Rice and Evans Dominate in ITF JB1 Pan American Closed Finals, American Teams Sweep Doubles Titles; UGA's Quinn and Henning Meet for ITA Men's All-American Title; Crawley and Collins in Women's A-A Final; Shelton and Zvajda Kalamazoo Rematch in Tiburon; Teens Upset WTA Veterans in San Diego

©Colette Lewis 2022--

Nicholasville, Kentucky--

A first ITF Grade 1 final is a milestone in any junior career, and with their impressive performances Saturday morning at the Top Seed Tennis Club, Canadian Keegan Rice and American Tatum Evans now have made that even bigger step to a title. Rice defeated unseeded Liam Drover-Mattinen 6-0, 6-3 and Evans downed unseeded Maddy Zampardo 6-2, 6-1 to win the singles championships at the JB1 Pan American Closed tournament in suburban Lexington.

Rice, the No. 12 seed, had shown impressive form all week with four straight-sets victories leading up to the final. He showed no sign of letting up against friend and fellow Canadian Drover-Mattinen in the final, taking a 6-0, 5-0 lead with penetrating ground strokes and a unerring sense of when to approach the net to finish a point.

In their previous meeting, in the semifinals of the J2 in Montreal last month, Drover-Mattinen had won the first set 7-5, before Rice came back to the next two sets 6-3, 6-3 and go on to take the title. As overwhelmed as Drover-Mattinen seemed at the start of the match, he gradually began playing better, taking three consecutive games in the second set, and saving a match point with a forehand volley winner when serving at 2-5. 

Rice went up 40-15 in his second attempt to serve out the match, but Drover-Mattinen saved those two match points with excellent forehands. Drover-Mattinen saved a fourth match point when Rice sent a backhand long, but on the fifth he sent a forehand wide to end his comeback.

"He came out with a little more energy, he started to hit the ball better," said Rice, who is 14-1 in his last three ITF Junior Circuit events, all since mid-September. "With me under pressure, there were some nerves of course, and with him playing a lot better like that it got tighter, but I was happy to be able to pull it out."

Drover-Mattinen, who compiled five straight-sets victories to advance to his first Grade 1 final, said he had dug too deep a hole against an opponent playing with as much confidence as Rice is feeling now.

"I think the nerves got to me a little bit," said Drover-Mattinen, a 17-year-old from Newfoundland, who trains in Quebec. "When you're down 5-0 in the second set, it's tough, you've got a lot ground to make back. I almost did it, but too little, too late."

Drover-Mattinen and Rice had split their four meetings this year prior to Rice's victory last month, so Drover-Mattinen knew what to expect, but Rice simply didn't provide him with any openings.

"He played a really good match, super solid from start to finish, and he pounced on everything that I gave him, didn't give me anything to work with," said Drover-Mattinen. "I started making more unforced errors, because I felt pressure to do more than I had to. If I had stayed more disciplined in what I needed to do, it would have been a lot tighter."

Rice felt all his shots were working well this week, but was particularly pleased with his forehand.

"I've been really happy with my forehand, being able to step into it, take time away," Rice said. "That, and I've been following it into the net--I've been trying to come in more--and I think that's been the difference this week."

Rice, who turned 16 in June, received a wild card after all his success last month, and with this title, will now have a more challenging schedule to close out 2022.

"I'll be able to get into better tournaments now," Rice said. "I'll go home for about a month, train, really work on my game, then go down to Mexico for the Grade 1 and Grade A, then Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl."

All those tournaments are on clay, but despite living in Regina Saskatchewan, Rice embraces the surface.

"Clay's my favorite to play on," Rice said. "I got to go to Europe the past two summers with my coach, so that's what I play on the most then. It's more fun. I'll have to make some adjustments in my game, small ones, not much, but I'm excited to go play on clay."

Drover-Mattinen is also planning to travel to Mexico and Florida for the season ending junior events there.

In the girls final, also the first at the Grade 1 level for both girls, Evans started off quickly and didn't look back, avoiding the drama of the three-setters she had in the quarterfinals and semifinals. 

Evans earned a break of the big-serving Zampardo to open the match and was able to keep that advantage and get a second break to go up 5-2. Zampardo was not sharp, while Evans hit her targets and made few unforced errors, closing out the opening set with a routine hold.

"I was stepping in on balls, taking advantage of every opportunity I would get in a point," said the 17-year-old Virginian. "I think we're both bigger hitters and that's why it was a quicker match, because we both just go for our shots."

Zampardo won her only game of the second set to open it, but then Evans put her foot on the gas, winning the last six games to close it out.

"I thought Tatum played really well today," said Zampardo, a 17-year-old from Michigan, who had lost to Evans 6-3, 7-5 at this spring's Easter Bowl JB1. "She made a lot of balls, kept it deep and there wasn't a lot I could do with the ball. I started coming in, serving and volleying, and that was working for a little while, but she kept the balls deep so it was hard to continue coming in. I missed some overheads, some shots where I set up the point great, but then didn't make. My first serve percentage wasn't as high as I would have liked; it's been high this tournament, so that was a little bit of a letdown."

Zampardo, who has committed to North Carolina State for next year, is unsure what her schedule is going to look like in the coming weeks, but is planning to play the Orange Bowl in December.

Unlike Zampardo, who turns 18 later this year, Evans has another year of ITF Junior Circuit competition ahead of her, and with a goal of competing at the junior slams next summer, this result is a great start.

"I'm really happy with the title," said Evans, who has played the US Open juniors the past two years, but no other junior slam.  "I feel a lot more secure with the points and whatever. I won't feel stressed out, having to go all over the place for tournaments. So that just feels better, takes a lot of pressure off going into Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl."

The doubles titles were also both decided in straight sets, with No. 4 seeds Nikita Filin and Alexander Razeghi defeating No. 3 seeds Luis Alvarez Valdes and Armando Sotelo of Mexico 6-3, 6-4 and unseeded Jessica Bernales and Maren Urata beating No. 4 seeds Ariana Pursoo and Brooke Lynn Schafer 6-2, 7-5.

Filin and Razeghi were broken right out of the gate, but got the break back for 2-all, got another break at 3-4, and closed out the first set. 

"They're a scrappy team, make a lot of balls," said Filin. "But I trusted him and he trusted me and we fought our way back into it."

Up early in the second set, they missed a chance to finish the match with Alvarez serving at 3-5, 0-40, but didn't dwell on those squandered opportunities.

"I missed two returns at 30-40, and obviously we would have liked to win it there, but I was confident with him at the net, if I just made my serves," said Razeghi, who finished off the match with a hold at love. "That helped ease the nerves."

The two 16-year-olds, who reached the doubles quarterfinals in the 18s at Kalamazoo this year, have been playing together for well over a year now, and their title this week did not surprise the pair, who did not drop a set in their four victories.

"We just have really good chemistry and when we get momentum it's really good, we're both just flowing," said Razeghi. "We definitely had an idea that we could go far here."

While the boys champions had past success to bolster their confidence, Bernales and Urata did not.

"It's our second time playing together, since 12-and-unders," said Urata. "We didn't do so well, we lost like first round," Bernales said. "But we're close friends, so we decided to play for this tournament," Urata said. 

After closing out the first set on a deciding point to break serve, Bernales and Urata found themselves in a considerably closer second. Pursoo served for the set after Bernales dropped serve at 4-all, but the two 16-year-olds broke back, held and broke again to claim the title. It was the first ITF Junior Circuit title for Urata and the second for Bernales, who won her first at the J4 in Corpus Christi just last week. 

"We stayed solid, making lots of first serves, and I poached when I could," said Bernales, who reached the singles semifinals after qualifying.

"It feels great to leave with some hardware," said Urata, who lost in singles qualifying. "We've been here so long. But we love playing together and she's one of my close friends, so every minute on the court was great." 

The ITA All-American Championships are set for Sunday, with the men's final between two Georgia Bulldogs: Ethan Quinn and Phillip Henning. Quinn defeated Eliot Spizzirri of Texas 7-5, 6-1 and Henning beat Max Basing of Stanford 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals today. It's the first time since 1996 that two teammates have met in the men's final at the All-Americans.  For more on today's semifinals and tomorrow's final, see this article from georgiadogs.com.

The men's doubles final Sunday will feature North Carolina versus South Carolina, with UNC's Brian Cernoch and Ryan Seggerman taking on Toby Samuel and Connor Thomson.

The women's singles final in Cary North Carolina will feature Fiona Crawley of North Carolina and Kylie Collins of LSU, who prevented another teammate versus teammate championship match when she defeated Anika Yarlagadda of UNC 6-2, 6-4. Crawley took out teammate Carson Tanguilig 6-3, 6-3 to continue her outstanding start to the 2022-23 season. 

The women's doubles final features qualifiers Kari Miller and Jaeden Brown of Michigan and 2022 NCAA champion Nell Miller and her partner Amelia Rajecki of North Carolina State.

For more on the women's singles and doubles semifinals today, see this article from the ITA website.

The women's singles final is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday, with the doubles final at 11 a.m.

The men's singles and doubles finals are scheduled for 11 a.m. Eastern time Sunday.

Follow both men's and women's finals at the Cracked Racquets Cross Court Cast on YouTube. 

A rematch of the 2021 USTA Boys 18s Nationals final will be played tomorrow at the ATP Challenger 80 in Tiburon California, with 19-year-olds Ben Shelton and Zachary Svajda facing off again, 14 months after Svajda defeated Shelton 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 in Kalamazoo.

Svajda, who is unseeded this week, defeated Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-4, 6-4 today to reach his first Challenger title. Shelton, the No. 4 seed, advanced to his third Challenger final when top seed Denis Kudla retired trailing 3-6, 6-4, 3-0. The winner will claim his first Challenger title. Free live streaming, with Mike Cation providing commentary, is available via ATP Challenger TV. The match begins at 4 p.m. Eastern time. 

Two big wins for 18-year-olds Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger in the first round of qualifying at the WTA 500 in San Diego. Montgomery and Krueger, who were in the semifinals of the doubles at the $80,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Rancho Santa Fe today, gave a walkover to their opponents once they received wild cards into the qualifying in San Diego.

Montgomery, who was 0-9 against WTA Top 100 players until today, defeated 33-year-old Shuai Zhang of China, currently 27 in the WTA rankings, 6-2, 6-3, hitting 11 aces in the match.  

Krueger, who had gotten her first WTA Top 100 win this spring at Indian Wells, beating No. 82 Panna Udvardy there, defeated 28-year-old Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, No. 31 in the current WTA rankings, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2.