Woestendick and Jovic Take 14s Adidas Easter Bowl Titles, Lam and Bielen Win 12s Championships, as 16s Division Begins and ITF Grade B1 Continues; Korda Reaches Miami Open Quarterfinals

©Colette Lewis 2021--
San Diego CA

Tuesday was a day of firsts at the USTA Level 1 Adidas Easter Bowl at the Barnes Tennis Center, with three of the four singles champions in the 12s and 14s divisions claiming their initial coveted gold ball.

Unseeded Iva Jovic of Torrance won the battle of Southern California in the girls 14s final, beating Elena Zhao of San Diego 6-0, 6-2 to earn her first USTA National Level 1 title.

"I thought it was kind of cool that it was a SoCal final," said the 13-year-old Jovic, who had lost to Zhao in a third set tiebreaker in their only previous meeting. "It's weird, we kind of kept dodging in the draws."

In the rematch, Jovic was pleased with her aggressive play.

"I think I did a good job stepping into the court, not letting her push me back, and being aggressive," Jovic said. 

Jovic said she was a good player in the 12s, but has made steady progress recently.

"I was practicing the right things," said Jovic, who works with Peter Smith and Rylan Rizza at the Jack Kramer Club in Los Angeles. "And then when they started working, and going in more, then it was easier for me to win."

Jovic was just fine with her unseeded status coming into the tournament. 

"I think it was not that bad for me," said Jovic, who had not won any USTA balls before today. "I kind of like being the underdog and not expecting to win. But I didn't really look at the draw that much either, so yeah, it was good. I was focused on every match."

Top seed Cooper Woestendick had won gold balls previously, but in doubles competition, not singles. A finalist at the Easter Bowl in the 12s division two years ago, Woestendick thought his experience may have helped in his 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory over unseeded Jimin Jung.

"It helped me a little bit at first," said Woestendick, who won the Level 1 championship in Mobile earlier this month. "Having experience in bigger matches definitely helped me, definitely in my last tournament too, it helps me and it paid off."

Woestendick pulled away in the first set, but Jung, who had come back from a set down in two of his earlier matches wasn't about to concede, and he quickly rebounded in the second set.

"I knew he was going to be very tough," said Woestendick, who trains at Genesis Health Club in Kansas City.  "He's an interesting and crafty player....he played very well in the second set, kind of caught me off guard."

Woestendick got an early break, going up 3-0 and 4-1, but although he was glad to have a lead, he knew that match was not over. He took solace in his game plan, which helped him hold his nerve serving for the match at 5-3, 0-30.

"I like my backhand a lot, so I try to go backhand to backhand as much as I can, until I get a forehand short ball," Woestendick said. "If I see him slicing I'll take it out of the air, but he's very fast, so that's hard to do, so basically just pin him in one corner and attack."

The last three points of the match were confusing for everyone in the vicinity of Court 12, including the chair umpire and the players. With Woestendick serving at 30-40, he hit a serve that Jung had a play on, but called out. The chair overruled Jung, and because it was his third overrule of a line call, he received a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. That made it advantage Woestendick, although the chair called game, set, match before he was challenged by Jung. After the chair had corrected the score, play resumed, and Woestendick won a long rally to claim the championship.