Juniors Kenin, Porter Reach Semifinals at USTA Clay Court Invitational; Steffensen, Mmoh into Final Eight at Soggy Osaka Mayor's Cup
The women's draw at the USTA Clay Court Invitational at Disney was whittled down to four Friday, with two juniors--17-year-old Peggy Porter and 14-year-old Sofia Kenin--reaching Saturday's semifinals.
The two college players who will oppose Porter and Kenin are freshman seeded 9-16: Florida's Kourtney Keegan and Oklahoma State's Megan McCray. Keegan took down top seed Pleun Burgmans of Auburn in the third round this morning 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2, then beat fellow 9-16 seed Lynn Kiro of Texas Tech 6-4, 6-3 in the day's second match. McCray also collected wins over two seeds, beating No. 7 seed Nikki Sanders 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-5 and then ousting No. 2 seed Daneika Borthwick of host Florida State 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-2.
Porter began her day with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Helen Altick of Vanderbilt, a 9-16 seed, then advanced past All-American semifinalist Cristina Stancu of Texas A&M 0-6, 6-1, 2-1 ret. Porter will play future teammate Keegan Saturday.
Kenin recorded two more wins over seeded players, after taking out No. 4 seed Georgina Sellyn of Vanderbilt on Thursday. This morning she defeated Stefania Hristov, a 9-16 seed from Texas A&M, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2, then beat Florida freshman Belinda Woolcock, also a 9-16 seed, 7-6(4), 6-3. Kenin will play McCray Saturday.
The men's draw is down to the final eight, with two USTA juniors, Martin Redlicki and Kalman Boyd, among them.
Boyd had the biggest win of the day, beating No. 2 seed and preseason No. 39 Stephane Piro of Florida 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in this morning's second round. This afternoon Boyd defeated Illinois' Brian Page, a 9-16 seed, 6-2, 6-1. Redlicki, who did not face a seed today after beating No. 6 seed Eric Johnson of Southern Cal in the first round Thursday, defeated Stefan Menichella of Pepperdine 6-2, 6-4 and Grayson Goldin of Florida State 7-6(9), 6-0. Boyd and Redlicki will play each other for a place in Sunday's semifinals, assuring a junior gets some streaming time on ESPN3.
The other men's quarterfinalists include top seed Roberto Quiroz of Southern Cal and his teammate Max de Vroome, a 9-16 seed; No. 8 seed Quentin Monaghan of Notre Dame, who plays Quiroz Saturday; David Sofaer of Pepperdine, a 9-16 seed; and Cristian Gonzalez-Mendez of Florida State and Carlos Bautista of Tulsa, both unseeded. With the unseeded pair and the two juniors all in the bottom half, an unseeded player is certain to reach the final.
Redlicki and Deiton Baughman are in the doubles quarterfinals, which will be played Saturday afternoon, followed by the doubles semifinals. There is only one round of singles scheduled for both men and women on Saturday.
For the complete draws, see the Florida State website.
It's been difficult to follow the ITF Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup this week. In addition to the always problematic time zone changes, there has been a lot of rain, which cancelled play one day and sent matches inside at off-site locations Thursday and Friday, where a supertiebreaker was used to decide a match with split sets. Two US players reached the quarterfinals: Katrine Steffensen, seeded No. 9, and Michael Mmoh, the No. 2 seed. Mmoh is also into the quarterfinals of the doubles.
At the ITF Grade 2 Uruguay Bowl this week, American Olivia Hauger reached the final, with the No. 5 seed losing there to No. 4 seed Leticia Vidal of Brazil 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. Hauger had beaten top seed Carolina Alvez of Brazil in the quarterfinals. Hauger and partner Cassandra Vazquez of Mexico, the top seeds, won the doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Vidal and Rafaella Baquerizo of Ecuador 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the final.
No. 6 seed Joao Menezes of Brazil won the boys singles title, beating top seed Marcelo Zormann, also of Brazil, 6-3, 6-1 in the final.
2 comments:
While you like to flaunt the junior's no-pressure achievements in Orlando, I give credit to the college players that show up to play this event on clay - a surface they never compete or train on during their college year. Many of the juniors don't even attend school, some of these college players are traveling half or all the way across the country arriving one day and playing the next, missing many days of classes in the middle of their much more important mid-term season. Not sure why they do this tournament at all - the benefit of clay experience to a player isn't returned in a couple days forced within a busy schedule. Instead of your headlines and slant, I give kudos to the college players whose time would be better spent back in class and on their hard courts, but instead bring good match play to juniors that will someday be in their shoes.
And fyi, you are bending to one side more when reporting on things lately Colette, please don't. Your un-bias is what makes you good.
'Too One Sided Lately', in response to your post, could you please give us the benefit of some support for your opinion? I'm not talking about your opinion that you don't like the format for the college players - fine. I'm talking about your opinion about the bias - what is that, pro-junior and anti-college? Huh? Please provide quotes for what sent you sideways because I don't get it. I look forward to your response.
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