Seeds Begin Play Tuesday at San Diego ITF J300; Hance Saves Six Match Points to Advance to Second Straight Meeting With Top Seed Woestendick; Brantmeier Sues NCAA Over Pro Prize Money Restrictions

©Colette Lewis 2024--
San Diego CA--

The first round of the ITF J300 San Diego American Regional Championships began under clear skies Monday morning at the Barnes Tennis Center. The six boys and six girls qualifiers were in action, along with the six wild cards in each draw and 20 players with direct entry. In the 48-player draw, seeds do not play until the second round of Tuesday, but most of them were at the site to practice and scout their possible opposition.

Top seed Cooper Woestendick might have thought he was heading for a second round match against qualifier Roshan Santhosh, but instead he will be facing Keaton Hance for the second straight week, after Hance saved six match points, three at 3-5 and three more at 5-4 before going on to record a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(0) victory.

"He definitely, for sure, got a little more nervous," Hance said. "But obviously you've got to expect that on a match point. I was just trying to make as many balls as I could, make him miss. I wasn't going to make a bad error on his match points."

Santhosh, a 15-year-old from Thousand Oaks, and Hance had not played before, which Hance, a 16-year-old from Torrance, admitted it was somewhat surprising, given their same birth year and USTA section. Adjusting to the lack of pace on Santhosh's rally balls, Hance decided to reign in his own game in response.

"He makes a ton a balls and you have to match it, make just as many balls as him," said Hance. "He's a grinder, but really very loose, so he can slap a little bit, and every once in a while he'd go big. You can't really do that, or the point's over. You have to get it out of his strike zone, or he'll lock on it and rip it. You can't be too aggressive, though because he's pretty scrappy and gets to a lot of balls, so you have to be aggressive, but not overly aggressive.

Although Hance didn't make a single first serve at 5-6, he held at love, the start of his 11-point streak that ended the match.

"I wasn't getting any first serves in, so I started kicking it in the tiebreaker, make him play a first serve, because it's a different mentality," said Hance, who was proud of the tweener he hit in a spectacular point he eventually won, although not quite as he had anticipated. "I was so happy I made that. I wanted to go over his head, but I won the point so I don't really care now. It was a really good point."

His reward for that comeback is another match with Woestendick, who beat him 6-0, 6-3 in the second round last week at the J300 in Indian Wells.

There was another first round boys match that went to a third set tiebreaker, with wild card Jack Satterfield managing to fight through cramps to defeat qualifier Paris Pouatcha 2-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(3). Pouatcha also wasn't in great physical shape near the end of the three-hour match, and both struggled to move with any energy, but Satterfield managed to win six straight points from 2-0 down to give himself four match points and he converted the second.

Second round matches begin Tuesday at 9:00 a.m., with the 16 boys matches, followed by the 16 girls matches, and the second round of doubles. Thea Frodin and Shannon Lam are the No. 1 seeds in the girls doubles draw, with Roy Horovitz and Alex Razeghi the top seeds in the boys doubles draw.

Boys seeds:

1. Cooper Woestendick

2. Alex Razeghi

3. Roy Horovitz

4. Max Exsted

5. Matthew Forbes

6. Jagger Leach

7. Ian Mayew

8. Jack Kennedy

9. Noah Johnston

10. Nikita Filin

11. Matisse Farzam

12. Kase Schinnerer

13. Maximus Dussault

14. Connor Church

15. Jack Secord

16. Jordan Reznik

Girls seeds:

1. Iva Jovic

2. Thea Frodin

3. Shannon Lam

4. Aspen Schuman

5. Kate Fakih

6. Christasha McNeil

7. Alanis Hamilton

8. Claire An

9. Monika Ekstrand

10. Maya Iyengar

11. Kristina Penickova

12. Capucine Jauffret

13. Olivia Center

14. Trinetra Vijayakumar

15. Annika Penickova

16. Leena Friedman

University of North Carolina sophomore Reese Brantmeier, who is out for the season with a torn meniscus, filed a lawsuit today against the NCAA, arguing the organization should not be allowed to prohibit student-athletes in individual sports from collecting prize money at professional events they compete in.

In addition to a synopsis of the complaint filed in U.S. District Court, which runs to 54 pages, the article at The Athletic provides details on the eligibility issues the NCAA raised on the expenses she declared while competing at the 2022 US Open, which kept her from playing in the fall of her freshman year. The pettiness of the NCAA on issues like this, while the Name Image and Likeness model and Transfer Portal has led to complete chaos in college athletics, is not likely to help the NCAA's image, nor to strengthen its position as an organization that actually is beneficial for student-athletes.