Evans Ousts Second Seed Svendsen, Stearns Defeats No. 4 Seed Weekes; Top Seeds Hovde and Quinn Move into Quarterfinals at ITF Grade 1 International Open of San Diego

©Colette Lewis 2022
San Diego CA--

Tatum Evans keeps piling up the good memories at the Barnes Tennis Center, after the 16-year-old from Virginia defeated No. 2 seed Johanne Svendsen of Denmark 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the ITF Grade 1 International Open of San Diego Thursday.

Evans, who lost in the Easter Bowl 16s final at Barnes last spring, returned for the USTA Girls 16s National Championships in August, and came away with the title. Now the No. 13 seed has reached her first Grade 1 quarterfinal after holding firm in the final set of a three-hour and 10-minute marathon.

Svendsen's first two matches were long, arduous slogs and came into today's contest with her left ankle heavily taped. After dropping that first set, Evans thought her path to victory was in her own superior fitness.

"I saw that her ankle was taped up and she was starting to pull at her leg a little bit, and her back," Evans said. "I noticed that maybe she was not moving well and so I tried moving the ball around a little more, play longer points, get her to really win the point. I thought I could wear her down more; she was already very worn down."

Evans got an early break in the third set and led 4-2, but Svendsen held, then broke to draw even. The next game, over 10 minutes in length, proved pivotal.

"I think that was the most important game in the whole match," Evans said. "It was either 5-4 for her or 5-4 for me, pretty much the deciding game. I had to just gut it out, really fight for it. She started hitting really good shots whenever it was ad-in for me, deep balls right on the line, so once I saw that, I tried to play deeper in the court and move her. And once I got her moving, eventually she made a mistake."

As significant as that game was, there was still another to play, with Evans needing four match points before finally drawing the error. Evans didn't have to save any break points, but Svendsen did come up with some excellent returns to extend the match.

"It was just challenging, she was really good at hitting big shots on big points," Evans said. "On the deuce points she would play less aggressive, but when it was ad-in for me, she would just hit a really hard ball. So I would just take a step back to be ready for it. It's not really my game to play that far behind the baseline, but it's just one point. So I moved back and tried to move her around and eventually she made a mistake."

Evans also gave credit to the conditions for assisting her in getting through those three hours. 

"I'm actually feeling a lot better than I expected to," Evans said. "I think it's because it wasn't that hot today. But yeah, I feel good."

Evans will play No. 5 seed Alexis Blokhina, who defeating unseeded Maya Joint 6-4, 6-2.

Evans played the only three-set match in the girls third round today, with little drama in the other seven matches. 

Top seed Liv Hovde was the first played to advance to the quarterfinals, needing less than an hour to defeat qualifier Erin Ha 6-0, 6-1. Hovde will face her first non-qualifier Friday in No. 9 seed Ava Krug, who defeated unseeded Maya Iyengar 6-2, 6-3.

No. 4 seed Sayaka Ishii, one of two Japanese girls remaining in the draw, defeated No. 15 seed Elisabeth Jones, a semifinalist at this tournament last year,  6-2, 6-0. Ishii will face local wild card Katie Codd, who beat No. 6 seed Sonya Macavei by the same score.

No. 3 seed Qavia Lopez ended the winning streak of 14-year-old Las Vegas J4 champion Iva Jovic with a 6-3, 6-4 win; Lopez will face unseeded Mayu Crossley of Japan, who beat unseeded Theadora Rabman 6-3, 6-3.

The only unseeded boy remaining in the draw is wild card Kyle Kang, who defeated Lucas Brown 6-3, 7-6(1). Kang will face No. 2 seed Nicholas Godsick, who earned his first straight-sets victory of the week, a 6-2, 6-3 decision over unseeded Roy Horovitz.

The other quarterfinal in the bottom half will feature No. 5 seed Sebastian Gorzny and No. 13 seed Preston Stearns after Gorzny's 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 10 seed Alexander Razeghi and Stearns' 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 4 seed Jaden Weekes of Canada.

Weekes had played two grueling matches to start his tournament, and Stearns had himself come from a set down in his first two victories this week, but it was Stearns who looked fresher throughout the match.

"I knew he was tired too," said the 18-year-old left-hander, a native of Mason Ohio, who has signed with Ohio State for this fall. "He's been player longer matches, so I figured if I just kept him moving on the court, always on his toes, he was going to end up losing his legs a little bit."

Weekes, a 17-year-old left-hander, has both power and touch, but Stearns found a pattern that Weekes couldn't counter.

"I was hitting my forehand pretty heavy," said Stearns, who has advanced to a J1 quarterfinal for the first time. "He was struggling with it. Working his backhand and then moving him to his forehand worked really well. And when I was in trouble, I just threw the ball straight up."

Stearns, who reached the quarterfinals last week at the Grade 2 in the Dominican Republic, said that the recent improvement in his game is more strategic than technical.

"I've really tried to develop an actual game plan, rather than just coming out here and doing whatever I think is best in the middle of the point," Stearns said. "I've developed a few more patterns, a few mental things on the court, making decisions based on what's happening in the match, moving with the flow of the match and staying mentally stay on track with the match."

The boys match that rivaled the Svendsen-Evans match in length was between No. 6 seed Aidan Kim and No. 12 seed Learner Tien, with Tien managing to eke out a 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5 three-hour victory.

Tien served for the match in the second set, but didn't get to match point, and Kim played a near-perfect tiebreaker to send in to a third set. Kim had Tien on the ropes when the 16-year-old lefthander from Southern California was serving at 5-all 15-40, but Tien held for a 6-5 lead. The 17-year-old Kim took a 30-15 lead in the game that would force a deciding tiebreaker, but Tien won the final three points to seal the victory.

He will play No. 3 seed Michael Zheng, who overcame a spirited challenge from wild card Bryce Nakashima by the score of 7-6(5), 6-4.

Top seed and defending champion Ethan Quinn had a poor stretch in the second set, but recovered to defeated qualifier Jordan Reznik 6-2, 7-5. Quinn will face No. 8 seed Jonah Braswell, who beat unseeded Brayden Michna 7-5, 6-1.

Three of the top four seeds in the boys doubles have advanced to Friday's semifinals, with No. 1 Quinn and Godsick again getting through via a match tiebreaker. After trailing unseeded Quang Duong and William Thompson 4-0 in the first set, the 2021 San Diego finalists won the next five games, but lost the next three to drop it 7-5. Finding their form in the second set, Quinn and Godsick won it 6-1 and ran out to a 9-4 lead in the tiebreaker before finally taking it 10-7.  They will play the only unseeded team remaining, Landon Ardila and Lucas Brown, who defeated unseeded Krish Arora and Canada's Nemanja Stefanovic 6-2, 6-3.

No. 2 seeds Kim and Zheng also prevailed in a match tiebreaker for the second straight day, defeating unseeded Mitchell Lee and Chase Fralick 5-7, 6-2, 10-7. They will face No. 4 seed Braswell and Weekes, who defeated No. 6 seeds Razeghi and Tien 6-0, 6-3.

Top seeds Hovde and Lopez are through to the semifinals after defeating unseeded Theodora Rabman and Evans 6-4, 6-2. They will play another unseeded team Friday, Lara Smejkal of Slovenia and Sophie Williams, who defeated unseeded Isabella Chhiv and Karsyn Evans 7-6(9), 4-6, 10-7.

Codd and Maddy Zampardo, also unseeded, defeated No. 3 seeds Krug and Macavei 6-3, 6-2 and will face No. 6 seeds Ariana Pursoo and Ahmani Guichard, who took out No. 2 seeds Svendsen and Blokhina 6-2, 5-7, 10-8.