A Dozen Seeds Exit in First Round of ITF Grade 1 International Hard Courts; 50 Americans in US Open Qualifying

©Colette Lewis 2017--
College Park, MD--

The solar eclipse was the story of the day Monday outside the confines of the junior tennis world, and its impact was felt inside the competition too, as play was halted for over two and a half hours during the first round of the ITF Grade 1 Prince George's County International Hard Court Championships at the Junior Tennis Champions Center.

For Brian Shi, whose 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-6(7) win over No. 4 seed Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil spanned six hours, the challenge was maintaining his focus during the suspension of play.

"Even when you're not playing, you're thinking about the match," said the 17-year-old Shi, who has verbally committed to Harvard. "I called my coach and he told me to mentally stay in it, especially when I come back on court, to try to stay on top of things."

That advice from his coach, former Oklahoma star Andrei Daescu, didn't have the impact Shi would have hoped, as he dropped the second set after play resumed around 4 p.m.  But Shi kept his cool in the 92 degree heat, managing to overcome the disappointment of losing two match points with Seyboth Wild serving at 3-5 and failing to serve out the match at 5-4 in the third.

"The first match point he hit an ace, and the second the ball clipped the top of the net," said Shi. "He played pretty well that game. I thought I could have done better but I couldn't let it affect me."

Seyboth Wild held and with Shi serving to force a tiebreaker, he pulled out a second serve ace at 40-30.

"I've been working on that a lot," Shi said. "Second serves, going for more, mixing it up. I just went for it."

Shi suffered two double faults in the ensuing tiebreaker, which he attributed to the first signs of cramping.

"Earlier in the day it was brutal," Shi said of the 92 degree temperatures, with a heat index of 102. "It was really humid, so I was sweating a lot and in the last tiebreak I was starting to cramp up a little bit and on one double fault, my calf just tightened up."

Eight of the first ten points in the tiebreaker went to the returner, but Shi hit a good first serve to earn a third match point at 6-5.  Seyboth Wild hit a big forehand that forced an error to save the match point, then hammered a backhand winner to earn his first match point. Seyboth Wild and his coach thought he had won the match with another backhand, but Shi called the ball out, and the roving umpire on court confirmed Shi's call.

"It was definitely out and I called it as soon as it bounced," said Shi. "But it definitely played with his mind in the last two points. He was calling a lot of tight calls in the first and second set, so I didn't feel guilty about it, because it was definitely out."

Seyboth Wild made two more backhand errors in the next two points and Shi had his second ITF Top 20 win, after beating top seed Trent Bryde in the first round of the International Spring Championships in Carson back in April.

Seyboth Wild was one of five boys seeds to fall in the first round.  No. 5 seed Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi of Argentina lost to qualifier Garrett Johns 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 at the University of Maryland courts; No. 14 seed Aidan McHugh went out to qualifier Ronan Jachuck 6-3, 6-2, also at the University of Maryland.  Wild card Siem Woldeab, who finished third in the 16s at Kalamazoo, made his ITF Junior Circuit debut a memorable one, beating No. 15 seed Mohamed Ali Bellalouna of Turkey 6-1, 6-4, and Lorenzo Musetti of Italy defeated No. 16 seed Andrew Fenty, who trains at the JTCC, 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-3.

Top seed Axel Geller of Argentina got off to a slow start against Will Grant, but won ten of the last 11 games for a 6-4, 6-1 victory.  Geller, who has been training in at the IMG Academy in Bradenton since reaching the final of the Wimbledon Juniors last month, had beaten Grant in the second round of the Grade 1 in Colombia back in January, so he said he knew what to expect.  But dealing with being the top seed in a Grade 1 tournament required an adjustment.

"Before I didn't play many matches so my ranking was low," said Geller, who will start at Stanford after the US Open juniors next month. "I was one of the guys who could win the tournaments, but I was never the one seed. Now I am supposed to win, so that's something that played on my mind at the beginning of the match. I lost my serve in the first game--I played really, really tight and very bad--but I got used to the conditions. He started playing really good, didn't give me many chances on his serve. Then I didn't do much either. He just started missing, and in the second set I played good."

Geller said he received many congratulations after his run to the Wimbledon boys final, but a substantial portion were not for his results, but for his decision to go to Stanford rather than immediately begin a pro career.

"Obviously, I played very good and they were congratulating me because of that, but also because of the decision," Geller said. "I appeared a lot on TV and stuff. Many people texted me and they were congratulating me about college, which makes me happy, makes me see that it's a good choice that I made."

Geller said he will play next week's Grade 1 in Canada, with his visa status a factor in that.

"I have two visas, a tourist and a student, and you've got a limit of time," Geller said.  "As a student you get in 30 days before you start your classes, and I've been here before, so I need to get out, and get in with that new one. So after the US Open, I start school. It's a week, then my first orientation."

Girls top seed Elena Rybakina had a much tougher journey to the second round, defeating qualifier Sophia Graver 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 as darkness fell around the grounds of the Junior Tennis Champions Center.  Rybakina led 3-0 in the third set, only to see Graver win the next three games. The ITF World No. 4 saved a break point at 3-3, the only opportunity for either player until Graver, a rising senior from New York, was broken serving at 5-6 in the final set.

No. 3 seed Sofia Sewing was the highest seed to fall, going out to Anna Laguza of Ukraine 7-5, 7-6(2).  No. 4 seed Maria Osorio Serrano of Colombia lost to Malkia Ngounoue (formerly Menguene) 6-2, 7-6(2) and No. 8 seed Caty McNally was beaten by Naho Sato of Japan 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.  Qualifier Peyton Stearns defeated No. 9 seed Maria Carle of Argentina 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Alana Smith beat No. 10 seed Anastasia Kharitonova of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Abigail Forbes eliminated No. 13 seed Anhzelika Isaeva of Russia 6-0, 6-4 and Hurricane Tyra Black downed No. 16 seed Mihika Yadav of India 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles will begin on Tuesday, with the top boys seeds Geller and Alexandre Rotsaert and the top girls seeds Taylor Johnson and Sewing.

For complete draws and the order of play for Tuesday, see the tournament website.

Qualifying draws for the US Open were released today, with 22 US men and 28 US women competing for places in the main draw.

The US men in qualifying:

Dennis Novikov*
Denis Kudla*
Mackenzie McDonald*
Marcos Giron
JC Aragone (WC)*
Noah Rubin*
Bradley Klahn*
Stefan Kozlov[29]*
Sekou Bangoura (WC)*
Reilly Opelka*
Alexander Sarkissian*
Christian Harrison*
Jared Hiltzik (WC)
JJ Wolf (WC)
Mitchell Krueger
Evan King (WC)
William Blumberg (WC)
Michael Mmoh[31]
Austin Krajicek (WC)
Daniel Nguyen (WC)
Tim Smyczek
Raymond Sarmiento (WC)

Opelka and Sarkissian are the only two Americans playing each other in the first round.

The US women in qualifying:
Kelly Chen (WC)*
Samantha Crawford*
Louisa Chirico[30]*
Jacqueline Cako
Danielle Collins
Amanda Anisimova
Alexa Glatch*
Grace Min*
Sachia Vickery*
Jamie Loeb*
Danielle Lao*
Ann Li (WC)
Caroline Dolehide
Claire Liu (WC)
Kristie Ahn[9]*
Katerina Stewart (WC)*
Ashley Lahey (WC)*
Caty McNally (WC)
Whitney Osuigwe (WC)*
Bernarda Pera[31]*
Usue Arconada
Vicky Duval (WC)*
Allie Kiick*
Asia Muhammad[24]*
Nicole Gibbs[14]
Francesca Di Lorenzo (WC)
Jessica Pegula
Irina Falconi*

Crawford and Chirico, Dolehide and Liu, Stewart and Ahn, and Gibbs and Di Lorenzo are the all-American matches in the first round.

The order of play for Tuesday features 28 Americans. Those playing Tuesday have asterisks next to the names above.