Spain's Jodar and Serbia's Kostovic Claim ITF J300 Titles at Prince George's County International Championships College Park; Kessler Wins WTA Title in Cleveland

©Colette Lewis 2024--
College Park MD--

Playing in International Tennis Federation J300 finals is nothing new for Spain's Rafael Jodar and Serbia's Teodora Kostovic, and they used that edge in experience to defeat their physically compromised opponents on a warm and sunny Saturday at the Junior Tennis Champions Center stadium court.

No. 5 seed Jodar is now a perfect four-for-four in ITF J300 finals, beating No. 14 seed Charlie Robertson of Great Britain 6-3, 6-1 to add a hard court J300 title to the grass court title he earned over Robertston last month at Roehampton.

Jodar got the break with Robertson serving at 2-3, and was not threatened on serve, with Robertson failing to get a look at a single break point in the match.

Robertson's speed makes employing the drop shot a tricky proposition, but with Jodar's penetrating ground strokes keeping Robertson back at the baseline, clean winners were the result of the handful of attempts Jodar made.  

After each player got a service hold to open the second set, Robertson was broken at love in the third game, with his service motion deteriorating on every attempt. He took a medical timeout and the trainer worked on his lower back, but the five-minute delay didn't bother Jodar, who held at love for a 3-1 lead.

"It's been through the whole week, but it kept getting worse and worse," the 17-year-old from Scotland said. "Having a three-setter yesterday made it worse, and I didn't feel great out there. My strength is my physicality on court and I couldn't really move. I would have put more balls in the court and mixed it up a bit more, that would have been my strategy, but it was tricky out there."

With his back problems, Robertson resorted to an underhand serve on a couple of occasions, which he said he had done before, but only when he has an injury, not when fully fit.

Those attempts didn't prove successful against Jodar, who continued to take advantage of the lack of pace on Robertson's serve, breaking him for the fourth time in the match to claim the title.

"Charlie is a good player so I knew it was going to be a hard match, but I felt I was playing good from the first point," said Jodar, who did not drop a set in his five victories. "I played really well, to be honest."

Jodar said that he hoped Robertson would be fully recovered for the US Open Junior Championships, which begin a week from tomorrow, while liking his own chances to contend in New York after this title.

"My confidence is very high," said Jodar, who turns 18 next month and is scheduled to enroll at the University of Virginia in January. "This is very good preparation for the US Open, that I could play five matches on hard court, with same conditions as New York, so it's going to be exciting to be there at US Open in my last grand slam. I'm proud of myself for all the work I've been doing the last couple of months, and hope to keep this level at the US Open."

The second-seeded Kostovic was playing in her seventh J300 final, and now has her fifth title with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over No. 12 seed Thea Frodin, who was feeling the affects of four consecutive three-set matches.

Kostovic led from the opening game, when she broke serve, although Frodin raised her game in the late stages of the first set, breaking Kostovic when she was serving for the set at 5-4.

Frodin couldn't take her first lead however, dropping serve to give Kostovic another chance to servei t out, and, with the help of a net cord ace, she held.

"I was trying to just stay calm," said Kostovic, who like, Jodar, won the singles title at the J300 in Roehampton last month. "I know I can play a good level of tennis all the time, but I'm still young and working on that. It's hard to be focused 100 percent, but if I drop my level a little bit, I come back, and that's what I did."

Frodin was again broken to open the second set, and again in the third game, with two doubles faults in each of those games contributing to the eventual 4-0 deficit she faced.

"I can't just blame it on my tiredness," said the 15-year-old from California. "There were some things that didn't go as well as I would have hoped in the finals, but Teodora is a good player, and it's hard when you get farther behind against a good player like her. I will blame my serving on my tiredness, I had a hard time pushing up because my legs were feeling it."

Frodin held for 4-1, despite another double fault, and got a break to make it 4-2, but Kostovic didn't seem fazed by losing the five-deuce game.

"I was ok about that," said Kostovic, who had beaten Frodin in the semifinals at the Indian Wells J300 in March. "If I lost two games, I know I'm going to take another one, just looking forward for the next point. I am very happy with my performance today."

Kostovic broke Frodin in the next game, after Frodin had led 40-0, and she closed out the title on her first match point.

Kostovic, who is traveling with the ITF Grand Slam Player Development Programme Touring Team, now turns her attention to the US Open, hoping to improve on her best finish at a junior slam, which was the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last month.

"I'm looking for the US Open to take that title," said the 17-year-old, who will train at the JTCC in the week prior to the US Open junior championships. "I don't care to celebrate here. I was here to pick up the base on the hard court from the clay court--I need to say that now I have a title on every surface--so now I have a lot of confidence in my tennis on every surface."

Frodin is heading to Orlando to prepare for the US Open with the National coaches who were assisting her in College Park.

"I going to take away all the positives from this tournament because there were a lot," said Frodin, who saved five match points in her third round win over No. 5 seed Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Kazakhstan. "I'm going to the US Open with the same mindset, the same mentality as I did this tournament, because it got me far."

The girls doubles championship, played at the same time as the boys singles final, went to No. 4 seeds Maya Iyengar of the United States and Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Kazakhstan, who defeated the unseeded American team of Claire An and Alanis Hamilton 7-6(5), 6-4. 

Iyengar, who reached the doubles final of the USTA National 18s in San Diego two weeks ago with Victoria Osuigwe, and Zhiyenbayeva had played together only once before, at last year's J300 in Canada the week before the US Open Junior Championships. They reached the semifinals there, so when Zhiyenbayeva was looking for a partner for the US hard court swing, she contacted Iyengar, and they clicked immediately this week.

They lost only five games in their first two victories and knocked out top seeds Emerson Jones of Australia and Kostovic 6-0, 6-3 in Friday's semifinals. Although they were happy to get the win, they didn't feel their level was as high as it had been in the three previous victories.

"To be honest I don't think we played our best today," said Iyengar, a 17-year-old from Arizona. "The worst of the week I would say. I think because Alanis is poaching and serving and volleying a lot, it's a little bit different. But we did good in the tiebreaker."

"We don't really get negative," said Zhiyenbayeva, who beat Iyengar in the second round of singles. "We go down for a short period of time, but it's easy to get out of it," Iyengar added.

Even without much history, Iyengar and Zhiyenbayeva have found they mesh well.

"I think we're both pretty aggressive and we're both pretty chill," Iyengar said. "We're really calm, don't care really, just play," said Zhiyenbayeva.

"Together, we're calm," said Iyengar. "She's really calm, I think she's not even trying sometimes, but that helps me."

The pair hope to play together at the US Open but with Iyengar in qualifying there, they may not get in if she doesn't qualify.

The boys doubles champions are building quite a resume, with Alex Razeghi of the United States and Max Schoenhaus of Germany adding the College Park title to the Wimbledon championship they won last month.

Razeghi and Schoenhaus, the No. 3 seeds, defeated No. 5 seeds Oliver Bonding and Robertson of Great Britain 7-6(3), 6-3.

The tiebreaker went to Razeghi and Schoenhaus when Bonding missed a volley to make it 5-3 and Schoenhaus crushed a one-handed backhand return of a Bonding first serve for a winner that gave them three set points. They converted the first, took a 3-1 lead, lost the break, but immediately got it back and closed out their last two service games without losing a point.

The tournament ended for them much better than it started, when they drew Kalamazoo 18s semifinalists Ian Mayew and Kase Schinnerer in the second round, and trailed 6-1 in the second set tiebreaker before taking a 4-6, 7-6(7), 10-5 decision.

"We saved six match points in our first match, so it was a bit rough," said Razeghi, who partnered with Schoenhaus for the first time at Roland Garros and reached the semifinals. "But this is our time on a hard court together. We have good chemistry and there's just something inside of us, we just win."

"First tournament on hard court and it worked really well," said Schoenhaus. "Hopefully we can hold that level."

As for Bonding and Robertson, Schoenhaus said he was aware of the physical limitations of Robertson.

"They actually played pretty good, I heard of Charlie's back in the final, he had a big tournament in singles also," said Schoenhaus. "It's stress for him. I think they played a pretty decent level, but could have played better if Charlie wasn't in the final before."

Razeghi and Schoenhaus hope to continue their winning streak at the US Open junior championships, but before that, Razeghi will play in the main draw of the men's doubles next week, with Nikita Filin. Razeghi and Filin received the wild card for capturing the Kalamazoo 18s title, which puts Razeghi's personal doubles winning streak at 15 since the first of July.

For complete draws, see the JTCC ITF tournament page.

Replays of both singles finals and the boys doubles final can be found at the JTCC YouTube Channel.

Former Florida All-American McCartney Kessler received a wild card into the US Open after winning the W100 in Landesville Pennsylvania this month and reaching the WTA Top 100. That wild card allowed her to accept another one this week into the WTA 250 in Cleveland, rather than play in the US Open qualifying, and she made the most of it, winning the title today with a 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 win over top seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil. Four of Kessler's five wins came in three sets, three of them from a set down, but she is now up to 63 in the WTA live rankings.

Last fall I spoke with Kessler at the WTA 125 in Midland about her rapid rise since deciding to give pro tennis a try after her collegiate career ended, and compiled this interview with her for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

For more on today's final, see this article from the WTA website.