Wild Cards Codd and Kang Advance to San Diego ITF Grade 1 Semifinals, Tien Breezes, Quinn Survives; Easter Bowl 12s and 14s Seeds, Draws for Saturday's First Round

©Colette Lewis 2022--
San Diego CA--

Katie Codd doesn't play ITF tournaments outside the United States, so she needed a wild card to get into the main draw of this week's ITF Grade 1 International Open of San Diego at the Barnes Tennis Center.

The 18-year-old from nearby Carlsbad, who has trained at Barnes in the past, has made the most of her opportunity this week, defeating No. 6 seed Sonya Macavei 6-2, 6-0 in Thursday's round of 16 and taking out No. 4 seed Sayaka Ishii of Japan 6-2, 7-5 in today's quarterfinals.

Codd, who has yet to drop a set this week, said she determined early in the match that avoiding Ishii's forehand was critical to her chances of winning.

"I just focused on keeping the ball deep and out of her strike zone," said Codd, who will join the Duke Blue Devils this fall. " I could kind of get a sense in the warmup. But I did definitely have to play into a little bit. She's an amazing player."

Ishii, a 16-year-old who trains at IMG, broke Codd serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set, then held for 5-all. Codd took a 6-5 lead, but in the next game, Ishii couldn't convert any of the half-dozen game points she had to force a second set tiebreaker. After five deuces, Codd finally got her first match point, and Ishii double faulted for an anticlimactic ending.

Codd, who was playing in her first Grade 1 quarterfinal today, will face top seed Liv Hovde, who defeated No. 9 seed Ava Krug 6-1, 6-4. 

"She's a tough one," said Codd, who hasn't had any success in the previous two or three times they've played. "It'll be a good match."

The girls semifinal in the bottom half will feature another unseeded player, 15-year-old Mayu Crossley of Japan. Crossley, who trains at the Evert Academy, surprised No. 3 seed Qavia Lopez in today's quarterfinal 6-3, 6-3. Crossley won the ITF Grade 5 held here at the Barnes Tennis Center last November.

Crossley will face No. 5 seed Alexis Blokhina, who defeated No. 13 seed Tatum Evans 6-2, 6-1. The 17-year-old from Florida, who has committed to Stanford for 2022, reached the semifinals of the Easter Bowl, held on these same courts last year.

Like Codd, Kyle Kang plays few ITF junior events, but he too has made the most of a wild card, with the 17-year-old from Fullerton California posting his fourth straight-sets win today: a 7-6(4), 6-0 decision over No. 2 seed Nicholas Godsick.

"Nico's always a tough guy to play," Kang said. "His shots are crazy good when he's on. I was up 5-2 in the beginning, playing pretty well up a break. I was having some issues with my knee a little bit near the end of the first and I got broken trying to serve for it. He played really good at the end of the first set so luckily I was able to pull it off in the breaker. Second set, I kind of found my rhythm a little bit and his level dropped a little bit, so it was smooth sailing for me after that."

Kang now is wearing glasses, which he hopes will be temporary until he gets accustomed to contact lenses. 

"I had issues seeing at night at a couple of tournaments, so I decided to get my eyes checked, and I realized with glasses it was a little bit better," Kang said. "But I haven't got used to contact lenses yet."

Kang's opponent in the semifinals, his first in a Grade 1, is No. 5 seed Sebastian Gorzny, who defeated No. 13 seed Preston Stearns 6-4, 6-4.

"I grew up with Sebastian, I've played him a ton, and just practiced, I used to play with him twice a week," said Kang, who lost to Gorzny at a UTR $25K last August after beating him in the back draw at Kalamazoo that same month. "He moved down to Florida, so I haven't hit with him recently, but we've had a lot of battles."

Kang's look has changed with his new glasses, but the most noticeable change in appearance goes to No. 12 seed Learner Tien, who cut his shoulder length hair earlier this year. 

"I had wanted to do it for a very long time," said the 16-year-old left-hander from Irvine California. "I'd been wanting to do it for a very long time, and always said I was going to do it, but I never got around to it. It was a bit weird, and the first couple of days after the haircut I didn't play too well and I was bit worried it could have been correlated there, and then it turned out fine."

In his 6-0, 6-2 win today over No. 3 seed Michael Zheng, Tien's game was better than fine. After his grueling three-set win over No. 6 seed Aidan Kim on Thursday, Tien said he felt sluggish in his warmup before today's match.

"I was a bit tired from yesterday coming into my warmup," said Tien, who made only one unforced error prior to 5-0, 40-0 in the first set. "Once I started hitting, I started feeling much better. But I was surprised at how well I was playing because I didn't feel that great during my warmup."

Zheng was not sharp in the first set, but much of that could be traced to Tien's level.

"He gave me a bit of leeway in the first, made some mistakes in the first few games," said Tien, who reached the semifinals of the Grade 1 in Costa Rica earlier this year. "He started playing better in the second, but I felt like I was able to maintain the pressure I was putting on him, kept dictating points, so I didn't give him a chance to do that much."

Tien, who was off the court in an hour, will have the advantage over his semifinal opponent Ethan Quinn, who needed over three hours to get by No. 8 seed Jonah Braswell 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. The match was a roller coaster, with Braswell serving for the first set at 5-4, while top seed and defending champion Quinn was up 4-1 in the second set before Braswell took six of the next seven games. Quinn was broken to open the third set, but got the break back to make it 3-3. Braswell, who had been successful in keeping the ball away from Quinn's forehand throughout the match, took a 0-40 lead in the next game, but Quinn hit three aces after the first deuce to hold.

At 4-all, Quinn had to save two break points but held, and then took the first three points on Braswell's service game, two via errors. Quinn let the first two of those match points slip away with unforced errors, but he took the third with a deliberately short punch of a first serve return. Braswell had to run forward quickly, and while he got there, his forehand found the net.

Tien and Quinn have played in USTA 12s and 14s events, but not in the 16s and 18s.

The doubles finals are set for Saturday, and they do not include either of the top seeds, both of whom lost to unseeded teams in today's semifinals.

Hovde and Lopez were defeated by Lara Smejkal of Slovenia and Sophie Williams 6-4, 6-4 and Quinn and Godsick went out to Landon Ardila and Lucas Brown 6-4, 4-6, 10-7.  Godsick and Brown won the Kalamazoo 16s doubles title last year, but were on opposite sides of the net today on the Stadium Court.

Smejkal and Williams will face Codd and Maddy Zampardo, who beat No. 6 seeds Ariana Pursoo and Ahmani Guichard 6-3, 6-0.

Brown and Ardila's opponents in the final will be No. 4 seeds Braswell and Jaden Weekes of Canada. They defeated No. 2 seeds Aidan Kim and Michael Zheng 6-2, 6-4.

The USTA Level 1 Fila Easter Bowl begins Saturday for the 12s and 14s divisions at various locations in the Coachella Valley. Below are the top eight seeds. Draws can be found at the USTA's PlayTennis site.

Boys 12s

1. Jordan Lee

2. Vihaan Reddy

3. Teodor Davidov

4. Izyan Ahmad

5. Safir Azam

5. Michael Antonius

5. Andrew Johnson

5. Elliott Awomoyi

Girls 12s

1. Lani Chang

2. Filipa Delgado

3. Anjani Vickneswaran

4. Welles Newman

5. Lyla Middleton

5. Raya Kotseva

5. Sarah Ye

5. withdrew

Boys 14s

1. Ronit Karki

2. Jagger Leach

3. Evan Sharygin

4. Jon Gamble

5. Jack Secord

5. Andre Alcantara

5. Sebastian Bielen

5. Nathaniel Suh

Girls 14s

1. Capucine Jauffret

2. withdrew

3. Emerey Gross

4. Aishi Bisht

5. Kenna Erickson

5. Thea Frodin

5. Kristina Penickova

5. Amiya Bowles