Little Mo Mixed Doubles Champions Antonius and Clarke Claim ITF J300 Pan American Closed Titles Six Years Later

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Spring, Texas--

When Michael Antonius defeated Andrew Johnson 6-4, 6-3 in the ITF J300 Pan American Closed boys final on an adjacent court Saturday morning, Chukwumelije Clarke was down a set to Carrie-Anne Hoo in the girls final. But the No. 6 seed had an unlikely source of motivation to begin a comeback: keeping up with her Little Mo 9-and-under mixed doubles teammate.

"I was actually thinking about that during my match," said the 16-year-old from Humble Texas, who went on to claim a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over Hoo. "I thought, 'oh my god, he won his match, I have to step it up now, so we can both win.'"

According to Antonius, the pair rolled through that Little Mo draw, barely dropping games on their way to the title.

"We definitely destroyed everyone in the tournament," Antonius recalled. "I think we won all our matches with a bagel or they got one game."

Inspired by that memory, Clarke took a 4-1 lead in the second set, but the fifth-seeded Hoo battled back, winning three consecutive games to give herself a chance for a straight-sets win. Hoo handled the pressure of serving down 4-5, but after Clarke took a quick service game, Hoo couldn't force a tiebreaker. At 40-30, Clarke cracked a forehand winner, then won the next two points on unforced errors from Hoo.

When Clarke returned from a bathroom break before the third set, she was determined to play more aggressively, and again took a 4-1 lead, resolving to maintain it this time.

"I know when I play Carrie-Anne I always have to make sure I'm at the top of my game," said Clarke, who beat Hoo 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) in the final of January's USTA 18s Winter National Championships in Lake Nona. "She's very sneaky; she'll hit some crazy shots and you have to stay really mentally engaged."

Hoo held at love to close the gap to 4-2, but holding in the next game allowed Clarke to breathe a little easier.

"It helped my confidence a little bit, it helped my self-belief," Clarke said of taking a 5-2 lead. "I thought, there's actually an opening here and I think I can do it."

Hoo went down 15-40 serving to stay in the match, but fought off those two match points. Clarke missed a second serve return on the first and Hoo played a hyper-aggressive point on the second to force an error from Clarke. But Clarke earned a third match point with a laser of a backhand winner to claim her first ITF J300 title.

With coaching allowed now in ITF junior matches that have a chair umpire, Clarke was able to get advice from her mother Oby, who has coached her since she began playing tennis.

"She was telling me in the second set that I needed to step into the court and stop playing so far behind the baseline," said Clarke, who disclosed she was last measured as 5-foot-10 but feels she's nearing six feet in height now. "In the third set, closer to the end, she told me to mix it up, because Carrie-Anne's really close to the ground and will absorb your balls really well. So she told me to give her different kinds of balls so she's not seeing the same."

That strategy succeeded in producing a few errors from Hoo, but Hoo also felt that she wasn't able to raise her level on the big points like Clarke did.

"I feel like the third set was a little closer than the score," said the 16-year-old from Brooklyn, who trains in New Jersey. "But she just won more of the important points. She really stepped up her game, I have to give it to her."

Hoo felt coming into the match that she had to emulate the aggressive baseline game of Clarke.

"I had to be a little bit more aggressive, because she's really good at stepping in," Hoo said. "She's really tall too, so she has a good serve and that advantage, and she's be in the court the whole time. At Winter Nationals, I was mostly just behind the baseline trying to out-rally her, but I was hitting too short, so I was trying to get my ball a little deeper and work my way in. I feel like my execution wasn't the best today, but she was also good at defending and neutralizing my ball."

Hoo is planning to play either the USTA National Indoor Championships or the IMG ITF J300 late next month, and then the J500 Orange Bowl.  Clarke, whose goal is now entry into the 2026 junior slam main draws, beginning with Australia, where she expects she'll have more to time to reminisce with Antonius.

"He's an amazing player and it's always super fun to watch him," Clarke said. "I'm excited to start connecting with him again; hopefully we see each other at more tournaments."

Antonius knew that getting off to a good start was crucial to his chances against Johnson, who had beaten him 6-2, 7-6(3) in the semifinals of the J200 last week in Corpus Christi.

"Last week I didn't start out well, and I didn't gain the confidence back after starting down love-five," said the 15-year-old from Buffalo New York. "This week I did a better job of keeping the ball deep, staying consistent from the beginning, and my shot tolerance and my margins were better. Eventually that paid off. I could see he was getting tired, he was going for more, trying to shorten points and that's not either of our games. He did that to me last week, but today I think I did a good job of keeping the pressure on."

The match started with six consecutive breaks of serve before Johnson held to take a 4-3 lead. Antonius got his first hold of the set for 4-all, then broke Johnson to give himself an opportunity to serve for the set.

Down 15-40, Antonius was on the precipice of another break, but he won the next four points to take the opening set 6-4.

"I was nervous that game, but I hit a good serve out wide and he returned cross court and I went back behind him," Antonius said of one of the break points he saved. "I was definitely thinking it could be another break and the set will go on, but I felt like I was doing a good job overall of trusting my shots. So I told myself I had to go for it, had to step up, because if I'm not going to be the one, he certainly is."

The first break of the second set came in the third game, Johnson dropping serve, while Antonius began to rack up routine holds. When Johnson netted a backhand to go down 5-2, Antonius could see the end in sight, although he was unable to serve out the match in the next game. Johnson had two game points to put the pressure back on Antonius, but he couldn't convert either, and an unforced error gave Antonius his first match point. Johnson saved it when his backhand forced an error from Antonius, but two backhand unforced errors from Johnson followed, giving Antonius his first ITF J300 title.

Johnson felt he hit a wall physically during the final.

"He brought his A game today," said the 16-year-old from Rancho Palos Verdes California, who had his win streak snapped at ten. "I didn't play as good as last week. I've played so many matches, and I think it did hit me. It's unfortunate it was the finals, but I played something like 20 matches total in these two weeks. I don't want to take anything away from him, he played awesome. Michael's really consistent from the baseline, and I should have done more with the ball. He's never going to miss, so I need to do better making my way to the net."

Johnson and Antonius will be teammates, not rivals, in their next major tournament, the ITF Junior Davis Cup finals in Santiago Chile. 

"I'm really excited for Junior Davis Cup," Antonius said. "Me, him and Jordan(Lee), we're all good friends and on top of that we're a good team. I'm excited for the week before, when he comes to train in Orlando, and then on to Chile."