Wild Card Glozman Among Five US Girls Advancing to US Open Junior Championships Round of 16; Bigun and Forbes Meet on Armstrong Wednesday; Fritz Makes First Slam Semifinal; Navarro's Coach Ayers Reveals Why She Chose College Before Pro Tennis

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Flushing Meadows New York--

Valerie Glozman starts her collegiate career at Stanford in just a few weeks, but 17-year-old from Washington is ending her summer in the same way she has done for the past three years, as a wild card at the US Open Junior Championships.

Glozman advanced to the third round with a 6-1, 6-1 win over No. 11 seed Iva Ivanova, using her two-handed forehand to find angles that left the Bulgarian baffled.  Ivanova also asked the umpire to call for a trainer down 2-0 in the second set, and trailing 3-0, took a medical timeout on the changeover. There was no injury apparent, but it was clear Ivanova wasn't feeling well, although Glozman also was unsure what the problem was.

"Obviously I have to focus on the things I can control and I didn't want my momentum to be thrown off or anything," said Glozman, who also reached the third round here last year. "If it was going to take any longer, I was probably going to start serving, but I just took some extra rest in that changeover."

The delay didn't have any impact, with Ivanova broken again to give Glozman a 4-0 lead, and although Glozman lost her serve in the next game, she broke again and closed out the 64-minute match with her fifth ace.

"I don't think I ever found my highest gear today, so I wasn't especially thrilled with how I played," Glozman said. "But obviously I'm super happy to get on to the next round and get another match."

Glozman, who earned her wild card as a finalist this year at the USTA National 18s in San Diego, has been focusing on improving her serve, which helped her dominate today's contest.

"I've been working on it, it's a work in progress, so I was trying to find a good balance of getting a lot of first serves, but then also popping it once in a while," said Glozman. "I think I found a really good balance in the first set, but kind of lost in the second set. I didn't see the stats, but I bet it was more like 20 percent."

Her first serve percentage did drop, but not that drastically, going from 83 to 61, averaging to 72 percent for the match.

In addition to having plenty of experience in the junior championships the past three years, Glozman has also played the women's qualifying, winning a match each time, including a 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2 victory this year over WTA No. 123 Zhouxuan Bai of China. 

"I was thinking maybe I got a little lucky with my first rounds the previous two years," Glozman said. "I think I got favorable draws those years, so I was a little scared to see the seed this year, but I think it worked out with the styles."

Glozman said she came into this year's women's qualifying with a different mindset. 

"I know last year I came out super nervous, because I didn't even win the wild card through San Diego, I was just handed one," Glozman said. "So I was like, oh, my gosh, I really have to prove myself and I think put a little too much pressure on myself, just knowing I'd won a round the previous year. You would think after winning a round two years I would put even more pressure on myself this year, but I worked really hard to just embrace the moment and enjoy this."

Glozman is entering college at a time with major changes at both Stanford and in college athletics, with legendary head coach Lele Forood announcing her retirement, a renovation of the Taube tennis facility and a new conference for the Cardinal.

"I saw her in my audience today," said Glozman, who is hoping to replicate incoming Stanford freshman Katherine Hui's run to the US Open title as a wild card. "I saw her at my doubles as well, and I was surprised to see her. I guess I don't really know what I'm missing, but there are definitely a lot of changes this year, with the coaching staff, the facilities, the NCAAs being in the fall for individuals, and then moving to the ACC. Just a lot of changes, it might start out a little hectic, we'll see it through as a team, work together, and I'm really excited to get on campus."

Glozman's opponent in Wednesday's third round is unseeded Tereza Krejcova of the Czech Republic, who upset No. 6 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4. No. 3 seed Iva Jovic advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Monika Stankiewicz of Poland, and if Jovic defeats No. 14 seed Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Kazakhstan, they will replay last month's San Diego 18s final in the quarterfinals Thursday.

All four US boys in second round action lost, including No. 9 seed Jagger Leach, who fell to Thomas Faurel of France 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Tuesday's second round results of Americans:

Thomas Faurel(FRA) d. Jagger Leach[9] 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

Flynn Thomas(SUI) d. Noah Johnston 6-2, 3-6, 6-3

Charlie Robertson(GBR) d. Alexander Razeghi 7-6(7), 6-3

Luca Preda[5](ROU) d. Kase Schinnerer[WC] 6-1, 6-3

Tyra Grant[2] d.  Lea Nilsson(SWE) 6-3, 6-4

Iva Jovic[3] d. Monika Stankiewicz(POL) 6-2, 6-4

Valerie Glozman[WC] d. Iva Ivanova[11](BUL) 6-1, 6-1

Sonja Zhiyenbayeva[14](KAZ) d. Alanis Hamilton[WC] 6-3, 7-6(3)

Mingge Xu[8](GBR) d. Christasha McNeil[Q] 4-6, 7-5 6-2

Wednesday's third round matches featuring Americans:

Iva Jovic[3] v Sonja Zhiyenbayeva[14](KAZ)

Valerie Glozman[WC] v Tereza Krejcova(CZE)

Tyra Grant[2] v Vendula Valdmannova[15](CZE)

Annika Penickova[WC] v Jeline Vandromme[5](BEL)

Kristina Penickova[9] v Wakana Sonobe[7](JPN)

Dominick Mosejczuk[WC] v Rafael Jodar[12](ESP)

Kaylan Bigun[2] v Matthew Forbes[WC]

Jovic's match and the Bigun-Forbes match will be played on Armstrong, the first time this week that juniors have been scheduled on a show court. Bigun and Forbes played last year at the ITF J300 in Indian Wells with Bigun winning the second round match 6-3, 6-2.

Tyra Grant will be looking to avenge her loss to Valdmannova in the third round of the Wimbledon Junior Championships in July, with Annika Penickova also losing at Wimbledon to Vandromme in the second round.

Grant and her partner Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) lost in the semifinals of the mixed doubles tonight to No. 3 seeds Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy 6-3, 7-5.

In junior doubles, three top seeds in the girls draw were eliminated as the first round concluded this afternoon. No. 2 seeds Emerson Jones of Australia and Vittoria Paganetti of Italy lost to Lucie Urbanova of the Czech Republic and Antonia Vergara Rivera of Chile 6-2, 6-0; No. 3 seeds Wakana Sonobe of Japan and Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic were beaten by Malak El Allami of Morocco and Emily Sartz-Lunde of Norway 6-2, 2-6, 10-7 and No. 4 seeds Rositsa Dencheva and Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria lost 6-4, 6-4 to Teodora Kostovic of Serbia and Victoria Barros of Brazil.

Nine years after Taylor Fritz won the US Open boys title, he  advanced to his first slam semifinal, beating Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) today. For more on Fritz's breakthrough, see this article from usopen.org. He will play the winner of tonight's quarterfinal between Frances Tiafoe and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

I was able to attend the press conference of both Emma Navarro and her coach Peter Ayers this afternoon, after the 2021 NCAA singles champion came from 5-1 down in the second set to beat Paula Badosa of Spain 6-2, 7-5, advancing to her first slam semifinal.

Although I was not called on to pose my question to Navarro, I was able to ask two questions of Ayers, who has coached Navarro since she was 14, about her decision to attend college. 

Q. You apparently or obviously had to relinquish some of her coaching at that time. Did you find that difficult at all? 

PETER AYERS: What a wonderful group they have at the University of Virginia. I can't speak highly enough of what they have going on at that school. Just the synergy within the whole program, you know, the men's program, the women's program, the men's coaches, women's coaches. Working with them was great. I miss them. You know, we had a lot of conversations and shared a lot of thoughts. It was a wonderful time. So, no, it wasn't difficult at all. They were so welcoming. They appreciated her goals and what she wanted to achieve, and they appreciated, I think, the history that we had together. Then on the same end, you know, getting to hear their perspective was wonderful for me too. It could not have been a better dynamic.

Q. How do you think that that's helped her, that two years in college, what do you think that's given to her going forward?

PETER AYERS: Oh, gosh. Well, No. 1 is she wasn't ready to commit to being a professional tennis player. Some of that's mentally, emotionally, and some of that's probably physically, as well. It is a huge jump from being at the top of the junior game to being a world-class professional. You know, she looked at where she was in her life, and also where she was with her tennis, and it was a no-brainer to go to college. 

So a lot of things happened. For sure, it gave her time to grow and develop as a player. That was huge. But it also gave her time to grow and develop as a person, to get away from home, you know, to break away from being a kid. So when we started this next endeavor, our dynamic could naturally change to where, hey, Emma, you're not a 15-year-old kid anymore. You and me, we're adults, right? We will communicate like that now. She needed to be able to break free of that.

So when she was ready to take the plunge, it was the right time. You know, she had proven to herself through her college days that the game was ready for what's next. I think, you know, she had experienced the couple years in school, and she was ready for that next challenge.