Secord and Schuman Knock Out Top Seeds to Reach Semifinals at ITF J300 Pan Am Regional Championships; Three Current Collegians Advance at W75 in Edmond OK; Four Americans Reach Fairfield Challenger Quarterfinals; Fakih and Pareja Advance at W35 Bakersfield

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Spring Texas--

Aspen Schuman and Jack Secord had reasons to be apprehensive about their performance this week at the ITF J300 Pan American Regionals Championships in suburban Houston. Schuman was recovering from a foot injury that had hampered her since the USTA Nationals in early August, and Secord had not had the best week of practice at the USTA Lake Nona campus the week prior to this tournament.

Yet both took out the No. 1 seeds in impressive fashion Thursday morning at the Giammalva Racquet Club to advance to Friday's semifinals.

Secord, the No. 11 seed, said he had gotten "destroyed" by Dominick Mosejczuk in a practice match in Lake Nona last week, but that didn't keep him from beating the No. 7 seed 7-5, 6-4 their third round meeting Wednesday. In today's quarterfinals Secord had the advantage of having beaten No. 1 seed Jagger Leach in three sets when they met last December in the Orange Bowl, but even he was dazed by his comprehensive 6-2, 6-2 victory.

"I played well," said the 16-year-old lefthander from Lake Forest Illinois. "I took it to him. I don't know if he played his best, but I went out there and got the best of him today. I feel pretty comfortable right now."

Secord said he has been playing "bigger tennis" recently and when he is making no unforced errors while maintaining that aggressive mindset, as was the case today, he can handle anything a junior can throw at him.

"I think my game matches up with his decently well," said Secord, who won a J100 on indoor hard in Canada in mid-September. "At Orange Bowl I played more defensive, and obviously, it's clay and I can kind of get away with that. But recently I've been hitting the ball, moving faster, all that."

Secord led 6-2, 5-0, but Leach held, and Secord was serving on the sunny side, which he said contributed to a couple of rare unforced errors and less effective serving. But when they changed ends, Secord resumed his dominance, breaking Leach to move into his first J300 semifinal. 

Secord will face No. 4 seed Ian Mayew, who defeated No. 9 seed Matisse Farzam 6-4, 6-3. It's the first meeting between the two.

The other boys semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Jack Kennedy and No. 8 seed Benjamin Willwerth. Kennedy defeated No. 10 seed Max Dussault 6-4, 6-3, while Willwerth ended the run of wild card Gus Grumet by a score of 6-2, 6-3.

The girls quarterfinals were also completed in straight sets, with the exception of No. 2 seed Annika Penickova, who breezed through the first set, then found herself in a serious battle with 13-year-old Raya Kotseva before posting a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory. Penickova will face No. 5 seed Maya Iyengar, who beat No. 3 seed Nadia Lagaev of Canada 6-4, 6-3, assuring that both the boys and girls champions will be from the United States.

No. 6 seed Schuman's 6-3, 6-2 win over top seed Thea Frodin gave her reason to believe that the foot injury she tried to play through this summer was in the past.

"I think I just have a lot more confidence because I'm moving better this week," said the 17-year-old from Menlo Park California. "My foot's feeling a lot better; the last two months I had a foot injury, at Hard Courts and the US Open, but now I feel a lot more confident in my movement and that's really helping my play in the matches."

Schuman's two victories over Frodin last year gave her an idea of what to expect.

"I'm a little bit familiar with her game, so I kind of new what I had to do going in and what to expect," Schuman said. "She's an amazing player, a really tough opponent and I think her serve is definitely one of her strengths.  So I just knew I had to be extra ready in my return games and really focus on my serve games, to make sure I was keeping up with her, or trying to at least. So it was helpful to know to be ready for that, but there's nothing you can do if she's serving really big and hitting lines."

Schuman, who reached the semifinals here last year, will face No. 8 seed Claire An, who defeated No. 4 seed and doubles partner Shannon Lam 7-6(3), 6-1. The first set, which was still going when Schuman wrapped up her victory over Frodin, was a war of attrition, but An took control in the second set to reach her second J300 semifinal.

Earlier this year Schuman beat An in the round of 32 at the Nationals in San Diego 7-6(4), 6-4, and in the final of the J200 in Mexico in June 6-1, 7-5.

The doubles finals, which were played on Saturday last year, will take place on Friday this year, with some familiar faces and some new ones.

No. 6 seeds Kayla Chung and Alanis Hamilton will face No. 2 seeds An and Lam, with one of them guaranteed to earn the title that eluded them last year when An and Hamilton lost to Ariana Pursoo and Maya Joint 6-7(3), 7-5, 10-7 in the final.

Chung and Hamilton advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 win over unseeded Kaia Giribalan and Thara Gowda; An and Lam survived against the unseeded team of Kotseva and Jordyn Hazelitt 6-1, 3-6, 10-8.

Defending boys champions Matisse Farzam and Leach, the No. 2 seeds, lost to unseeded Jon Gamble and James Weber 7-6(5), 3-6, 13-11. Trailing 9-7 in the match tiebreaker, Gamble saved both match points, hitting a backhand volley winner on the first and smashing a short ball at the feet of Leach on the second. On their third match point, at 10-9, Leach netted a forehand, but Gamble and Weber couldn't convert their match point at 11-10, with Farzam putting away a volley. But Farzam missed a volley on the next point and Gamble had a second match point, this time on serve, and he made it count, with a great first serve ending the run of Farzam and Leach.

Gamble and Weber will play No. 8 seeds Calvin Baierl and Joseph Oyeboy Junior, who defeated No. 6 seeds Secord and Jacob Olar 7-6(3), 7-6(4). 

Both boys semifinals and the An-Schuman match will be played  at 9 a.m. Central time, with the Iyengar and Penickova semifinal not before 11 a.m. The boys doubles final will also be at 11 a.m., with the girls doubles final not before 1 p.m.

On the USTA Pro Circuit, three current collegians have advanced to the quarterfinals of the W75 in Edmond Oklahoma: Texas A&M's Mary Stoiana and Georgia teammates Anastasiya Lopata and Dasha Vidmanova. 

Stoiana, a wild card, defeated No. 8 seed Sophie Chang 6-4, 6-2 to advance to a meeting with Vidmanova, who defeated qualifer Jiangxue Han of China 6-1, 7-5. Stoiana defeated Vidmanova 6-1, 7-6(4) in the NCAA team championship match in May in Stillwater.

In the other quarterfinal in the top half, 2024 NCAA singles finalist Lopata will face No. 7 seed Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine, after defeating No. 3 Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand 6-2, 6-2.

Former NC State All-American Alana Smith, a qualifier, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Viktoria Hruncakova and will face No. 4 seed Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia Friday. Elli Mandlik, the No. 5 seed, will play unseeded 18-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada, who beat No. 2 seed Kayla Day 6-4, 6-2.

Alex Gruskin is providing commentary beginning with tomorrow's quarterfinals at the Cracked Racquets YouTube Channel and spoke with all the winners today. Those conversations are available at the Cracked Interviews podcast.

The quarterfinals are now set at the ATP Challenger 75 in Fairfield California, with four Americans advancing. Top seed Learner Tien(USC) will face No. 5 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M); No. 6 seed Brandon Holt(USC) will play No. 4 seed Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan and No. 8 seed Ethan Quinn(Georgia) will face No. 2 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia. Quinn ended the run of qualifier Rudy Quan, a UCLA freshman, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The only quarterfinal without an American has Alexis Galarneau of Canada facing No. 7 seed Bernard Tomic of Australia. 

At the W35 in Bakersfield California, 15-year-old Julieta Pareja defeated ITA All-American champion Maria Sholokova of Wisconsin, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-2 in the first round and reached the quarterfinals with a three-hour 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over former USC All-American Eryn Cayetano. Seventeen-year-old wild card Kate Fakih, a freshman at UCLA, defeated No. 2 seed Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) of Canada 6-2, 5-2, retired, to advance to her second W35 quarterfinal. Fakih's win over WTA No. 275 Branstine is the best win by ranking in her limited appearances on the USTA Pro Circuit.

Other Americans to reach the quarterfinals in Bakersfield are top seed Hanna Chang, wild card Amelia Honer, a senior at UC-Santa Barbara, and qualifier Solymar Colling(San Diego). No. 5 seed Whitney Osuigwe is still playing her second round match tonight.

Qualifier Aidan Kim, a sophomore at Ohio State, has advanced to the quarterfinals of the $25,000 men's tournament in Louisville Kentucky, where he'll play recent Oklahoma State graduate Tyler Zink, the No. 4 seed. No. 7 seed Alex Rybakov(TCU) will face off against No. 2 seed Garrett Johns(Duke), and qualifier Keshav Chopra(Georgia Tech) will play former Tennessee All-American Johannus Monday of Great Britain.