Brockett, Energized by Home Crowd and Inspired by Tiafoe, Advances to College Park J1 Round of 16; Quinn and Glozman Win Qualifying Matches at US Open; Shelton Turns Pro, Signs with Team 8

©Colette Lewis 2022--
College Park MD--

Tuesday was not just another day at an ITF Junior Circuit tournament at the Grade 1 in College Park Maryland. Anti-doping agents were on site at the Junior Tennis Champions Center to conduct Dry Blood spot testing, a first at a junior event outside the slams. Then, for two hours in the middle of warm and sunny day in the Washington DC are, ATP No. 24 Frances Tiafoe took over the Pershing Square Court, preparing for the US Open by practicing with University of Michigan fifth-year senior Andrew Fenty.

As the local youngsters gathered on the veranda to watch, and later, to request autographs and selfies, JTCC student Stiles Brockett was patiently waiting to take the court for his second round match against Hoyoung Roh of Korea.  On Monday, Brockett had defeated No. 10 seed Branko Djuric of Serbia 7-6(2), 6-7(3), 6-4 in front of scores of local fans; once he took the court after Tiafoe's practice session, he again gave his supporters reason to cheer, beating Roh 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4.

"It's super fun, because a lot of the little kids are here, a lot of people supporting," said the 16-year-old from Fairfax Virginia, who has trained at JTCC for two years. "I train here and I know a lot of the people, so for them to come out and support me is super cool. It gives me an extra push in the super long matches the last two days, helped me win these matches."

Brockett, playing in just his second ITF Grade 1 event, after failing to qualify at this tournament last year, was up an early break in the third set but was broken serving at 4-3.

"He played a couple of good points in that game and I gave it away a little bit, but the biggest thing was getting the first couple of points in the 4-all game," said Brockett, who won the USTA 16s Clay Court Championships in Delray Beach last month. "It put the pressure back on him, and I was making returns and making balls and forcing him to do something great."

Roh saved one break point at 30-40 with a good first serve, but didn't get his first serve in on the second break point and Brockett's return forced an error to give him the chance to serve for the match. 

That final game saw the tension build in each point, with neither boy willing to dial back and play it safe. At 40-30, Roh hit a perfect lob winner to save the first match point, and on the second, Brockett sent a forehand well long. Roh then began to win the deuce points, with Brockett saving three break points, showing a determination to keep swinging. Although his first serve disappeared, he managed to get a third match point and converted it, with Roh making an error on the final point.

"I'm lucky I pulled it out," Brockett said. "I stayed pretty stable. After every point, even when I hit a good shot, it's like a full reset, the point's over, whether I lose it or win it. I forget about the last point, the last game, and just focus on the next point."

Tiafoe, who watched several games of the match from the bleachers surrounding the court, is, unsurprisingly, one of Brockett's role models.

"Having him here, supporting up in the stands is super cool," said Brockett, who hits with Tiafoe occasionally when the 24-year-old is in town. "I've definitely watched a lot of his matches, and to have him come and watch some of mine, it's been super nice. It definitely inspires me."

Brockett, who plays unseeded Rudy Quan in the third round Wednesday, isn't surprised by the recent uptick in his results.

"I'm starting to show what I can do," Brockett said. "I'm on a pretty good run so far, because last year I lost in qualies, but I have the belief that I can keep going even farther. My expectations are way higher than maybe some of my results show, so that's one of the things that keeps me going, keeps me being able to win these tough matches."

While Tiafoe proved most of the buzz around the JTCC courts Tuesday, the match between No. 6 seed Sayaka Ishii of Japan and Dana Baidaulet of Kazakhstan also generated a lot of comment, with the 9 a.m. match ending at 1:50 p.m., with Baidaulet earning the 7-6(0), 6-7(5), 7-6(3) victory.  Ishii was cramping late in the match, but continued until the bitter end. Struggling with recovery, she was unable to play her double match; Baidaulet did play doubles later in the afternoon and won that match as well.

In addition to Ishii, three other seeds fell in second round action, at all the University of Maryland courts. Taylor Goetz defeated No. 4 seed Luciana Moyano of Argentina 6-7(3), 6-0, 6-1; Maya Joint beat No. 8 seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru 6-1, 6-2 and qualifier Jessica Bernales beat No. 16 seed Yu-Yun Li of Taiwan 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).

Only four girls seeds remain: No. 14 seed Kaitlin Quevedo,  No. 7 seed Carolina Kuhl of Germany, No. 5 seed Sara Saito of Japan and No. 2 seed Mira Andreeva of Russia.

The only boys seed to lose today was No. 11 Lennon Jones of Japan, who lost to Adhithya Ganesan 7-6(5), 6-4. There are now eight seeds remaining in the boys draw, including the top 5.

The first round of doubles was played this afternoon, with one major upset: girls No. 2 seeds Moyano and Perez Alarcon were beaten by Anya Murthy and Alexia Harmon 7-5, 6-2.

It wasn't a great opening day for Americans as the US Open qualifying got underway at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, with the men going 5-5 and the women 3-7.  But it was a fabulous day for USTA National 18s finalists, as both Ethan Quinn and Valerie Glozman won their slam debuts.

Quinn, 18, defeated Ernesto Escobedo 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, closing out the match with two forehand winners to advance to the second round against Federico Delbonis of Argentina.

Glozman, 15, trailed 31-year-old Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia 3-0 in the second set tiebreaker, won the next six points, lost her first three match points but converted the fourth for a 6-3, 7-6(6) victory. She will play Madison Inglis of Australia next.

Other Americans winning today: Sachia Vickery, Katrina Scott, Christopher Eubanks, Zachary Svajda, Brandon Holt and Bjorn Fratangelo.

Sixteen more Americans will play their first round qualifying matches Wednesday, including Wimbledon girls champion Liv Hovde.

American's in first round action Wednesday:

Oliver Crawford[WC]
Bradley Klahn
Michael Mmoh
Bruno Kuzuhara[WC]
Alex Rybakov[WC]
Govind Nanda[WC]

Kayla Day[WC]
Caty McNally
Whitney Osuigwe[WC]
Caroline Dolehide
Christina McHale[WC]
Liv Hovde[WC]
Louisa Chirico
Asia Muhammad
Catherine Harrison[WC]
Ashlyn Krueger[WC]

The men's qualifying draw is here.

The women's qualifying draw is here.

Once Ben Shelton began going deep into Challenger draws, which was almost immediately after he won the NCAA title in May, the will-he-or-won't-he turn pro question was the major topic in college tennis....until Cincinnati. After beating Lorenzo Sonego and ATP No. 5 Casper Ruud at the Western & Southern Open, there wasn't much doubt that he belonged on the ATP tour and today he made that official with this announcement.

Shelton is signing with Tony Godsick's Team 8 and will join Roger Federer and Coco Gauff as a client of that firm. For more on the Sheltons' decision, see this article from today's New York Times.