Satterfield Claims First ITF J300 Title; Penickova Completes Title Sweep at San Diego North American Regional Championships; Top Seeds Advance in Easter Bowl 12s and 14s
©Colette Lewis 2025--
San Diego CA--
Jack Satterfield earned his first ITF J300 title and Kristina Penickova went one step further than she had last year Saturday in the finals of the ITF J300 North American Regional Championships. The fifth-seeded Satterfield defeated No. 6 seed Jack Secord 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-0, while top seed Penickova dominated unseeded Raya Kotseva 6-1, 6-1.
The week of sunshine and cool temperatures extended another day, although there was a new twist to the atmosphere at the Barnes Tennis Center Saturday morning as a host of junior players and their families, who were competing in a USTA Level 4 event for all four age divisions, provided an appreciative audience around Stadium Court.
The first set of the boys final was a riveting one, although the nerves were obvious as both competed for their first J300 title. After Secord held to open the match, the next four games were breaks of serve, with Secord surrendering his advantage when broken at love serving at 3-1. As the jitters subsided, service holds became the norm, with seven holds sending the set to a tiebreaker.
Secord brought his best level to the tiebreaker, hitting three winners and a good first serve to go up 6-3. After 65 minutes of tennis, Satterfield missed a forehand long on Secord's first set point, but he showed no signs of being discouraged or frustrated.
"At first we were missing some balls we usually don't miss, but at the end it got high level," said Satterfield, a 17-year-old from Northern California, who lives and trains in Florida. "In the breaker, he played too good, but I thought if I stayed steady and stayed solid, he was going to break down. I saw he was getting a little tired and I knew he had something wrong with his shin--he's been dealing with it for a couple of weeks--so I knew if I kept grinding away he'd break down, so that's why I stayed confident for the second."
Satterfield credited his first serve with his fast start in the second set, with the Vanderbilt signee taking a 4-0 lead.
"I got so many free points off my serve and my serve and plus-ones," said Satterfield, who is coached by Sukhwa Young at Eric Dobsha Tennis in Tampa. "It's such a game changer, when you're starting out 30-0 in every game you serve."
Although Satterfield was broken serving for the second set at 4-0 and 5-2, Secord was unable to put a sustained run together, with the 16-year-old left-hander from Illinois unable to hold serve in the last two sets. As the third set unfolded, Secord, who had received a walkover to the semifinals and a retirement to advance to the final, looked like the right leg injury he had been nursing all week was worsening.
"Definitely when he was sliding back and forth I could see he was a little off balance, a little shaky," said Satterfield, who played excellent defense to prolong many rallies. "My plan was to just keep moving him side to side and I knew I could go behind him or change direction, and that was working well."
Secord started the third set positively, getting Satterfield in a 0-40 hole in the opening game, but Satterfield won the next five points to hold, then immediately broke Secord, who began to struggle mightily with his forehand.
"I tried to bring it back in the third set, but he got that first game and he had the momentum and it was tough to bounce back," said Secord, who is coached by his grandfather Steve Wild.
"He played well the whole match really. He's tough; you've got to bring it every point with him and he really didn't give me a lapse mentally at all."
Secord was not offering his leg injury as a reason for his decline in level in the final two sets.
"I was struggling with some minor things, nothing crazy," Secord said. "It wasn't like I couldn't bring my level today. But props to Jack, he played pretty well."
Although he didn't play as well as he would have liked in the third set, Secord did enjoy having an audience of junior players for the finals.
"I'm glad that they got to watch," Secord said. "It's fun that people would watch me, because I've always watched the older players."
Satterfield confessed that he was motivated by the spectators, which aren't always present at junior finals.
"It was super cool, I really wanted to put on a show and play my best tennis for them," said Satterfield, who lost his only set of the week in the final. "With so many matches going on with the L4, I wanted to impress the parents and kids. Hopefully they knew this wasn't an L4 match, but something higher," Satterfield joked.
With the title Satterfield has secured entry into this summer's junior slams, a goal for nearly every American junior in this two-week Southern California hard court swing.
"That was a massive goal," said Satterfield, who reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells. "If I didn't do well in this tournament, I was going to go to a 200 in Canada to hopefully to secure Wimbledon and the French, but now I don't have to go, which I'm so happy about."
"Definitely today was a lot better," said the 15-year-old from California, who trains in Florida with the USTA. "I was hitting the ball a lot better and I was focused a little better. In the more important moments, I came out on top."
Kotseva, playing in her first J300 final, did not have a game point in the first set until she had already had saved two set points serving at 0-5. She held that game, and had two break points in Penickova's service game, but Penickova held to take the 29-minute first set.
Kotseva began to play better at the close of the first and to start the second but Penickova never felt threatened, even as Kotseva's level improved.
"I was just really confident in my game and that I was going to be able to stay in those rallies, outplay her a little bit," said Penickova, who stepped up her serving performance dramatically in the finals, both in first serve percentage and pace. "I was confident that I had a better game than her, was willing to stay in the point a little more, so her game wasn't going to bother me as much."
Penickova could see a little of herself a year ago in Kotseva, who at 14, was the same age as Penickova when she lost 6-3, 6-2 in the final to Iva Jovic.
"She's a great player and getting to the finals at her age is amazing," said Penickova, the 2025 Australian Open girls finalist. "Last year was definitely tough against Iva, she's insane, so I'm definitely happy to win it this time."
Kotseva admitted that Penickova's power was too much to overcome.
"Her shots, they have so much power in them it's actually very hard to change the rhythm, even get them back faster," said Kotseva, who is well-versed in that game style. "Her serve is very good and her forehand is incredible, I don't know how she does it."
Kotseva, who won the 14s Easter Bowl last year and the 12s Easter Bowl title the year before, is accustomed to big stages, and wasn't willing to blame the occasion for her slow start.
"There is nerves, but really, I was just excited to play," Kotseva said. "She started out very strong and didn't give me any time to change the rhythm, change my attitude. I could have done better, but it's ok, she played great."
Kotseva isn't sure what her schedule will be this spring and summer, but she'll return home to Las Vegas before her next event.
Penickova is expected to be named to the USA's Junior Billie Jean King Cup team for April's Regional Qualifying in Canada, and is also planning to return to the European clay, where she reached the Roland Garros semifinals last year.
"I'll be going to Europe in April, maybe two weeks, and then definitely French and all those," Penickova said.
After a disappointing second round loss at Indian Wells two weeks ago, Penickova ended the California hard court swing on a high note, winning the doubles title with her twin sister Annika on Friday and claiming her second ITF J300 title Saturday.
The Easter Bowl 12s and 14s played their first round matches today, and are scheduled to play the second round on Sunday. Only a few top eight seeds lost, with most of the seeds eliminated in the 9-16 category.
Boys 12s
1. James Borchard
2. Evan Fan
3. Udham Singh
4. Jason Ye
5. William McGugin
6. Keita Iwata
7. Chris Deng
8. Olie Rosa Hall (out rd 1)
9. Ayaan Bangera (out rd 1)
9. Gabriel Marino
9. Haris Shahbaz
9. Keita Iida
9. David Benedict
9. Thomas Gamble
9. Mateo Vincens
9. Pranav Madamanchi
Girls 12s
1. Lucy Dupere
2. Gabrielle Alexa Villegas
3. Violetta Mamina
4. Danielle Han
5. Kareena Cross
6. Mila Mikoczi Spivey
7. Brielle Amey (out rd 1)
8. Inie Toll
9. Daniella Yogumyan
9. Ocie Barran (out rd 1)
9. Emma Li
9. Nicole Blanco
9. Angelina Zhang
9. Victoria Park
9. Grace Malhotra
9. Sofia Cannon
Boys 14s
1. Rafael Pawar
2. Aayush Vartak
3. Gadin Arun
4. Mason Menyhart
5. Dylan Meineke
6. Zesen Wang
7. Joshua Dolinsky
8. Arjun Krishnan
9. Ved Vanga (out rd 1)
9. Smyan Vijay
9. Carter Jauffret
9. Manas Kondapalli
9. Asher Yuan (out rd 1)
9. Connor Feehan
9. Joseph Kim
9. Jason Eigbedion
Girls 14s
1. Madeline Cleary
2. Olivia Lin
3. Allison Wang
4. Anna Scott Laney
5. Shristi Selvan (out rd 1)
6. Daniela del Mastro
7. London Evans
8. Ania Zabost
9. Emery Combs
9. Molly Widlansky
9. Anya Arora
9. Kathryn Cragg
9. Sofia Kedrin (out rd 1)
9. Abigail Haile
9. Tanvi Pandey
9. Natalie Frisbie
The draws, with times for Saturday, are available at the USTA tournament website.
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