September Aces; Sebov Remembers Lansdorp after Upset of Joint, Jovic Reaches Rancho Santa Fe W75 Semifinals; Collegians Shine in Tiburon; Qualifying Begins Saturday for ITF J300 Pan Am

My regular review of the top performances of the previous month is up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network featuring the two US Open junior champions, the two ITF J500 Osaka champions and 14 others in between. With so many former collegians now excelling on the Pro Circuit, it's impossible to feature every one who wins a title, so I narrowed it down this month to those who have recently graduated. That meant no Alexander Ritschard, the former Virginia standout, who won another Challenger last week and made his ATP Top 100 debut, but I did feature the 30-year-old in my Throwback Thursday tweet yesterday. Two 17-year-old boys won their first ITF men's World Tennis Tour titles, while other juniors continued to find success on the Pro Circuit.

One of those juniors is 16-year-old Iva Jovic, who won the Berkeley W35 last week and now is into the semifinals of the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe. The unseeded Jovic defeated No. 7 seed Gabriela Knutson(Syracuse) of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour. She will face 20-year-old Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand, the fifth seed, who beat No. 2 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada 6-4, 6-2.  Top seed Maya Joint of Australia also was eliminated, losing to unseeded Katherine Sebov of Canada 6-4, 6-4. Sebov will play No. 3 seed Ena Shibahara(UCLA) of Japan for the second week in a row, with the Canadian defeating Shibahara 6-0, 7-6(4) in the first round of the W75 in Templeton. Shibahara advanced to the semifinals with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win over former WTA No. 26 Lauren Davis.

Sebov spoke with press aide Steve Pratt about the coaching relationship she had with Robert Lansdorp, who died last month.

With the recent passing of legendary tennis coach Robert Lansdorp, Canadian Katherine Sebov lost a trusted advisor and mentor, but more importantly she lost a great friend.

Unseeded this week at the sixth annual Rancho Santa Fe Open taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club, the 25-year-old Sebov upset No. 1-seed and 18-year-old University of Texas freshman Maya Joint, 6-4, 6-4, in Friday’s quarterfinals.

 

After the match Sebov reflected on the mid-September passing of the iconic Lansdorp, who coached Grand Slam champions and former world No. 1s such as Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova. 

 

“I spent a lot of hours with Robert,” said Sebov, who is of Ukranian descent and was born in Toronto. “He came to Toronto to a conference and invited us to train at his place for a month at a time.”

 

Sebov, who was also taught the game by her mother Oksana Petrovska, said she worked with Lansdorp until she was 18 years old. “I have a lot of credit to give him for where my game is today and the strokes that I have today are all him and for that I am very grateful,” said Sebov, who will take on former UCLA star and two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year Ena Shibahara in the semifinals on Saturday.

 

“It wasn’t just the strokes, but the mental part of the game too,” Sebov continued. “I’m going to really miss him and found out that he recently passed away so it hasn’t been easy hearing this news. 

 

“I just hope he’s somewhere up there watching me play and that he’s proud of me.”

 

Sebov said she saw Lansdorp last year and talked to him on the phone two months ago. “I always called him and checked in on him,” she said. “We were quite close.”

 

In beating Joint, Sebov said: “I think she’s a really good player. She’s what I like to call a ‘feel’ player and tough to play because she’s very adaptable and very smart. So she knows how to beat her opponent. She was tricky and I had to play really good tennis to beat her.”

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tiburon, Elliott Spizzirri(Texas), Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) of Great Britain have advanced to the semifinals. 

Spizzirri defeated No. 3 seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) 6-3, 1-6, 7-5; Jack Pinnington Jones beat wild card Colton Smith(Arizona) 7-6(5), 6-4 and Basavareddy defeated Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil 7-5, 6-0. Basavarredy will face Pinnington Jones in Saturday's semifinals, while Spizzirri plays the winner of the night match between No. 2 seed Learner Tien(USC) and No. 8 seed Denis Kudla.

The qualifying begins Saturday for next week's ITF J300 Pan American Closed, with Mason Taube the top seed in the boys qualifying and Thara Gowda the top seed in the girls qualifying. The top six seeds receive byes, so they need to win only two matches to reach the main draw; the other competitors in qualifying need to win three. As is always the case for this tournament, the majority of those in qualifying (and main draw) are American.