack Pinnington Jones both were eliminated, as was No. 3 seed Julia Garcia of Mexico.

Wild card Ethan Quinn, playing in his first ITF Grade 1 tournament, defeated Pinnington Jones, now No. 7 in the world junior rankings, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

"I had a pretty good game plan going into the match," said the 17-year-old from Fresno California, who had gotten a scouting report from doubles partner Nicholas Godsick, a doubles opponent of Pinnington Jones earlier this month in the Dominican Republic. "He said to play the backhand more, it's not as fierce as his forehand. His forehand was able to pull me off the court pretty easily, honestly, but I neutralized that pretty well by going to the backhand."

Quinn said he took advantage of the windy conditions, while Pinnington Jones had problems adjusting.

"He was struggling a little bit with the wind, the wind was for sure tough," said Quinn, who trains with Brad Stine in Fresno, when Stine is not traveling with ATP pro Tommy Paul. "So I kind of used that to my advantage, forcing him to make balls, and he was getting frustrated with the wind. I kind of forced that, by putting indirect pressure, making balls. I wasn't making many unforced errors."

Now that he's beaten his first Top 10 ITF junior, Quinn can admit that he wasn't sure how he'd do at this level.

"I was a little bit scared coming into the tournament because I was so low ranked, not really known by most of the guys," said Quinn, who had a ranking of 679 coming into the tournament. "I'm definitely making a name for myself in this tournament. But as I'm playing now, I'm a little bit looser to not have as much on my shoulders. I'm not having to defend anything, so I'm able to play freely, and it's nice for me."

Quinn's opponent in the semifinals, Braden Shick, also has that underdog mentality. The North Carolina State freshman survived a second straight grueling match, beating qualifier Nathan Cox 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).

No. 5 seed Samir Banerjee, last week's finalist at the Grade 1 in Colombia, defeated No. 4 seed Jack Anthrop 6-2, 6-3 in the only straight-sets match in the boys quarterfinals. Banerjee will take on Kuzuhara, who survived a nail-biter with frequent doubles partner and friend Victor Lilov, the No. 7 seed, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

Despite the frustration of dealing with the wind, both Kuzuhara and Lilov played well, with aggressive play from the baseline and occasional finishes at the net. Lilov double faulted serving at 4-5 in the second set tiebreaker, and Kuzuhara came up with a blistering forehand winner on the next point, which he celebrated with a loud roar.

Closing out the match serving at 5-4 in the third proved difficult for Kuzuhara, as Lilov maintained his focus and his aggressive play. After Lilov had saved two match points in the five-deuce game, Kuzuhara double faulted twice, but Lilov couldn't convert on either of the subsequent break points. Another match point came and went, but on the fourth, a good first serve produced a wide return from Lilov and Kuzuhara had survived.

Lilov and Kuzuhara met in the 2016 Junior Orange Bowl 12s final, with Lilov winning that in three sets, but in spite of their similar ages and schedules, they had not faced off in any event in more than four years.

In the girls quarterfinals, Yepifanova was able to get through in straight sets, beating No. 9 seed Clervie Ngounoue 6-2, 6-3. Yepifanova will face qualifier Elisabeth Jones, who staged a dramatic comeback to defeat No. 3 seed Julia Garcia of Mexico 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(5).  Garcia served for the match at 6-5 in the third, but Jones broke back, only to fall behind 5-1 in the tiebreaker before winning the last six points of the match.

"At 5-1, I was making a bunch of quick errors, I wasn't being patient enough," said the 17-year-old from Michigan. "I was thinking, it's just going by so fast, I don't even know what's happening. When I walked over to get my towel, my coach said it's not over, keep fighting and those words got to me."

Jones noticed that Garcia was not hitting with the same pace as she had been.

"I started attacking more and when it got to 5-4, I was like, I can do this, I can win this match," Jones said. "She kept taking off more and more pace. I think she was nervous. That happens to me sometimes, especially in a third set tiebreak, if you get up. I could kind of sense that."

In contrast to Garcia, Jones stepped up the pace on her two-handed forehand, hitting a clean winner to make it 5-3, and another that forced an error to make it 5-5. With the left-handed Garcia not getting a first serve in at 5-4 or 5-5, Jones had an advantage, and she hit another forehand winner to earn a match point. She converted immediately, with Garcia's forehand going wide after a brief rally.

With Jones now having beaten three seeds she is now set for a first encounter with Yepifanova, the 2019 US Open girls finalist.

No. 10 seed Reese Brantmeier was much more familiar with her quarterfinal opponent Kalieva, who had beaten her in the first round of the Grade A Orange Bowl back in December. But Brantmeier learned from that loss, taking a 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-1 victory over the tiring No. 2 seed.

"I've been working a lot on my game on moving forward and that was really an emphasis of mine," said Brantmeier, who has been training regularly with USTA National Coach Jermaine Jenkins at the National Campus since it reopened last year. "I think that really made the difference for me."

Brantmeier has only good memories of the Barnes Tennis Center as she won the USTA National 16s title here in 2019.

The only international player remaining in either draw is Canadian Kayla Cross, who took out Orange Bowl champion Ashlyn Krueger, the No. 4 seed, 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

"I was just getting used to her in the first set," said the 12th-seeded Cross, who turned 16 on Sunday. "She hits really big, she has a really good serve, so I had to get use to the serve, setting up faster, being more prepared for the hard shots she was going to hit. I feel like in the second and third sets, I really stepped up my game on my returns, so we could start off the point neutral, so she wouldn't be always attacking me."

Cross didn't trail in the third set, with Krueger able to break back immediately after Cross took a 4-2 lead and hold for 4-4. But serving at 4-5, Krueger couldn't pull even a second time and Cross had her best win.

Cross reached the final of last week's Grade 2 in the Dominican Republic, which helped her get ready after competing sporadically this year.

"The first couple of matches were a little hard because I hadn't competed in a long time and when you haven't competed in a long time and you go back to competing you have a lot of nerves, obviously," Cross said. "But I think since I did well in Dominican and I had a lot of matches, that helped me today."

Brantmeier and Cross have not played each other in singles, but they became friends at the 2019 WTA Future Stars event in Shenzhen, with Cross competing in the 14s and Brantmeier, who won that title, in the 16s.

"We traveled to China together and not a lot of people spoke English there, so we got pretty tight," Brantmeier said. "There were only four of us from the Western countries."

Brantmeier has also advanced to the doubles final, after she and Kimmi Hance won their rain-interrupted semifinal against No. 5 seeds Krueger and Sarah Hamner 6-3, 6-0. Brantmeier and Hance, the Orange Bowl champions and No. 6 seeds, will face No. 7 seeds Victoria Mboko of Canada and Ngounoue for the title. Mboko and Ngounoue defeated unseeded Gracie Epps and Aubrey Nisbet 6-4, 3-6, 14-12.

One of the boys doubles semifinals finished before the rain arrived, with Quinn and Godsick advancing to the final when Ryan Colby and Ekansh Kumar retired due to Colby's injury trailing 5-2.

In Friday's final, Quinn and Godsick will face fellow unseeded team Nathan Cox and Sebastian Gorzny, who defeated No. 4 seeds Banerjee and Benjamin Kittay 6-3, 6-1.

The intermittent rain that moved into the area in the early afternoon played havoc with the first day of competition in the Easter Bowl 12s and 14s, with the doubles canceled and the uncompleted matches at alternate sites moved to Barnes to take advantage of the lights.

Top seeds Kayla Moore(G12s), Trenton Kanchankomtorn(B12s) and Cooper Woestendick(B14s) did win their first round matches today.

Main draw wild cards for next week's Easter Bowl ITF Grade B1 are:

Boys:

Jonah Braswell

Kyle Kang

Nicolas Kotzen

Preston Stearns

Nicholas Godsick

Jayden Templeman(CAN)

Girls:

Vivian Ovrootsky

Gracie Epps

Brooklyn Olson

Mary Stoiana

Anne Lutkemeyer

TBD