Unseeded Surprises and Emory Stars Reach Division III Singles Finals; Jubb, Perez-Somarriba Win Division I Titles, UCLA Sweeps Doubles Crowns; Noel Advances to Milan Grade A Final
©Colette Lewis 2019--
Kalamazoo MI--
A Wesleyan Cardinal in the women's Division III singles final is not unusual, with Eudice Chong winning the previous four titles, last year over teammate Victoria Yu. Yu lost in the quarterfinals today, but her teammate, freshman Venia Yeung, defeated No. 7 seed Caroline Casper of Pomona-Pitzer 7-5, 7-5 in the quarterfinals and No. 2 seed Catherine Allen of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals to keep the string of finals appearances alive.
The 19-year-old Yeung, who lost her first set in the singles tournament yesterday, but hasn't lost one since while also eliminating the No. 3 seed, was recruited to Wesleyan by Chong, with both from Hong Kong.
"Eudice recommended me to Wesleyan, so obviously I have a tiny bit of pressure because I have such big shoes to fill," Yeung said. "But I think I've done a pretty good job of handling the pressure, and also winning the team event. We kind of made history with the team and I was happy about that."
Yeung had a scare in her match with Allen, who seemed more affected by the hour of off-and-on sprinkles that disrupted the match four or five times. With Allen serving at 2-3, break point down, Yeung went wide for ball and felt her left ankle give way, immediately falling to the court.
"I had a game point and I was running side to side," Yeung said. "I hit a forehand and just rolled it, sat down and it turned out she missed the shot. I took the game, which was really surprising. But I was kind of freaking out, because I've never sprained my ankle before. I was really scared but I kept telling myself I have to stand up and keep playing, no matter what, try to stay positive and forget about what happened."
After taking a medical timeout, Yeung returned and won the next two games to close out the match.
"It feels kind of weak right now, but I'm going to ice it now," said Yeung, who was spotted watching her teammates compete in the doubles quarterfinals with the standard bag of ice cubes wrapped around the ankle.
Yeung will face top seed Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico of Emory, who had her struggles today, but found her form when she needed it.
Against No. 5 seed Lauren O'Malley of John Carroll, Gonzalez-Rico served for the match at 6-4, 5-3, but O'Malley roared back to take the next four games. That effort left her depleted however, and Gonzalez-Rico, who has not lost a match in Division III this year, cruised through the third set for a 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 victory. In the semifinals, Amherst's Camille Smukler, who had eliminated 2018 finalist Yu in the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-4, served for the first set at 5-3, but Gonzalez-Rico didn't allow another game, taking a 7-5, 6-0 decision to advance to the final.
The other Emory star to advance to the final is No. 3 seed Jonathan Jemison, who clinched the team title for the Eagles on Wednesday. Jemison earned a routine 6-1, 6-3 win over Bowdoin's Yangeng Jiang in the quarterfinals, but had a long battle with unseeded Bernardo Neves of Washington-St. Louis before pulling away for a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 victory. Neves had taken out top seed Nikolai Parodi of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 7-6(1), 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
The other surprise finalist is Carleton's Leo Vithoontien, like Yeung, an unseeded player who dispatched two seeds in Saturday's action. Vithoontien dominated No. 4 seed Ethan Hillis of Washington-St. Louis 6-3, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, but fell behind No. 2 seed and defending champion Grant Urken of Bowdoin 6-2, 3-0 before rebounding for a 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 victory.
Vithoontien, a sophomore from Thailand, said his experience in last year's singles tournament provided him with the confidence that he could compete with the best.
"I made nationals last year, so I got a feel for what the level was," Vithoontien said. "I learned there's a lot of parity between all the guys here, anyone can win the nationals. Everyone's around the same level."
The challenge when playing Urken is his massive serve, and Vithoontien expected that breaks would be hard to come by.
"I told myself to just try to get a racquet on it, and once I started to get a racquet on it, I told myself to just block it back, get it over the net, take it as early as I could," Vithoontien said. "I did not expect to break him before I went into the match. I thought, as long as I hold my serve I'm good. I've never faced a serve like that and the first set took me be surprise. I knew he had a big serve, but once you get on the court and the other side of the net it's totally different. It took me quite a while to adjust, but by the second set I got used to it."
Vithoontien also credited improved fitness for his win, with temperatures near 80 and warmer still on court today offering a challenge in the second match of the day.
"Last year, when I heard it was two singles matches in one day, I was like, oh, all right, I'm good for one," Vithoontien said. "That second round last year, there was a lot of fatigue, my strength and conditioning took a toll. So this season, I just worked on strength and conditioning knowing I had to play two a day and also doubles."
Vithoontien feels he belongs with the best, and is looking forward to playing Jemison in Sunday's final.
"I've never played him, but I've heard he's really good from the back, so, I'm just going to play my game, be aggressive and whatever happens happens," Vithoontien said. "I'm just enjoying the moment right now. I've got one more match tomorrow and I'm just going to go out there and have fun."
The men's and women's singles finals are scheduled for noon. The women's doubles semifinals are also scheduled for noon. Although there are no conflicts with any of the four singles finalists, the mens doubles semifinals and both doubles finals will be later in the afternoon. The schedule is available at the Kalamazoo College tournament page. Live stream, with commentary by Alex Sotiropoulos, will be available at NCAA.com.
I was still watching men's Division III semifinals live during the men's final between No. 4 seed Jubb and top seed Nuno Borges of Mississippi State, so I can't comment on what led to the Jubb's 6-3, 7-6(2) win. But the junior from England made history on two fronts today, becoming the first player from Great Britain to win the title and the first from South Carolina to do so. For more on Jubb's first win over Borges in three attempts, see this article from the South Carolina website.
Top seed Perez-Somarriba's 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 2 seed Katarina Jokic of Georgia was a three-hour roller coaster ride, with Jokic fighting like mad to extend the match, saving six match points before finally failing to get a return in play on the seventh. Jokic, who had played 14 matches in eight days prior to today's final, looked understandably tired by the third set, but she never gave in. Perez-Somarriba, a junior from Spain, rarely missed, and forced Jokic into long punishing rallies, a combination that the sophomore from Serbia didn't need, given her match count the past nine days. But down 5-1 in the third, Jokic saved six match points, the first three with Perez-Somarriba serving for the match at 5-1, 40-15 and the second with Jokic serving at 5-2, 15-40. A combination of lethal backhand winners by Jokic and uncharacteristic backhand errors by Perez-Somarriba prolonged the match, but the hole was too deep for Jokic to dig herself out of.
Perez-Somarriba is the second Miami Hurricane to win the NCAA singles title, with Audra Cohen, currently head women's coach at the University of Oklahoma, the first from Miami to do so, back in 2007. For more on Perez-Somarriba's title, see this article from the Miami website.
The article on today's final from the Georgia perspective is here.
No. 2 seeds Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith of UCLA won the men's doubles title, beating unseeded Patrick Kaukovalta and Mazen Osama of Alabama 6-3, 6-4. Cressy and Smith, who went 21-0 this year, are the third UCLA men's team to win the doubles title in the past four years. The pair are likely to be awarded a US Open main draw wild card. For more, see the UCLA website.
No. 3 seeds Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield of UCLA won the women's final over unseeded Kate Fahey and Brienne Minor of Michigan 5-7, 7-6(6), 11-9. Andrews and Broomfield had a 5-2 lead in the first set and lost five straight games, then served for the second set at 6-5 and couldn't convert that opportunity either. Fahey and Minor saved a match point at 8-9 in the breaker, but couldn't save the second, when Fahey couldn't get Andrews' high bouncing smash from the net back in play.
For more, see the UCLA website.
The complete draws can be found at the USTA National Campus tournament page.
The finals are set for the ITF Grade A Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan Italy, with Alexa Noel advancing to her second career Grade A final. Noel, the No. 6 seed, defeated 14-year-old wild card Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 and will face unseeded Sada Nahimana of Burundi for the title Sunday. For more Noel's win over Fruhvirtova, see this article from TennisUnderworld. Martin Damm, the No. 15 seed, fell to Thiago Tirante of Argentina, the No. 13 seed, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2. Tirante will face No. 4 seed Jonas Forejtek of the Czech Republic for the boys title. Damm and partner Holger Rune of Denmark, the No. 4 seeds, lost in the doubles semifinals to unseeded Tristan Schoolkate and Dane Sweeny of Australia 6-7(5), 7-6(2), 10-3.
Live scoring is available via Tennis Ticker.
3 comments:
Women's tennis is regressing so fast, while the men's game is progressing. The girls now all stand 6 feet behind the baseline and push the balls back over and over. Juniors, college, its all the same. That D-1 finals looked like a girls 12s match. No aggression, no attacking, no angles, no winners, no remote chance of an ace or a return winner. These girls are all playing this style from 9-10 years old, competing way too much, getting trophy after trophy in juniors. But its going to kill the women's game long term. Its very boring and monotonous.
granted they're different than previous finalists Hartono and Lahey, doesn't mean they're inferior. Plus Jokic has been playing non-stop from the 17th. And she was also playing doubles, making Quarterfinals, although Div. I is now playing mtb in lieu of 3rd now.
Could be better than brainless ball bashing, and not everybody can play like Dani Collins. It's not like Sofia Kenin is a world beater, either.
I would like to recommend Jokic's match against Drummy. Drummy is a big enough hitter, could attack the lines and create angles. The score is 3 and 2 Jokic win, and it wasn't like Drummy was spewing errors, either. Not a full match of course, but still.
https://twitter.com/zootennis/status/1129492638883880960
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