Top 16s Seed Razeghi Earns First Kalamazoo Victory; Quarterfinals Set at San Diego 16s; Collins Captures Second Straight WTA Title; Qualifier Spizzirri Wins Decatur $25K

©Colette Lewis 2021--
Kalamazoo MI--

The 16s division took center stage Sunday at the USTA Boys 18 and 16 Nationals Championship today, with top seed Alexander Razeghi getting a straight-set win, while No. 2 seed Emon van Loben Sels needed three sets to claim his first victory at Kalamazoo.

The weather cooperated on Sunday, with the rain that was forecast staying north of the Kalamazoo College, Western Michigan University and Loy Norrix High School sites. Competitive matches were the order of the day as the top 32 seeds in singles took the courts for the first time. 

Razeghi and Gabe Avram were tied at 3-3 in the opening set before the Easter Bowl champion won the final nine games to record his first Kalamazoo victory by a 6-3, 6-0 score.

"It was tight," the left-hander from Texas said. "He was pushing me a lot, hitting good shots. I kind of got a rhythm in the second set--I was kind of tight in the first set towards the beginning--loosened up throughout the match."

Razeghi played the USTA National Clay Courts in the 18s age division last month, reaching the quarterfinals, so he has recent data to compare the two divisions.

"I think there is a difference," said Razeghi, who trains at the USTA's National Campus in Lake Nona. "Playing bigger people in the IOSC(this spring in San Diego) and the Clays, then coming back down here. People aren't as big, the serves aren't as big, but it's still a challenge, every person in this tournament is here for a reason, so it's going to be really competitive."

Van Loben Sels found that out in his first match against Alan Ton, with Ton taking a grueling second set to put the No. 2 seed on notice. Both players took a medical timeout back-to-back early in the third set, but Ton, who showed signs of cramping, couldn't scramble as he had in the first two sets and van Loben Sels posted a 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 victory.

No. 3 seed Lerner Tien defeated Steve Nguyen 6-2, 6-0 and No. 4 seed Lucas Brown beat Ethan Ohm by the same score.

The 18s lost only one Top 16 seed in their second round Saturday, and the 16s lost just two today: No. 8 seed Mitchell Lee and No. 10 seed Zane Ford. Lee lost to Parashar Bharadwaj 6-3, 6-2 at Western Michigan, and Ford lost a three-hour battle to Michael Choi 7-6(3), 0-6, 6-3 on Court 11 at Stowe Stadium.

The first round of 16s doubles and the third round of 18s doubles rounded out the day's action. The top four 18s doubles teams all advanced to the round of 16, with the top two seeds challenged in their matches at Stowe Stadium. No. 1 seeds Ben Shelton and Bruno Kuzuhara defeated Sebastian Sec and Evan Wen 6-2, 7-6(5) and No. 2 seeds Ethan Quinn and Sebastian Gorzny were taken to the match tiebreaker before subduing Noah Hernandez and Kabeer Kapasi 4-6, 6-2, 10-6.

The weather forecast for Monday is not good, but if the rain stays away, the third rounds of both 16s and 18s singles are scheduled for Stowe Stadium. No 18s doubles on Monday, but the second round of 16s doubles will be at Western Michigan beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Live streaming of the three Stowe Stadium show courts is available here. Follow the @ustaboys twitter account for information on which matches are on those courts throughout the day. 

The quarterfinals are set at the Girls 16s National Championships in San Diego, while the Girls 18s played their first round matches today.

Girls 16s quarterfinals:

Luciana Perry [33] v Valeria Ray[12]

Erica Jessel v Arina Oreshchenkova[11]

Alexia Harmon[8] v Ahmani Guichard[10]

Reese Miller[5] v Tatum Evans[2] 

Streaming is available for San Diego matches here.

The 2016 NCAA singles champions batted .500 in three-set finals today, with Danielle Collins winning her second straight WTA title in San Jose, while Mackenzie McDonald fell in the championship match in Washington DC.

Collins, the No. 7 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7(10), 6-1 to win her second straight title, this one at the 500 level on hard courts after taking a 250 tournament in Palermo Italy on clay last month. Collins, the 2014 and 2016 NCAA singles champion for Virginia, couldn't convert the five match points she had in the second set, but she broke Kasatkina three times in the final set to push her winning streak to ten matches. A seed at the US Open is looking likely for the 27-year-old Floridian with her results this summer.

McDonald saved ten set points in the first set against Jannik Sinner of Italy, only to lose the 11th, but pushed the No. 5 to the limit in the final of the Citi Open. McDonald, who won the NCAA singles and doubles title as a UCLA Bruin in 2016, saved two match points down 5-3 in the third set, but Sinner broke McDonald in the last game of the three-hour match for a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 victory. At 19, Sinner is the youngest ATP 500 champion since that designation was given to tournaments in 2009.

No. 4 seeds Ben McLachlan(Cal) of Japan and Raven Klaasen of South Africa won the doubles title in Washington, defeating No. 2 seeds Michael Venus(LSU) and Neal Skupski(LSU) 7-6(2), 6-4 in this afternoon's final.

Texas rising junior Eliot Spizzirri won his first USTA Pro Circuit title today at the $25,000 tournament in Decatur Illinois. Spizzirri, 19, won two qualifying matches to reach the main draw, then kept rolling, beating Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 6-2, 7-5 in today's final. Spizzirri had not reached a semifinal in a Pro Circuit singles event before this week, but now has two titles in two weeks, after winning the doubles title with Ben Shelton last week in Champaign.