Rain Pushes Plaza Cup Semifinals to Monday

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Coral Gables, FL--

Monday's schedule for the Tennis Plaza Cup will be packed with matches after rain on Sunday washed out the bulk of the action at the four sites.

The girls 14s and boys 18s were the only two divisions to nearly complete quarterfinal round of singles when the skies opened around 11:30 a.m. And the two matches that had not finished were completed after a six hour delay, on the two new courts at Salvadore Park, the only two courts that were playable after the heavy rain.

The four girls 18s quarterfinal matches were in various stages of completion, with top seed Bianca Sanon up a set on Lindsay Graff. No. 8 seed Sherry Li had taken the first set against Reeree Li, and in another matching surname battle, No. 6 seed Jacqueline Crawford and Samantha Crawford were early in the first set. Deborah Suarez and Lynn Chi were on serve late in the first set.

Boys 18s top seed Danny Riggs advanced to the semifinals with a 6-0, 3-6, 10-6 victory over No. 6 seed Alex Sidney, and as he had done in his first round match Saturday, Riggs took control in the late stages of the match tiebreaker. At 4-4, Riggs won four consecutive points, the last one on a rare ace, and after a change of ends made it five straight points to give himself five chances to finish it off. Sidney save two, but again Riggs came up with a big first serve and Sidney's return found the net.

Riggs will play No. 3 seed Zachry Bruchmiller, who beat John Banks 6-4, 7-5. The bottom half of the boys 18s draw features two unseeded players--Michael Rinaldi and Zachary Krumholz. Rinaldi, who has yet to lose a set, had little difficulty with Alex Calott, taking a 6-2, 6-2 decision in their quarterfinal contest. Krumholz, who had survived two match points in the second round on Saturday, defeated unseeded Connor Evins 6-2, 6-4, in a match that was finished under the lights at Salvadore Park.


Girls 14s top seed Mia King also was required to return to the court after the rainstorm, leading 6-4, 5-5 ad out with her opponent, No. 7 seed Caroline Henderson serving. King won that point, giving her a chance to serve for the match, but she wasn't able to finish it quite that quickly, with Henderson forcing a second set tiebreaker.

There were many long points during the match tiebreaker, with both girls hitting deep shots that still gave them some margin for error. King's first match point came at 6-5, but Henderson played another patient point, and an exchange of short crosscourt forehands ended with Henderson pulling King so far wide that she couldn't keep her response in the court. On the next point, King used the surprise tactic of a slice backhand and that change of pace and rhythm produced an error from Henderson. On her second match point, King again used surprise as a tactic, quickly coming to the net and putting away a swinging volley for the 6-4, 7-6(6) victory.

King will play No. 5 seed Alexis Aranda, who has lost only five games in three matches, and today beat unseeded Olivia Thaler 6-0, 6-1. The bottom half semifinal will feature a pair of unseeded players, with Shilin Zu facing Bridget Forster. Xu downed unseeded Johnnise Renaud 6-1, 7-5, while Forster came back for a 1-6, 6-3, 10-5 win over No. 2 seed Rasheeda McAdoo.

Due to the rain, the doubles portion of the tournament has been abandoned, but consolation matches will continue, although the entire consolation tournament will not be completed.

For complete scores, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Tennis Plaza Cup, Mia King, Colette Lewis

Top Seeds Survive, but No. 2 Seeds in Plaza Cup 18s Defeated Saturday

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Coral Gables, FL--

Danny Riggs, the top seed in the boys 18s division at the Tennis Plaza Cup, certainly didn't get off to the start he anticipated Saturday morning at Salvadore Park, dropping his opening set of the tournament to fellow Floridian Andrew Dzulynsky 6-2. Riggs, the grandson of Bobby Riggs, best known for his role in the 1973 Battle of the Sexes with Billie Jean King, didn't panic however, and won the second set 6-4. Then came the ten-point tiebreaker to decide the match, and although Riggs fell behind in that too, he again stayed calm, winning the last four points of the match. In the gusty winds, Riggs managed to keep the ball inside the lines when it counted, letting Dzulynsky make the errors when every point was a critical one. Riggs won his second match of the afternoon against Carl Eguez without the drama of a match tiebreaker.

Girls 14s top seed Mia King also stayed alive in the main draw by winning a match tiebreaker against Adi Milstein in their second round contest. King, who trains at the USTA National Center in Boca Raton, and Milstein, who trains at the Evert Academy on the same site, embraced at the net after the emotionally exhausting victory, which King took 6-2, 5-7, 10-8.

Girls 14s second seed Rasheeda McAdoo also barely survived, taking a match tiebreaker from Ally Miller-Krasilnikov to advance to the quarterfinals by the score of 3-6, 6-4 10-4.

The second seeds in the 18s division were not as fortunate. Julie Sabacinski served for the first set in her second round match with Lynn Chi, but Chi won the final three games of that set and completed the upset 7-5, 6-2. The boys 18s No. 2 seed, Justin Crenshaw, had his chances in the second round against Zachary Krumholz, but Krumholz saved two match points on his way to a 1-6, 6-2, 12-10 victory.

It wasn't a good day all around for the seeds in the girls 18s, with five of them losing in the first two rounds. No. 3 seed Mia Schmidt was beaten by Reeree Li 4-6, 6-4 10-6 in the second round, No. 4 seed Julia Jones lost to Samantha Crawford 6-4, 2-6, 10-4 in the first round, No. 5 seed Caitlin McGraw dropped her first round match to Lindsay Graff, and No. 7 seed Emily Stein lost in the first round to Maci Epstein. The 14-year-old Crawford proved her mettle a second time on Saturday, coming back to take a 5-7, 6-0 12-10 decision from Anika Novacek, daughter of former ATP Top 10 player Karel Novacek.

Top seed Bianca Sanon breezed through her first two matches, losing only six games in her wins over Leah Fried and Courtney Malinchak. No. 8 seed Sherry Li and No. 6 seed Jacqueline Crawford joined Sanon in the quarterfinals with straight set victories in the second round.

I spent almost all day at Salavador Park, the site of the boys and girls 18s and the girls 14s, but I did walk the six blocks south to the Biltmore Tennis Center in time to see the match tiebreaker in a first round contest between Stephen Watson and Jake Albo. At 9-9 in the tiebreaker, Watson got a net cord winner that actually bounced twice on the net cord before falling on Albo's side, and on match point, a rattled Albo failed to finish a point a he had control of, giving Watson the victory. Although I didn't see any of it, Watson later defeated No. 7 seed Thai Kwiatkowski 1-6, 6-0, 10-5. The top seed in the boys 16s, Gordon Watson, advanced to the quarterfinals, but girls 16s top seed Christina Carpenter lost in the first round. Boys 14s No. 1 seed Daniel Kerznerman had no difficulty in his first two matches, and the top seed in the boys 12s, Nikola Samardzic, also had two straight-set victories.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Tennis Plaza Cup, Lynn Chi, Colette Lewis

Domijan and McHale Fall in Three Sets at Plantation; Plaza Cup Draws Released, with Play Beginning at 8 am Saturday

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Plantation, FL--

Teenagers Christina McHale and Alex Domijan started out well in their quarterfinal matches at the Pro Circuit tournaments in Plantation, but neither was able to recover from poor second sets, and the pair failed to advance to Saturday's semifinals. McHale fell to No. 1 seed Maret Ani of Estonia 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Domijan was defeated by fellow qualifier Jean-Noel Insausti of France 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.

Much balmier weather was a welcome relief from the record cold that has gripped South Florida for the past 12 days, but with it came some gusty winds that made for adventurous service tosses, and both McHale and Ani struggled to hold serve throughout the match.

McHale fell behind 2-0 to start the match, but reeled off six straight games, making virtually no errors during that stretch, and running Ani from side to side. The 27-year-old Ani on the other hand, couldn't find the court, or rather couldn't find anything but the net, as many of her errors didn't reach McHale's side of the court. Ani didn't help her cause by double faulting away two service games, the last double fault coming on set point.

At the set break, it was as if the two players swapped games, in some sort of bizarre tennis version of duplicate bridge. McHale's errors began to pile up, with her forehand sailing long, and her first serve nowhere to be found. She lost eight straight points early in the second set, and when she got one of the breaks back, she was immediately broken; there was a series of five straight service breaks to close out the second set.

In the third set, Ani saved a break point in the opening game, but McHale couldn't overcome two double faults in her first service game. Then McHale picked up her game, winning eight straight points to take a 0-40 lead with Ani serving at 2-2. But Ani saved all three of those break points and another one in the three-deuce game, playing much more assured tennis when she was on the brink. Trailing 2-3, it was then McHale's turn to save three break points, but unlike Ani, she couldn't save a fourth, with a double fault at deuce contributing to the break. Ani saved another break point in the next game, taking a 5-2 lead, but McHale suddenly began to recognize that she had to play more aggressively. She stepped in more often, held for 5-3--only her third hold since the first game of the second set--then broke Ani at 15 to get back on serve.

McHale quickly fell behind 0-30 and a forehand wide, with the wind assisting it, left her staring at three match points. She saved the first with a service winner and the second with a forehand winner down the line, but on the third, her forehand went just long, putting Ani in the semifinals, where she will meet No. 3 seed Johanna Larson of Sweden.

Domijan's match with Insausti was beginning as McHale's was drawing to a close, and unlike his second round match of Thursday, Domijan was off to a flying start. Domijan broke the 25-year-old from France in the third game and in the seventh, and was serving so well that it looked as if Insausti would need to win a tiebreaker in the second set to have a chance.

But after a bathroom break, Insausti returned a different player. He began to read Domijan's serve, and his returns were more offensive than defensive. Unable to get any free points from his serve or from weak returns, Domijan had to stay in long rallies, and Insausti, who had made a slew of unforced errors in the first set, simply outlasted him. So clean was Insausti's play in the second set that Domijan didn't even have a game point on his own serve.

Domijan, like Insausti playing in his seventh match in eight days, didn't look tired, but he couldn't match Insausti's quickness, and Domijan had particular trouble when Insausti served into his body. Domijan had a chance to turn the momentum in his favor in the second game of the third set, but he couldn't convert his game point and a double fault and a forehand into the net gave Insausti his eighth game in a row. He extended that to nine, taking a 3-0 lead, and it was all he would need, as Domijan would not get a break point chance the rest of the way.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Insausti showed off his variety at 30-30, hitting a tricky slice volley that Domijan had no chance to reach. The subsequent match point also found Insausti at the net, and he hit a more conventional deep volley to earn his spot in the semifinals. He will play fellow qualifier Marco Mirnegg of Austria. The other semifinal features Morgan Phillips of Great Britain and No. 3 seed Benoit Paire of France.


While the two American teens were not able to reach the semifinals, 16-year-old Alja Tomljanovic of Croatia managed to come back from the loss of the first set for the second straight day, defeating wild card Ahsha Rolle 2-6, 7-5, 6-2. Tomljanovic, a qualifier, will play No. 4 seed Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Karolina Kosinska of Poland in Friday's other quarterfinal.

For complete draws, see the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.

The Tennis Plaza Cup, which is a regional level 3 USTA tournament for four age divisions, begins tomorrow, and I'll be at the Salvadore Park site in Coral Gables most of the time. That site, where the girls 12s Junior Orange Bowl is held, has the boys and girls 18s and the girls 14s on its 13 courts. Floridians Danny Riggs and Bianca Sanon are the top seeds in the 18s. I will also try to get to the Biltmore, where the boys 16s are being played, as that field is chock full of the U.S. players from the boys 14s Junior Orange Bowl, with one who wasn't at the Junior Orange Bowl, Gordon Watson, the top seed.

For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Christina McHale, Alex Domijan, Ajla Tomljanovic, Plantation, Tennis Plaza Cup, Colette Lewis

Tomljanovic Defeats No. 2 Seed Haynes; McHale, Domijan Reach Quarterfinals in Plantation

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Plantation, FL

There seems to be an infinite number of venues for Pro Circuit events in Florida, and today we got our first look at one we hadn't seen in the past three years of covering Florida's January Pro Circuit--the Frank Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation, just west of Ft. Lauderdale. Located in a large public park that provides all the requisite recreational facilities, the tennis center was bustling with activity, even though the women's $25,000 and the men's $10,000 tournaments were using only eight of the courts. The contrast between league players and the pros is often jarring when they are playing side-by-side, but it's great when a facility is capable of accommodating both.

After chatting with some players and families I hadn't seen in a while, I made my way over to court T to watch the only main draw match scheduled for 10 a.m., qualifier Alja Tomljanovic versus No. 2 seed Angela Haynes. This was a rematch of last January, when Haynes, the No. 1 seed in the Boca Raton $25,000 tournament, fell to qualifier Tomljanovic in the first round, although in the interim, Haynes had beaten Tomljanovic in the first round at Indian Wells in straight sets. Today, Haynes won the first set 6-4, with the 16-year-old Croatian, who trains at the Evert Academy, winning the second by the same score. Tomljanovic took a 3-0, two-break lead in the third set before Haynes got one of those breaks back but Haynes struggled to hold serve at 3-5, saving at least one match point, and the effort to hold left her without much energy for the next game. Tomljanovic held at love to complete the 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 upset, which took over two-and-a-half hours to play, earning herself a quarterfinal berth against wild card Ahsha Rolle, who also won a long, tough match, beating No. 6 seed Olga Puchkova 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3.

Qualifier Beatrice Capra couldn't extend her streak of wins to five, with the 17-year-old from Maryland, who is now also training at Evert's, dropping a 6-2, 6-2 decision to Karolina Kosinska of Poland. Capra had a break point opportunity in all of Kosinska's service games in the first set, and she converted on two of them, but she couldn't hold her own serve even once. Kosinska displayed some soft hands and often surprised Capra with her shot selection, which included drop shots, angles and once, a moonball so deep and so high Capra was unable to track it down before banging into the back fence. After the first set, which took over an hour, Kosinska continued to keep Capra off balance, closing the second set even more efficiently. Capra could not be too disappointed with her tournament however, since the injury that caused her to retire from the Orange Bowl had kept her from training for most of December.



Alex Domijan, another qualifier who is coming off an injury, got off to a very slow start against No. 4 seed Artem Sitak of Russia, falling behind 4-1 in the first set.

"I was missing everything," said Domijan, who had a toe injury that kept him from training in December. "Then I just started making everything. I changed my racquet; maybe that was it, I don't know."

Sitak was serving for the first set at 5-3, but the unforced errors that were coming off Domijan's racquet in the first few games gravitated to his. He was broken at love, and when Domijan held, Sitak had lost his momentum. Although he held in the next game, Sitak played poorly in the tiebreaker, with many more errors than winners.

The 18-year-old from Wesley Chapel, Fla. had something that Sitak did not--the ability to hit a clean forehand winner, and once Domijan began to stay in the points longer he had a chance to hit it. In the second set, which I saw only a few minutes of, the match continued to be very close, but Domijan held at the crucial 4-4 game, saving a break point, and Sitak was under pressure from the start serving at 4-5. Sitak saved two match points at 15-40, when an ace and a Domijan forehand long got it back to deuce, but he failed to convert his only game point, and Domijan got his sixth win since last Friday on the third match point. Domijan's opponent in the quarterfinals is another qualifier, Jean-Noel Insausti of France.

Scoville Jenkins, the top seed, escaped with a 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-1 win, after his opponent, Marius Copil of Romania served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. Former Florida Gator Greg Ouellette outlasted qualifier Deniss Pavlovs of Latvia 4-6, 6-6, 6-4 in a match that took nearly three hours to complete.



Number seven seed Christina McHale took considerably less time to dispose of Mirjana Lucic of Croatia, rolling past the former WTA Top 50 player 6-3, 6-0.

"I think we were both really nervous in the beginning," McHale said, "but then I really got in a groove."

Lucic had difficulty coping with McHale's first serve, and the 27-year-old could not find any rhythm at all, with most of the rallies ending with her unforced errors. McHale, who did not travel to Australia because she was several spots out of women's qualifying when a decision was necessary, has lost only five games in her first two wins. She faces a tough test on Friday against top seed Maret Ani of Estonia, who is 164 in the WTA rankings and won her second round match against Great Britain's Georgie Stoop today 6-0, 6-2.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page on usta.com.

Tags: junior tennis, Christina McHale, Alex Domijan, Plantation Pro Circuit, Colette Lewis

Nine Intriguing Questions for 2010

My annual look at some interesting questions for college and junior tennis in 2010 is up this morning at the Tennis Recruiting Network. This is one of the few times of year that I step away from daily tournament results and news to ponder some of the bigger questions in college and junior tennis.

We're going to check in on the Plantation Pro Circuit events today, hoping to catch some of the Capra, McHale and Domijan matches. I will try to tweet some results, and will have an update later this evening.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, The Tennis Recruiting Network, Pro Circuit, Colette Lewis

Women's Qualifying Begins in Australia; Capra, Tomljanovic and Domijan into Second Round in Plantation

We arrived in Miami this evening, and while the temperatures here have yet to return to the normal mid 70s from last week's Arctic blast, it sure was more comfortable being outside than in Kalamazoo, where temperatures were no warmer than the teens and 20s the past three weeks.

Austin gave a good account of the men's qualifying at the Australian Open, with emphasis on the American men and the former U.S. college players, in a comment on yesterday's post. To that I'll just add that Grigor Dimitrov's first round loss to Robert Kendrick was an indication that he's not ready for the stardom that many have predicted for him, although Kendrick is a tough draw.

Another disappointment was in the women's qualifying, which began several hours ago. Sixteen-year-old Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal, the No. 4 seed, lost in the first round to Ekaterina Dzehalevich of Belarus 6-3, 6-0. I haven't seen Larcher de Brito play in several years now, but that's not a scoreline I would expect from her against any opponent.

There are nine U.S. women in the qualifying field of 96 (I've never understood why women qualifying is 96 and men 128): Lindsay Lee-Waters, Shenay Perry, Carly Gullickson, Madison Brengle, Alexandra Stevenson, Julia Cohen, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Lauren Albanese and Lila Osterloh. Perry and Gullickson have already posted first round victories, as has ITF World Junior Champion Kristina Mladenovic of France. Mladenovic made it into qualifying based on her own ranking and she breezed through her first round match against countrywoman Mathilde Johansson, the 15th seed, 6-1, 6-3.

The qualifying wild cards went to:
Marija Mirkovic, Shannon Golds, Jessica Moore, Viktorija Rajicic, Ashling Sumner, Laura Robson, Sally Peers and Monika Wejnert. All but Robson are Australian.

For the complete draw, see the Australian Open website.

Today at the Plantation Pro Circuit events, Jack Sock and Evan King acquitted themselves well in the men's $10,000 Futures, but both lost; Sock to No. 1 seed Scoville Jenkins 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 and King to No. 2 seed Eric Prodon of France 6-4, 1-6, 6-0. It was a good day for qualifiers, as the only two who lost went down to another qualifier. Alex Domijan beat fellow qualifier Olivier Sajous, who, being from Haiti, probably had other things on his mind.

In the women's $25,000, seven of the eight seeds won their first round matches, including No. 7 Christina McHale, who thumped qualifier Jamie Hampton 6-1, 6-1. The only seed to lose was No. 8 Greta Arn of Hungary, who was beaten by qualifier Beatrice Capra 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic also advanced to the second round, defeating wild card Kyle McPhillips 6-3, 6-2.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Australian Open, Pro Circuit, Colette Lewis