Gauff Ousts No. 2 Seed Johnson, Hilderbrand Moves into Quarterfinals at ITF Grade 1 International Hard Courts; McNally and Liu Among Day Two Winners at US Open Qualifying

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

Coco Gauff, who turned 13 in March, has played in only three ITF junior tournaments: Roehampton, Wimbledon qualifying and this week's Grade 1 Prince George's County International Hard Court Championships. Returning from the Czech Republic after leading the US girls to the ITF 14-and-under World Junior Tennis Championships earlier this month, Gauff is full of confidence as she demonstrated in her 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 2 seed Taylor Johnson.

Gauff admitted that she has the advantage over her older opponents in a match such as today's.

"I wasn't really nervous before the match, because she's 12 in the world, she's the 2 seed, so if I lost, there was no pressure," said Gauff, who beat No. 15 seed Kamila Rakhimova of Russia on Tuesday, also in straight sets. "So I just played my best and hit through my shots, and it turned out I won."

Johnson made more unforced errors than usual, and became increasingly frustrated as she missed routine volleys at the net.

"I thought she played well, but I've seen her play better," Gauff said. "I think today was just not her day. But again, I thought she played well too."

Gauff said competing for her country in another country was an honor.

"And it was cool meeting people, I met a lot of friends from different countries and it was really fun," said Gauff, who went 6-0 at No. 1 singles. "But of all the tournaments I played, that was the most mentally and physically exhausting, even though it was a team tournament. If you lose, you're not only letting yourself down, but you're letting your whole team down, your country. I knew I could win the matches, but my nervousness would take over sometimes, but after I got over that, I started winning."

Gauff will face No. 6 seed En Shuo Liang of Taiwan, who beat Alana Smith 6-2, 6-4.   The only other seed in the bottom half of the girls draw is No. 14 seed Alina Charaeva of Russia. She will face Layne Sleeth of Canada, who beat her second seed in two days in another marathon, defeating No. 11 seed Jule Niemeier of Germany 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Top seed Elena Rybakina of Russia was down a set to Hurricane Tyra Black, but managed to hold her nerve in the final stages of the third set to eke out a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 win.  She will face Switzerland's Lulu Sun, who defeated qualifier Peyton Stearns 6-2, 6-4, in Thursday's quarterfinals. Abigail Forbes won her third consecutive match in straight sets, taking out Anna Laguza of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4. She will face No. 7 seed Jaimee Fourlis of Australia who defeated No. 12 seed Daniela Vismane of Latvia 7-6(2), 7-6(4) in a two-and-a-half hour battle. Fourlis received her entry and seeding based not on her ITF junior ranking, but on her WTA ranking of 330.

The boys' top two seeds had a much more routine third round than the girls', with No. 1 Axel Geller of Argentina defeating wild card Siem Woldeab 6-1, 6-1 and No. 2 seed Trent Bryde downing Karl Poling 6-2, 6-0.

Geller will face No. 9 seed Alafia Ayeni, who outlasted Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida of Brazil 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4.  Bryde will take on No. 11 seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia, who beat Sangeet Sridhar 6-4, 6-2.  Bryde and Mejia met earlier this year at the Milan Grade A, with Bryde winning in three sets.

No. 7 seed Sebastian Korda won the only third round match between seeds, beating No. 12 seed Alan Rubio Fierros of Mexico 7-6(6), 6-2. Korda's quarterfinal opponent will be unseeded Trey Hilderbrand, who eliminated No. 13 seed Brian Cernoch 6-4, 7-5.

Cernoch served for the second set after getting a break at 4-4, but he couldn't hold, and after an easy hold for Hilderbrand, Cernoch went down 15-40 on his serve. A forehand winner and a deft backhand slice approach saved two match points, but Cernoch missed a backhand pass to give Hilderbrand another match point, which he converted with a overhead winner.

"I think the difference was my backhand and serve, I hit those really well today," Hilderbrand said. "If I hadn't, honestly, I think I would have lost the match. I kept going for my shots and they started going in in the later parts of the second set."

Hilderbrand said Cernoch's serve gave him trouble, but in general he doesn't mind playing a left-hander.

"The lefty's best pattern is to my strengths," said the 17-year-old from San Antonio Texas, who has committed to Central Florida for 2018. "My backhand is my favorite shot, so personally I like playing lefties a lot. But the serve is the hardest part. His kick serve was good today, and was tough to return."

Hilderbrand and Korda played last fall at the Pan American Closed in Tulsa, with Korda winning 7-5, 7-6(2).

"He beat me in a close one," said Hilderbrand, who is in a Grade 1 quarterfinal for the first time. "It will be another fun one. He's an amazing player, one of my 2000 buddies, he's a star.  It's going to be a fun one."

The other boys seed to fall on Wednesday was No. 12 seed Menelaos Efstathiou of Cyprus, who was beaten by Lukas Greif 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2. Greif was down a break with Efstathiou serving at 2-1 in the third, but a code violation for a racquet toss, his second, and therefore a point penalty, which gave Greif the break back. Efstathiou argued the penalty, which was assessed by a different roving umpire than the one who had given him the first, but the referee affirmed the penalty and play eventually continued, with Greif winning the last five games of the match.

Greif will face No. 3 seed Sebastian Baez of Argentina, who beat William Woodall 7-5, 6-1.

The order of play for Thursday's singles and doubles quarterfinals is available at the tournament website.

The completion of the first round of qualifying at the US Open on Wednesday produced ten more American winners, joining the 17 who advanced to the second round on Tuesday.

Fifteen-year-old Caty McNally, who lost in the first round here in College Park on Monday, was one of those advancing.  McNally, who received a last minute wild card, defeated Polina Monova of Russia 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.  Claire Liu won the battle of the US teens, beating Caroline Dolehide 6-1, 6-2.  Nicole Gibbs beat Francesca Di Lorenzo 7-6(0), 7-5 and Jacqueline Cako got the better of No. 2 seed Maryna Zanevska of Belgium 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Kalamazoo 18s finalist JJ Wolf was beaten by JP Smith of Australia 6-4, 6-1, but 2016 Kalamazoo champion Michael Mmoh[31] advanced to the second round, beating Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-2.  Other US men picking up wins today were Tim Smyczek, Ray Sarmiento, Austin Krajicek, Mitchell Krueger and Evan King.

All 27 US players are on Thursday's schedule.