Hu Qualifies for Dow Tennis Classic WTA 125, Stearns Blanks Fatigued Opponent to Advance to Second Round; US Junior Davis Cup Team Opens with Win; Women's AO Wild Card Challenge Remains Undecided

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Midland Michigan

When players are coming from Chile, Mexico and Texas, the chances the draw will need a last minute shuffle increases with every passing hour and the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic had plenty of adjustments to make, beginning with the withdrawal of Elli Mandlik before qualifying began Sunday, which moved top qualifying seed Yulia Starodubtseva(Old Dominion) of Ukraine into the main draw. 

After qualifying began Sunday, but before the first main draw match Monday, Kayla Day, a finalist Sunday's Tyler Texas $80K, withdrew. Day's spot as the No. 6 seed was taken by Emiliana Arango of Colombia, who was the next highest ranked player in the draw, vacating her position as No. 2 seed Peyton Stearns' opponent in this afternoon's first round match. By rule, Arango's replacement had to be a lucky loser, not a qualifier, so until all the qualifying matches were completed and the lucky losers ranked, Stearns wouldn't know her new opponent. 

And the final qualifying match was a doozy, with Victoria Hu defeating 18-year-old left-hander Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 45 minutes of high quality tennis.

Hu, a 21-year-old from Massachusetts, had a set point with Jimenez Kasintseva serving at 4-5 in the first set, but after yet another long and physically demanding rally, Jimenez Kasintseva saved it and held. The subsequent tiebreaker was close throughout, with neither player leading by more than a point, but at 6-all, the teenager cracked a forehand pass, for 7-6, then forced a defensive lob from Hu that went just long. 

Jimenez Kasintseva went up 3-1 in the second set, but Hu didn't waiver in her commitment to aggressive tennis and she won the next three games to go up 4-3. Hu gave up that advantage, but broke again for a 5-4 lead, with Jimenez Kasintseva double faulting three times in the eighth game, and Hu accepted that gift, holding to level the match.

Jimenez Kasintseva had begun to show signs of cramping, which began to affect her serve, and several times she fell to the baseline after a serve, although she never had difficulty getting  back up. She was broken in the fifth game, when the inability to push off her right leg was most noticeable, and Hu did not let her back in, holding for 4-2 and 5-3. Hu wasn't quite as consistent as she had been in the late stages of the second set, but with Jimenez Kasintseva struggling physically, Hu managed to keep her nose in front. 

Yet when it came time to close out one of the best wins of her career, Hu brought out her best tennis, getting all four first serves in, including two aces, winning the always tough final game at love.

"That last game is what I'm working for," said Hu, who lost in the quarterfinals of the Tyler $80K on Friday and travelled to Midland Saturday to play the first round of qualifying on Sunday. "I'm really trying to focus on my serve, my first serve, and constructing the point from that. In that last game, just staying committed to big serves, setting up the point, and obviously that paid off."

Hu showed no signs of fatigue, even late in the match after yet another bruising rally, but she had sympathy for what Jimenez Kasintseva was going through.

"I think she was cramping, and I feel bad for her, you could see how she was struggling on the serve," Hu said. "She can't take a medical for that. But I'm feeling pretty good actually. I've played a lot of three setters in the last couple of weeks, so I'm feeling physically pretty good right now."

Hu, who attended Princeton for one year before turning pro after the 2021-22 season, noted the similarities and the differences in the traveling she did then and what she's experiencing now.

"We played a lot of away matches the year I played," Hu said. "There was a lot of one day traveling, practicing, playing matches then coming back, a weekend schedule. That kind of prepared me for being on the road, away from home a lot. But the biggest difference is I loved the team environment, and I miss it."

Hu credits that year at Princeton with helping her figure out who she wanted to be on the court.

"I was a really shy person prior to going to school," Hu said. "And I really found my character when I was at Princeton. I'm not afraid to go after the ball, I'm not afraid to speak my mind. I have a good bond with my dad (her coach), because my teammates aren't here. Tennis is such a lonely sport and traveling like this you don't feel you get a lot of support from a lot of people, which is the biggest difference coming from Princeton."

Hu will face Hailey Baptiste in a first round match Tuesday.

Shortly after Jimenez Kasintseva left the court, she learned she was the lucky loser who would play Stearns later that evening. After two hours rest, Jimenez Kasintseva did play the match, but was obviously not in any condition physically to compete, and Stearns steamrolled to a 6-0, 6-0 win in 44 minutes.

In addition to Hu, the other three qualifiers were Varvara Lepchenko, who beat Jana Kolodynska of Belarus 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-3; Lulu Sun(Texas) of Switzerland, who defeated Louisa Chirico 6-1, 6-1 and two-time Midland finalist Robin Anderson(UCLA), who beat Chloe Beck(Duke)  6-4, 6-1 in front of several busloads of local Midland schoolchildren in the Stadium Court stands.  Beck also got into the main draw as a lucky loser, with Sachia Vickery pulling out after qualifying had begun. Beck was drawn to face friend and former junior doubles partner Emma Navarro, the top seed, who has already made her way to Midland on Monday and practiced at the site, after winning the $80,000 tournament in Tyler Sunday night.

In the three other main draw matches played today, No. 3 seed Alycia Parks defeated Ann Li 6-1, 6-2, Starodubtseva beat wild card Sophie Chang 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 and Carole Monnet of France advanced when Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus retired after losing the first set 6-4.

Shymanovich and Conny Perrin of Switzerland, the No. 2 seeds in doubles, where set to play wild cards Beck and Ellie Coleman(Duke), but Shymanovich's injury gave Beck and Coleman a walkover into the second round.

Tuesday's schedule, which includes eight first round singles and three first round doubles matches, can be found here.

The first day of matches is complete at the Junior Davis Cup in Spain, with the United States beating Canada 3-0 in round robin play. Maxwell Exsted beat Mikael Arseneault 7-5, 6-0 at No. 2 singles; Darwin Blanch defeated Nicolas Arseneault 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 singles and Exsted and Jagger Leach beat Mikael Arseneault and Adam Faragcao 6-2, 6-1 in doubles.

The US plays Thailand on Tuesday, with Japan the fourth team in their group. 

Links to the live scoring and live streaming are here. Results from previous days can be found by accessing the live scoring.

The USTA published the latest Australian Open Wild Card Challenge rankings and the top three women are all likely to get in on their own ranking, so what happens this week in Midland could decide the recipient. This is the final week of the women's five-week window.

The men have completed just one week of their four-week window.

Women's Standings (current live WTA ranking)

1. Emina Bektas (82) -- 271
2. Kayla Day (87) -- 112
3. Claire Liu (94) -- 110
4. Mccartney Kessler (231) -- 100
5. Katie Volynets (109) -- 71
6. Jennifer Brady (224) -- 65

Men's Standings

1. Brandon Nakashima (151) -- 9
2. Kyle Kang (668) -- 8