Top Two Seeds in Boys and Girls Draws Advance to Third Round at ITF Grade 1 International Hard Courts, Sleeth Ousts Fifth Seed Appleton; Americans Post 17 Wins on First Day of US Open Qualifying

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

Tuesday was another hot and sticky day in the Washington DC area, but the top two seeds in both the girls and boys draws managed to avoid lengthy battles, with all four winning their second round matches at the ITF Grade 1 Prince George's County International Hard Court Championships in straight sets.

With the temperatures in the lower 90s and the heat index over 100 for the second consecutive day, the less time spent on court the better, and girls top seed Elena Rybakina of Russia made quick work of Draginia Vukovic of Serbia, posting a 6-3, 6-1 victory at the University of Maryland courts.  No. 2 seed Taylor Johnson also played at the Maryland courts, and she got by Rhea Verman of India 6-2, 6-2.  Boys No. 2 seed Trent Bryde, posted his second consecutive 6-1, 6-2 win, beating Mark Mandlik by that score at the University of Maryland.  The only one of the top seeds to play at the Junior Tennis Champions Center on Tuesday was boys No. 1 Axel Geller of Argentina, and he moved past Kirac Bekisoglu of Turkey in an uneventful 6-2, 6-3 contest.

No. 6 seed Uisung Park of Korea was eliminated in one of the day's longest matches, falling to Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida of Brazil 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4.  No. 8 seed Alexandre Rotsaert was the seventh boys seed to fall in the first two days, with Lukas Greif posting a 6-0, 6-1 victory at the University of Maryland courts.

No. 13 seed Brian Cernoch, playing on his home courts at the JTCC, needed all the support he could muster from the local community, saving a match point in the second set tiebreaker in his 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 win over Govind Nanda. So depleted was Nanda that he pulled out of his scheduled doubles match later in the day, while Cernoch returned two hours later to get his second victory of the day with doubles partner Andrew Fenty.

After losses by No. 3 seed Sofia Sewing and No. 4 seed Maria Osorio Serrano of Colombia on Monday, No. 5 seed Emily Appleton of Great Britain was eliminated Tuesday, going out to 16-year-old Layne Sleeth of Canada 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2.

Sleeth, who saved four match points in the second set, admitted her counter-punching game wore Appleton down.

"I just ran for every ball," said Sleeth, who had not played Appleton before. "I figured out she has a very strong forehand, so I needed to play to her backhand.  She made errors on the match points and she seemed to get discouraged after the second set. It was a really good win for me."

Sleeth will play No. 11 seed Jule Niemeier of Germany on Wednesday, and Niemeier also had a long slog in the heat, beating Lisa Piccinetti of Italy 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.

The only other girls seed to lose in Tuesday's second round was No. 15 seed Kamila Rakhimova of Russia, who was beaten 13-year-old wild card Cori Gauff 6-2, 6-2.  Gauff has played both her matches at the University of Maryland, but will play Johnson at JTCC on Wednesday. Only seven seeds remain in the girls draw for Wednesday's round of 16.

One of the biggest surprises of the day came in the boys doubles, with 15-year-olds Alex Lee and Marcus McDaniel taking out top seeds Geller and Rotsaert 3-6, 6-4, 10-6.  Geller is the reigning Wimbledon boys doubles champion.

The order of play for Wednesday's round of 16 can be found at the tournament website.

A long day of qualifying matches ended after 9 p.m. on Tuesday at the US Open, with the 28 Americans on the schedule going 17-11. Advancing to the second round of women's qualifying are wild card Vicky Duval, Grace Min, Alexa Glatch, Bernarda Pera[31], Danielle Lao, Sachia Vickery, Jamie Loeb, Louisa Chirico[30], Allie Kiick and Kristie Ahn[9]. Notably, USTA girls 18s finalist Kelly Chen took top seed Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan to a third set tiebreaker before falling 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(3).

US men advancing to the second round are: wild cards JC Aragone and Sekou Bangoura, Christian Harrison, Dennis Novikov, Bradley Klahn, Mackenzie McDonald and Reilly Opelka. Aragone's win was the most impressive, a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 decision over No. 5 seed Marco Cecchinato of Italy.

On Wednesday, 11 more US men and 11 more US women will take the courts for first round qualifying matches.   The men in action: Michael Mmoh[31], Tim Smyczek, Raymond Sarmiento(WC), Austin Krajicek(WC), Marcos Giron, Daniel Nguyen(WC), Mitchell Krueger, Jared Hiltzik(WC), JJ Wolf(WC), Evan King(WC) and William Blumberg(WC).

The women are: Nicole Gibbs, Francesca Di Lorenzo(WC), Ann Li(WC), Amanda Anisimova, Jacqueline Cako, Caroline Dolehide, Claire Liu(WC), Danielle Collins, Caty McNally(WC), Jessica Pegula and Usue Arconada.  There are two all-US first round matches again today in the women's qualifying, with Gibbs playing Di Lorenzo and Dolehide facing Liu.