Wild Card Quinn, No. 5 Seed Banerjee Reach IOSC Boys Final, Brantmeier and Yepifanova Vie for Girls Championship, Doubles Champions Crowned; Easter Bowl Girls 14s Top Seed Falls in Second Round

©Colette Lewis 2021

San Diego CA--

When Samir Banerjee played Ethan Quinn in the third round of the 2019 Easter Bowl 16s Championships, Banerjee, who went on to claim the title, didn't know who Quinn was. Quinn, playing in his first ITF Grade 1 tournament this week at the International Open of Southern California, will not take No. 5 seed Banerjee by surprise when they meet for the boys singles title Friday at the Barnes Tennis Center. 

"I never heard of him before then, but he was a good player," said Banerjee, who took out top seed Bruno Kuzuhara 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in today's semifinals. "He was hitting winners and everything. He was just a little bit inconsistent back then, but now he's definitely solidified himself up here."

"He really didn't know me too well," Quinn said of that Easter Bowl match, "and I came in loose and he was a little bit tight, especially when I got up on him a little bit, he was like, who is this guy? He'll know me now, but I'll definitely have to do some talking with my coaches for a game plan."

Quinn reached the final with a 6-4, 6-1 win over unseeded Braden Shick, eventually finding his rhythm after trailing 3-1 in the opening set.

"I started a little bit slow, but once I found my groove, I put my foot on the gas and I cruised forward," said the 17-year-old from Fresno. "I was controlling the points a lot with my forehand, and I was dictating a lot, not moving, so I was able to stay in the middle and play the way that I wanted to play."

Banerjee recalled his three-set loss to Kuzuhara in 2018's Easter Bowl 14s final, the last time they had played. 

"I think I developed as a player since the last time we played and he's also developed too," said the 17-year-old from New Jersey, who reached the final at last week's Grade 1 in Barranquilla Colombia. "He's had some good results down in South America, so he's definitely playing really well, but I thought I played a really smart match, didn't let him push me back, tried to come into the net whenever I could. I think I did everything right and I played a solid match."

After Kuzuhara took the second set, with a love break with Banerjee serving at 4-5, Banerjee was managed to regroup from that game, getting a break at 1-1, and a second to go up 4-1. 

"I knew one break against Bruno just isn't enough," Banerjee said. "He's always there, and he's going to fight back no matter what, so I really wanted that second break for some security. And even after that, we still had two tight games that could have gone either way, so it was a little tight at the end, but I pulled through."

The girls semifinals followed a similar pattern, with one match straightforward and the other a roller coaster of a three-setter.

Top seed Alexandra Yepifanova needed barely an hour to end the run of qualifier Elisabeth Jones 6-1, 6-2, while No. 10 seed Reese Brantmeier managed to overcome the loss of nine straight games to defeat No. 12 seed Kayla Cross of Canada 6-2, 0-6, 6-3. 

Yepifanova's power kept Jones defending, neutralizing the two-handed forehand that had helped Jones win seven matches in the previous six days. 

"Today felt really good," said the 18-year-old from Florida. "She kind of has a little bit unorthodox shots, the double-handed forehand, it's not very common, and it was very aggressive. I had to adjust a little bit to that in the beginning, but after that I just focused on me, and the score went my way."

Yepifanova said she felt short on match play coming into the tournament.

"I was playing a series tournaments, but in those tournaments I only played one or two matches and then I would lose, because I was trying to play professional tournaments," Yepifanova said. "I kind of had to get in that routine of building, staying focused match to match."

Brantmeier managed to win her third straight three-set match today, a result that looked unlikely after she trailed 3-0 in the final set.

"I came out playing really well," said Brantmeier, who needed just 30 minutes to claim the first set. "Props to Kayla, she's a great players and she didn't go away in the second. She come out strong, got an early break and really got a lot of momentum going in the second, which kind of carried on into the third."

Brantmeier got the break back in the third set, and then held on in a lengthy game serving at 2-3, which proved to be the turning point in the match.

"I think that game was huge," said the 16-year-old from Wisconsin, who said she couldn't count the number of break points she saved in that game. "The whole match had a lot of momentum swings and that was a really big point. She had won nine games straight, I had just started coming back in the third, and I think that game, to make in even in the third, made all the difference."

Cross had a game point to go up 4-3, but two double faults helped Brantmeier secure the break, and she closed the match on a six-game run of her own.

Brantmeier and Yepifanova played a memorable match in the quarterfinals of the US Open Junior Championships in 2019, with Yepifanova coming back from 6-4, 3-0 down to beat Brantmeier on her way to the final. Yepifanova also defeated Brantmeier at the Grade B1 in Kentucky a month later, and at a UTR tournament last summer.

"At US Open, we both played really well, and I was up by a lot and she came back and beat me in the third," Brantmeier said. "I know she's never going to go away, so I need to be at the top of my game and keep my energy up the whole match."

"We've played each other multiple time, so we both know it's going to be a good match," Yepifanova said. 

Brantmeier already has earned on IOSC title this week, partnering with Kimmi Hance to take the doubles championships Friday afternoon. 

No. 6 seeds Brantmeier and Hance, who won the Orange Bowl title the last time they played together, defeated No. 7 seeds Victoria Mboko of Canada and Clervie Ngounoue 6-4, 3-6, 10-3.

After Brantmeier and Hance jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first, Mboko and Ngounoue found their form, winning three straight games before Brantmeier and Hance finally converted on their eighth set point.  Mboko and Ngounoue turned the tables in the second, taking a 5-1 lead and holding on to force a match tiebreaker.

The experience of Hance and Brantmeier showed in that match tiebreaker, as they made first serves, first volleys and returns, while keeping unforced errors to a minimum. They didn't drop serve, getting a comfortable lead when Ngounoue lost both points on her serve and Mboko double faulting at 2-7.

"I think coming off Orange Bowl, we had a lot of confidence that we could get it in the end," Brantmeier said.

Brantmeier and Hance had not played together since the Orange Bowl and had not had an opportunity to practice prior to this tournament, with Hance reaching the final last week at the Grade 4 in Las Vegas, which Brantmeier did not play.

"We definitely worked our way into it," Brantmeier said. "A couple of months not playing together, anyone is going to have a hard time in the beginning. But as we got more comfortable, we got back in our rhythm and I think we played some really good tennis at the end."

"We were aware that we needed to get back in our rhythm in our first match," said Hance, who has signed with UCLA for the fall. "We felt sometimes we were a little off, doing our own things, but as soon as we connected, we did a good job."

Hance and Brantmeier hope to continue their run of junior major titles at next week's Grade B1 Easter Bowl.

The boys doubles champions also had past success to buoy them, with Sebastian Gorzny and Nathan Cox now three-for-three in the tournaments they've played after the unseeded pair beat Quinn and his partner Nicholas Godsick 6-4, 6-3.

Gorzny and Cox, both singles qualifiers, didn't drop serve in their win today, dominating their unseeded opponents in just under an hour.

"I thought we played pretty well," said Gorzny, who won the Grade 4 title last week in Las Vegas with Braden Michna, with Cox not playing that event. "One of our best matches of the tournament for sure. We served well, didn't get broken, so it was pretty good."

"We have good communication and our games pair well with each other," Cox said. "His serve, me at the net is a good combination, and we run a lot of good plays, the lefty-righty combo works well. We both return similarly and we both like to go to the net."

Gorzny and Cox lost the first set they played in the tournament, but then went on to beat the No. 5, No. 1 and No. 4 seeded teams to advance to the final.

"Our first match, we didn't feel the greatest," Cox said. "We started off sluggish, not focused, lost the first set...but after that match, we started to play a lot better."

Gorzny and Cox are planning to play the Easter Bowl together, if they get in; with Cox a wild card in qualifying, their entry is not guaranteed.

Easter Bowl Grade B1 qualifying begins on Saturday, with those draws available here.

Second round singles matches in the Easter Bowl 12s and 14s divisions were played today, with girls 14s top seed Katie Rolls falling to Adriana Sciara 6-4, 6-1. Rolls had won the USTA Spring Individual Championships earlier this month.

In boys 14s, No. 2 seed Braeden Gelletich and No. 3 seed Nicolas Iantosca were beaten, with Jimin Jung downing Gelletich 6-2, 6-1, and Max Exsted defeating Iantosca 6-7(7), 6-2, 6-0.  Top boys 14s seed Cooper Woestendick prevailed in a third set tiebreaker over Vincent Yang.

Complete results can be found at the TennisLink site.