Shick, Kittay Oust Seeds in College Park J1 First Round, No. 2 Seed Sieg, No. 4 Seed Guzman Upset; 40 Americans in US Open Qualifying, 13 Start Play Tuesday

©Colette Lewis 2021--

College Park MD--

The top seeds were under siege Monday in the opening round of the ITF J1 in College Park, with both No. 4 seeds, and the girls No. 2 seed, eliminated.

Madison Sieg, the No. 2 seed, lost to Mia Kupres 6-1, 6-2 at the University of Maryland courts, with No. 4 seed Dana Guzman of Peru also losing at the secondary site, with Gracie Epps posting a 6-2, 6-1 decision.  

Benjamin Kittay defeated No. 4 seed Gonzalo Bueno of Peru 6-4, 6-3, using his all-court game to keep the points short, after going down a break early in the first set.

"That's my game style," said Kittay, who turns 18 in four days. "That was the plan and I felt like I executed it well. When I got to a neutral basis off his first serve, I felt like I was inside the court a lot and could dictate the points very well.  So getting in the point off the return was the biggest thing."

Although Kittay, from Potomac Maryland, was happy to get out of the 90 degree temperatures in the late afternoon without needing a third set, he showed no signs of heat fatigue.

"I'm from here, so I'm used to the heat," said Kittay. "But it was a good match."

Braden Shick went down quickly to No. 10 seed Petr Nesterov of Bulgaria, but the North Carolina State freshman found the energy to fight back, taking a 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 decision in an two-hour and 45 minute battle.

"I think he got a little tired in the third, and I don't think he is quite used to this heat," said Shick, who joined the Wolfpack in January, and is juggling schoolwork again now, with school resuming. "I've done pretty well in the heat; I haven't had too many matches in the heat when my fitness has let me down. I work pretty hard on that part, so it's good to have that as confidence, so when you go deep, you can be there in the late big moments."

Shick didn't save any match points, but he admitted that a couple of points in the second set tiebreaker could have made the difference.

"At 6-5 in the breaker, I forget what happened in the point, it could have gone either way and I could have been out right there," Shick said. "I stuck around, and I got a little lucky."

Other seeds who lost in today's first round were No. 8 seed Ozan Colak, who was beaten by lucky loser Learner Tien 6-2, 6-3; No. 15 seed Ya Yi Yang of Taiwan, who lost to Katja Wiersholm 6-2, 3-6, 6-4; and No. 16 seed Kayla Cross of Canada, who lost a three-hour battle with Daniella Ben-Abraham 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-5. 

The last match of the day had to be moved indoors to finish, with the light fading as Jonah Braswell and No. 9 seed Adolfo Vallejo of Paraguay split sets, and all lighted courts inside at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. Vallejo took that match 0-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Top seed Juncheng Shang of China was tested by Luca Hotze, but came through with a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory. Girls No. 3 seed Alexandra Yepifanova, the highest girls seed remaining now, also had a tough second set, but prevailed 6-0, 7-6(3) over Reece Carter of Canada.

Doubles begins on Tuesday, with Bueno and Vallejo the top seeds in the boys draw and Guzman and Solana Sierra of Argentina the No. 1 seeds in the girls draw. 

The results, draws and order of play for Tuesday can be found at the ITF Junior website.

Qualifying for the US Open begins Tuesday, with 13 of the 40 Americans vying for a main draw spot in action. 

US Men (17)

Aleksandar Kovacevic[WC]

Thai Kwiatkowski*

Christopher Eubanks

Govind Nanda[WC]

Christian Harrison[WC]

JJ Wolf*

Stefan Kozlov[WC]*

Ben Shelton[WC]

Michael Mmoh

Zane Khan[WC]*

Samir Banerjee[WC]

Mitchell Krueger

Maxime Cressy[29]*

Ulises Blanch*

Nicolas Moreno de Alboran[WC]

Eliot Spizzirri[WC]

Bjorn Fratangelo

US Women (23)

Robin Montgomery[WC]

Whitney Osuigwe

Reese Brantmeier[WC]*

Francesca Di Lorenzo*

Kristie Ahn[25]*

Clervie Ngounoue[WC]

Katrina Scott[WC]

Elvina Kalieva[WC]

Hanna Chang

Gabriella Price[WC]

Asia Muhammad

Robin Anderson

Usue Arconada

Grace Min

Peyton Stearns[WC]

Caroline Dolehide

Victoria Duval[WC]

Danielle Lao

Sachia Vickery

Louisa Chirico*

Elli Mandlik[WC]*

Allie Kiick*

Jamie Loeb*

*Plays Tuesday

The women's qualifying draw is here; the men's qualifying draw is here, and Tuesday's schedule is here.