Colby Reaches College Park J1 Semifinals the Hard Way; NCAA and National 18s Champions Learn US Open First Round Opponents; Seven Americans Advance to Final Round of US Open Qualifying

©Colette Lewis 2021--
College Park MD--

Playing where he trains, Ryan Colby could be excused for feeling the pressure of having friends, training partners and family memberes following every point of his matches this week at the ITF College Park J1 at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. But the 17-year-old from Virginia doesn't look at it that way; instead he credits their support as instrumental in getting him through his 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Michael Zheng.

"I love a crowd, I love my friends watching, it makes me play better I think," said Colby, who also came from a set down in his third round match Wednesday against Braden Shick. "Even though I was tired and cramping towards the end, I felt the crowd helped a lot and I was getting myself pumped on every point that I won. That was a big difference, me having more energy than him."

Colby, who won the USTA National Clay Court Championships last month in Delray Beach, said getting back to even after losing serve in the first game of the second set was a turning point in his comeback.

"I wasn't feeling too good about myself the first game of the second set," Colby admitted. "But I won that game, a tough game, and broke back, went up 4-1, so I knew I had it if I just kept staying with it."

Colby went up 5-0 in the third set, but when he finally closed out the match, he looked as if he was going to go down from a leg cramp.

"I felt it was about to, but it didn't really cramp," said Colby, who thought conditions were about as bad as they get in the area, with the heat index over 105 degrees today. "It was kind of scary on a few balls, because it would have been tough to come back. This is the first tournament I've dealt with [cramping]. I haven't cramped in a match yet, but I did after my match yesterday and then today."

Colby, the only unseeded boys semifinalist, will face No. 15 seed Kalin Ivanovski of Macedonia, who also needed three sets to advance. Ivanovski, who defeated No. 9 seed Alejandro Vallejo of Paraguay 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, said the heat wore him down in the second set.

"I was in the lead the whole match, I had a set and 3-2 and a break and then I really got tired from the heat," said the 17-year-old. "It's really humid, I've never played in weather like this and I think he is more used to this. I was still serving really good, but he was blocking all my serves back really deep and we were playing long points. I tried to finish it faster, but I made quite a few errors and he was playing much better."

Ivanovski took a break after the second set--with the heat rule not yet in effect in the late morning--changing his shirt and doing some brief meditation.

"I cooled down, I was positive for the third set, and when I got back in the third set, I started off with a break, so it helped me a lot," said the 6-foot-5-inch Ivanovski, who trains with Ivan Cinkus in Croatia after previously spending several years at the Mouratoglou Academy.

Although he plays primarily on clay in Europe, Ivanovski plays what is widely considered an American-style game.

"My serve and my forehand are the two biggest shots in my game," Ivanovski said. "I like to serve big, I'm tall, and the first shot after the serve, I mostly use my forehand to win the points. I like to be creative on the court, and right now, I prefer hard courts."

Top seed Juncheng Shang of China lost a 75-minute first set to No. 11 seed Alvaro Guillen Meza of Ecuador 7-6(4) and retired after going down 2-0 in the second set. In his previous matches this week, he was seen touching his back regularly during play; hopefully it's nothing serious and he can recover in the next 10 days for the US Open Junior Championships.  

Guillen Meza will face No. 6 seed Mark Lajal of Estonia, who played an even longer first set in his 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-3 win over No. 16 seed Coleman Wong of Hong Kong. The first set took over 90 minutes to complete, with Wong's defense regularly prolonging the rallies, but Lajal was able to keep the ball in the court more consistently as fatigue became an issue in the third set.

The last two US girls in the draw lost Thursday, with unseeded Katja Wiersholm unable to hold either of her early leads in both sets, with 14-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia taking a 6-3, 6-4 decision. Andreeva, seeded No. 8, will play unseeded Pimrada Jattavapornvanit of Thailand, who advanced when No. 7 seed Alexis Blokhina retired after losing the first set 6-0.

Another 14-year-old, No. 13 seed Brenda Fruhvirtova, advanced to the semifinals, where she will play doubles partner Lucija Ciric Bagaric of Croatia, the No. 14 seed. Fruhvirtova, who saved a match point in her second round win over Ena Koike of Japan, defeated No. 6 seed Solana Sierra of Argentina 6-3, 6-2. Ciric Bagaric eliminated unseeded Gabriella Broadfoot of South Africa by a 6-4, 6-2 score.

The doubles semifinals are also set for Friday, with four players still in singles also remaining in doubles.

Fruhvirtova and Ciric Bagaric, the No. 6 seeds, will face the unseeded American team of Charlotte Owensby and Alexandra Yepifanova, while No. 7 seeds Tatyana Nikolenko of Kazakhstan and Ya Yi Yang of Taiwan will play the unseeded team of Jattavapornvanit and Yichen Zhao of China.

No. 8 seeds Ozan Colak and Canada's Jayden Templeman were down three match points at 6-5 in the second set against top seeds Gonzalo Bueno of Peru and Adolfo Vallejo of Paraguay when thunder and lightning forced the match to be moved indoors. After saving one match point, play was suspended, and when it resumed indoors Colak and Templeman saved two more, won the ensuing tiebreaker, then took the match tiebreaker for a 4-6, 7-6(1), 11-9 victory.  The will play No. 4 seeds Wong and Max Westphal of France Friday, while No. 3 seeds Guillen Meza and Ignacio Buse of Peru will play unseeded Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn.

Play begins at 9 a.m. with the girls singles semifinals, followed by the boys, not before 10 a.m. Two turns of doubles will follow, with the first two matches not before noon.

The US Open draws (men's and women's singles) were revealed today, with NCAA champions Sam Riffice and Emma Navarro and National 18s champions Zachary Svajda and Ashlyn Krueger learning who they will play in the first round.  Riffice got the toughest assignment, against No. 15 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria; Navarro drew fellow American Christina McHale and Svajda will face Marco Cecchinato of Italy.

In all, 41 Americans are currently in the draw: 20 men and 21 women. That's before the final round of qualifying, where seven additional Americans have a chance to reach the main draw by winning matches Friday.

They are: Caroline Dolehide, Jamie Loeb(North Carolina), San Diego 18s finalist Reese Brantmeier[WC], Maxime Cressy[29](UCLA), Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Zane Khan[WC] and Aleksandar Kovacevic[WC](Illinois).

Kovacevic, who is just starting his pro career, defeated qualifying top seed Benjamin Bonzi of France 6-3, 6-4 for his first ATP Top 100 win. Bonzi is currently 94 in the ATP rankings.

Friday's schedule is here, with the men's qualifying draw here and the women's qualifying draw here.