Qualifier Mayo Ousts Yucatan Champion as First Round Concludes at Eddie Herr ITF; Top Seed Brachman Upset in B16s; USTA National Indoor Results

©Colette Lewis 2018--
Bradenton, FL--

The rain Monday evening ushered in a cold front that kept temperatures in the 60s Tuesday as the first round of singles was completed at the Grade 1 ITF Eddie Herr International Championships.

Fifteen-year-old Aidan Mayo qualified for the main draw on Sunday, but because he was to play Grade A Yucatan champion Santiago De La Fuente of Argentina, who played late Sunday evening in Mexico, that match was one of 17 singles matches scheduled for Tuesday.

Mayo definitely appeared to be the more energetic player to start the match, which had to be moved from Court 5 to Court 10, usually reserved as a practice court, because of sloppy conditions behind the baseline.

Mayo ran out to a 4-1 lead in the first set, and held on for 6-3, but De La Fuente, who won four matches last week from a set down, fought back to take the second set 6-2.

"In the second I kind of lost my focus," said Mayo, who went on to take the third set 6-3. "The balls got really fluffy and I couldn't really hit through the court. He was playing more consistent, playing a lot smarter and wasn't really giving away point. I got it back in the third--the new balls helped me--and I just fought as hard as I could."

Mayo knew that fatigue could be an issue for De La Fuente, coming off his eight matches, including two in qualifying, last week in Mexico.

"I thought he would be really tired because he played like nine matches in nine days," Mayo said. "But I knew he was high in confidence, so I knew I needed to be on focus at all times. I knew he was going to be tired and I would have a chance to win for sure."

Mayo recently decided to switch to a one-handed backhand, but doesn't view that transition as particularly difficult.

"I've always had a really natural one-hander, I would mess around with it and stuff," said Mayo, who is training at the USTA's Player Development Center in Carson California with Vahe Assadourian. "My two-hander was not natural at all, I just kind of bunted it around and I couldn't really hit it angled or cross court. So my coach and I started experimenting a little bit with my two-hander, and I just couldn't get the feeling, so he said, hit a couple one-handers, and it just kind of went from there."

Mayo was down 3-1 in the third set, but won the final five games, with De La Fuente committing unforced errors and showing little emotion throughout Mayo's resurgence.

Mayo is not one to mask his feelings, and said a lack of energy on the other side of the net can present problems.

"I like showing emotion and when a guy is kind of a brick wall, it's hard to get going," Mayo said.

Mayo will face No. 14 seed Sergey Fomin of Uzbekistan in the second round Wednesday.

Mayo wasn't the only qualifier to advance on Tuesday, with Max Westphal of France taking out No. 15 seed Simon Ivanov of Bulgaria6-1, 2-0 ret.

Other US boys posting wins on Tuesday were wild card Martin Damm and No. 16 seed Emilio Nava.

The top seeds all breezed through their first round matches. Top seed Adrian Andreev's title defense got off to a fast start with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Drew Baird, while No. 2 seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia beat Juan Bautista Torres of Argentina 6-0, 6-1.  Girls No. 1 seed Alexa Noel, who is now training at the IMG Academy, defeated 13-year-old wild card Isabella Kruger of South Africa 6-1, 6-2.

No. 5 seed Elli Mandlik won her first round match over Yucatan semifinalist Natsumi Kawaguchi of Japan 6-3, 6-4.

The first round of doubles was completed Tuesday afternoon, with top seeds Mejia and Filip Jianu of Romania and No. 2 seeds Andreev and Anton Matusevich of Great Britain, the US Open boys doubles champions, advancing in straight sets.

Girls top seeds Lea Ma and Qinwen Zheng of China dropped the first set to Manon Leonard and Alice Tubello of France, but came back for a 4-6, 6-3, 10-3 win. No. 2 seeds Noel and Diane Parry of France won their first round match 6-2, 6-0.

Boys 16s top seed Spencer Brachman lost his first round match today, going out to Thomas Navarro 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.  No. 4 seed Marko Stakusic of Canada lost to Takeyasu Sekiguchi 7-6(6), 6-3.

The No. 3 seed in the girls 14s, Gabriella Broadfoot of South Africa lost in the second round to Ava Krug 6-1, 7-6(3). The No. 2 seed in the girls 12s, Valerija Kargina of Latvia, lost to Sato Sara of Japan 6-4, 7-6(2).

For complete results from the 12s, 14s, and 16s divisions, see the Tennis Link site.

The USTA National Indoor Championships concluded on Monday, with the finals results from the eight sites throughout the Northeast and Midwest listed below. Click on the heading to go the specific TennisLink site for complete results.

B12s:
Singles: Alexander Razeghi[1] d. Cooper Woestendick[7] 6-1, 6-3
Doubles: Alexander Razeghi and Cooper Woestendick[1] d. Andrew Ena and Mark Krupkin 6-1

B14s:
Singles: Evan Wen[8] d. Herrick Thomas Legaspi 6-2, 6-2
Doubles: Nicholas Godsick and Evan Wen[4] d. John Lasanajak and Waleed Qadir[3] 6-4

B16s: 

Singles: Aryan Chaudhary[1] d. Quinn Vandecasteele[16] 6-3, 6-2

Doubles: Kieran Foster and Maxwell Kachkarov d. William Cooksey and Ansh Shah 7-6(5)

B18s: 

Singles: Ryan Fishback[14] d. Niraj Komatineni  6-1, 6-3

Doubles: Jordan Chrysostom and Trey Stinchcomb[7] d. Huntley Allen and Coy Simon[5] 7-5

G12s: 

Singles: Anna Nguyen[9] d. Thea Latak[3] 6-4, 6-4

Doubles Patricia Grigoras and Mariana Shulman[5] d. Thea Latak and Anya Murthy[5] 6-4

G14s: 

Singles: Lamija Avdic[11] d. Sanjana Tallamraju[12] 7-5, 6-3

Doubles: Aubrey Nisbet and Maeve Thornton[4] d. Marcela Lopez and Morgan Pyrz 6-4

G16s: 

Singles: Rachel Arbitman[2] d. Katja Wiersholm[6] 6-4, 6-0

Doubles: Nadejda Maslova and Nastasya Semenovski[6] d. Lindsey Hofflander and Jennifer Riester 6-0

G18s: 

Singles: Valencia Xu[6] d. Anessa Lee[8] 6-2, 6-2

Doubles: Zoe Howard and Reilly Tran[2] d. Carly Briggs and AnneMarie Hiser 6-1