Unseeded Antonius and Liutova Reach ITF J300 College Park Finals; Five Americans Qualify for US Open

©Colette Lewis 2025--

College Park, MD

The first sunny day of the tournament at the Junior Tennis Champions Center was the backdrop for two 15-year-olds to earn their first appearance in a ITF J300 final: Michael Antonius of the United States and Russian-born Kristina Liutova, who has trained in the US since 2020.

Antonius, who had beaten seeds in the previous three rounds, defeated unseeded Matei Todoran of Romania 7-5, 6-3, with the key to his win appearing in the last game of the first set.

"If I remember correctly, it was 30-40 on his serve, and he hit a backhand crosscourt, his backhand was so solid in that game," said Antonius, who is from Buffalo New York, but trains with the USTA at the National Campus in Lake Nona Florida. "Then I hit two easy balls to his forehand at deuce, and I didn't know if he was tight or nervous but he wasn't able to put them in the court. That game made me realize that in the second set, I should be targeting the forehand a bit."

Antonius got the first break of the second set, when Todoran, a 17-year-old from Cluj-Napoca, saved two break points, but double faulted to give Antonius a third, which the American converted. He held easily to take a 5-2 lead, and after a love hold from Todoran, stepped up to serve for the match. After serving for the first set at 5-3 and failing to close it out on that first attempt with some poor execution, Antonius was determined not to make the same mistake in the second set.

He went up 40-0, with Todoran making errors to assist him, but missed an overhead to squander the first match point. On the second, Todoran hit a forehand wide to send Antonius into his first J300 final.

"I could see he was getting tired and (USTA coach) Sylvain(Guichard) was telling me to stay physical and make him work for everything," Antonius said. "I just told myself, you need to get over the finish line now."

Antonius will face No. 2 seed Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, who defeated No. 4 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2 to reach his fourth J300 final of the year but the first on hard courts.  

With the first set featuring just one early break for each, doubles partners Alexandrescou and Tabata went to the tiebreaker with nothing to separate them, but Tabata took control, jumping out to a 4-0 lead with four straight winners. Alexandrescou did get back on serve, closing the gap to 6-5, but a big Tabata forehand forced an error from Alexanderescou to give him lead.

"He dominated me in the tiebreaker, he started hitting four winners," said the 17-year-old from Bucharest, who doesn't usually concede many winners, especially four in a row. "I couldn't do anything. When you start bad in the tiebreak, there's no chances that you are going to win it."

Alexandrescou describes his game as "very normal, I stay back, try to counterpunch," so he doesn't credit himself for any strategic changes that reversed the results in the next two sets.

"I was lucky he got physically tired, I think he cramped, he couldn't serve like he did in the first set," Alexandrescou said. "I really think he dropped a lot the level because of the way he was serving when he was cramping."

Alexandrescou knows that playing someone as young as Antonius in the final changes the dynamics, even with the experience he has gained with his three ITF J300 titles.

"I know he's 2010(birth year), so no pressure tomorrow," Alexandrescou said. "I haven't saw him much, but if he's in the finals of a J300 level at 15, he's obviously a great player, with a great future, so I'm very pumped for tomorrow's match and I'll try to improvise."

The roles were reversed today in the girls semifinals, with No. 3 seed Laima Vladson, who had won all three of her matches in three sets, getting a quick 4-0, retired victory from No. 5 seed Anastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia, while qualifier Kristina Liutova was pushed to three sets for the first time before defeating No. 9 seed Xinran Sun of China 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Vladson wasn't putting any pressure on herself to end the match quickly, as her 6-1 third set over No. 6 seed Yushan Shao of China in the quarterfinals Thursday had provided the confidence she needed.

"I wasn't really expecting much from myself, just trying to stay grounded, to go for my shots," said the 17-year-old from Lithuania, who won back-to-back J300 titles in South American this winter. "I know what I did yesterday to win and I was just trying to follow the same plan for today. And it did work, so I'm really grateful that my coaches and the ITF (Grand Slam Touring) team are helping me accomplish my goals for this tournament and the US Open."

Vladson is not playing the ITF J300 in Canada next week, nor are any of the other players on the ITF team, which includes Alexandrescou, Tabata, Alan Wazny, Oskari Paldanius, Beatrise Zeltina and Cvetkovic. Instead the group will stay at JTCC to train and prepare for the US Open Junior Championships, which begin in nine days.

"I love when there's a tournament that feels like a community," said Vladson, who participated in the annual bowling party last night. "Not just you come to the tournament, you play a match, you go back to the hotel and that's it."

Vladson doesn't leave her competitive instincts at the courts, as she reported that she beat all her friends in bowling last night.

"Me and Alan Wazny tied, but it was fun, and we beat everyone else by a landslide," Vladson said.

Liutova had moved through her first six matches, including qualifying, so comfortably that it was a shock when she dropped the first set to Sun, who is also 15 years old. Liutova could have gotten rattled, but she did not panic, crediting the coaching of her mother Lena with helping her return to the game plan.

"My mom gave me some notes before the match, but I didn't read them in the first set, I was so tight," said Liutova, who admitted to feeling nervous at the thought of her first J300 final. "In the second set, I read them of course, and I started to be more consistent, maybe play with more margin and just let myself play tennis, not think about the result at all. My mom, when I lost the first set, just told me to fight to the end; didn't matter if I win or lose, just fight, and play your game."

In the third set, Sun switched from looking defeated to a defiantly aggressive game style, especially after she fell behind two breaks at 3-0.

Liutova recognized the danger of that situation and made adjustments in response.

"I told myself, she has nothing to lose,and she started returning deeply on the line, aggressive," Liutova said. "So if she got more aggressive, I should be twice as consistent."

Liutova faced two break points in the final game, but saved them both, hitting three winners in succession to close out the match.

"I'm so excited to be in the final, to play in that energy," Liutova said.

After training for many years at the Gorin Academy, Liutova is currently unaffiliated as per the ITF's decision on Russian athletes, but would like to represent the United States.

"I hope it will be as soon as possible," Liutova said. "I want to be with the United States, as soon as I can."

The doubles finals are set for Saturday, with the girls final set for 10:30 a.m. concurrent with the boys singles final. No. 4 seeds Kamonwan Yodpetch of Thailand and Ruien Zhang of China will face the third-seeded Chinese team of Shao and Sun. Yodpetch and Zhang defeated unseeded Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann and Karlin Schock 6-4, 4-6, 10-7. while Shao and Sun received a walkover from Cvetkovic and France's Ksenia Efremova, due to Cvetkovic's injury.

The boys doubles final will feature No. 2 seeds Alexandrescou and Tabata against No. 8 seeds Gavin Goode and Ryan Cozad.

Goode and Cozad beat Antonius and Andrew Johnson 6-2, 6-2, with Alexandrescou and Tabata wrapping up the day's play with a 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 6 seeds Savva Rybkin of Russia and Kerem Yilmaz of Turkey.

Links to live streaming of all finals will be available at the JTCC tournament site. The girls singles final will follow the boys singles final on Stadium Court, with the boys doubles final to follow.

After a day of rain Wednesday, the qualifying for the US Open concluded today in New York, with five more Americans advancing to the main draw, putting the total at 48.

Katie Volynets, Hina Inoue and Claire Liu are among the 25 women from the United States in the main draw, with Inoue making her slam debut.  Martin Damm and Zachary Svajda, both Kalamazoo champions, joined the 21 US men already in the main draw with Damm, the 2018 16s champion playing Darwin Blanch, the 2022 16s and 2025 18s champion, in the first round.

Friday's final round qualifying matches featuring Americans:

Leandro Riedi(SUI) d. Garrett Johns[WC] 7-6(5), 6-4

Zachary Svajda[22] d. Marc-Andrea Huesler(SUI) 6-3, 6-2

Martin Damm[WC] d. Yuta Shimizu(JPN) 7-6(10), 6-4

Jesper de Jong[2](NED) d. Mitchell Krueger 6-4, 6-1

Katie Volynets[7] d. Jana Fett(CRO) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3

Oksana Selekhmeteva(RUS) d. Ayana Akli[WC] 7-5, 2-6, 6-2

Hina Inoue d. Lucrezia Stefanini(ITA) 7-6(4), 6-1

Claire Liu d. Veronika Erjavec[32](SLO) 7-5, 6-4

I'll put the US matchups for Sunday's US Open play in tomorrow's post.