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Thursday, October 6, 2022

Stephenson Brushes Aside Second Seed, 15-Year-Old Hamilton Steps Up to Reach ITF JB1 Pan American Closed Semis; Drake's Schifris Beats Top Seed Dostanic at ITA All-Americans; Crawley Ousts Defending Champion, Four Tar Heels Reach Women's A-A Quarterfinals


©Colette Lewis 2022--
Nicholasville, Kentucky--



Wild card Eli Stephenson always believed he could beat anyone, even when his results didn't validate that confidence. This week at the ITF JB1 Pan American Closed, the 17-year-old from Louisville convinced anyone who may have had doubts, and certainly his opponents, with his run to the semifinals.

No. 2 seed Leanid Boika is certainly a believer, after he was overwhelmed by Stephenson 6-3, 6-1 in 53 minutes, with Stephenson getting the only break of the first set at 3-4 and rolling from there.

"I got a bunch of confidence after winning the first set and I just carried that over into the second set," said the University of Kentucky recruit. "I stuck to my plan, played good, served well."

Stephenson saved two match points in his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) win over No. 7 seed Alexander Razeghi in the second round, a result that helped him relax.

"I'm just happy to still be in the tournament," Stephenson said. "The guy I played in the second round was a heck of a player, so I was just happy to get through that. I probably am not going into any match as the favorite, but I'm fine with that. I just know that if I play my game, I can beat anyone on any given day."

Stephenson said he is seeing the work he's done in the past few months beginning to pay off.

"I'm starting to put everything together, so it feels good," Stephenson said. "Physical and mental are both big parts of the game and I think I've improved on both sides. I've been pretty calm this tournament, and I always play my best when I'm calm, so I don't let anything bug me too much anymore."

Keegan Rice, Stephenson's opponent in the semifinals, is also a wild card. After the 16-year-old from Canada won a J2 last month in Montreal and made the finals of a J3 in Quebec the following week, his ITF ranking rose dramatically, so much so that he is the No. 12 seed this week. He has been impressive so far, winning all three of his matches in straight sets, including today's 6-0, 6-4 victory over wild card Mitchell Lee.  After building a 6-0, 5-1 lead, Rice suddenly lost his way, unable to serve out the match at 5-1 and 5-3. But after Lee fought his way back on serve, he was broken, with Rice converting his third match point.

Rice is not the only Canadian to advance to the semifinals, with unseeded Liam Drover-Mattinen, who beat top seed Rodrigo Pacheco of Mexico in the third round, defeating No. 10 seed Felipe Pinzon Moreno 6-3, 6-1 in today's quarterfinal. Drover-Mattinen was off the court in a little over an hour, while his semifinal opponent, No. 14 seed Roy Horovitz took more than twice as long to defeat No. 9 seed Preston Stearns 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.  

Leading 5-1 in the third set, Horovitz couldn't serve out the match at 5-2 and was taken to deuce serving for it a second time, but the 15-year-old from Florida came up with an excellent backhand to force an error from Stearns and a good first serve to seal the victory.

None of the boys semifinalists have previously reached this stage in a Grade 1 tournament and that is also the case in the girls draw, with three unseeded players, including a qualifier, advancing in today's action at the Top Seed Tennis Club.

Qualifier Jessica Bernales was the only of of the four to get through in straight sets, but was just two points away from a third in her 7-6(8), 7-6(6) win over unseeded Kate Fakih. After trailing 5-2 in the opening set, Bernales came back to force a tiebreaker, and the 16-year-old from Las Vegas saved three set points at 5-6, 6-7 and 8-9. In the second set, it was Bernales who took a 4-1 lead, but it was Fakih's turn to come back to force a tiebreaker. Bernales took a 6-4 lead, but failed to convert those two match points, but got the win on her third with a backhand forcing an error from Fakih.

Bernales will play unseeded Maddy Zampardo, who defeated Piper Charney 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. Zampardo was broken for the only time in the match at 5-all in the second set, but she got an early break in the third and used her serve and power to keep Charney at bay the rest of the way.

No. 2 seed Tatum Evans took a 4-1, two-break lead over No. 10 seed Alexia Harmon in the first set, but could not hang onto it, losing a 90-minute first set in the most excruciating way possible by double faulting at 6-7 in the first set tiebreaker. But the 17-year-old from Virginia recovered from that disappointment quickly, needing just 72 minutes to take sets two and three and come away with a 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-0 victory. 

Evans will face 15-year-old Alanis Hamilton, who defeated No. 12 seed Maya Joint 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-4.


Hamilton took control of the first set with a break to go up 4-2 and sealed it with a second break, then took a 4-1 lead in the second set. A hard fall, "pretty bad, but I was ok," said Hamilton, disrupted her rhythm and Joint fought back to force the tiebreaker, which she won going away. In what was a pattern throughout the quarterfinals, the third set saw Hamilton take a 5-1 lead, then hold on for dear life. After failing to earn a match point serving at 5-2, Hamilton found herself at 5-4 30-all, but Joint made an unforced forehand error to give Hamilton a match point and she converted it with a forehand winner.

Hamilton was determined to vary the shots she gave to Joint to keep it out of her strike zone.

"I had to change up the height on my shots," said Hamilton, who is from Arkansas, but is now training with Dave Anderson at Brookhaven in Dallas. "She like to hit low and flat and just rally, rally, rally. So I would throw in some slice, maybe some topspin, come to the net some, and she did not like that. Standing on the baseline just hitting with her was not going to work, because that's her game and she's probably better than me at that."

Hamilton qualified for the US Open Junior Championships this year, and although she lost 6-3, 6-4 in the first round to Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic, the eventual finalist, the experience opened her eyes.

"Being able to qualify and get in the main draw, I proved to myself that I'm at that level, I can get in," Hamilton said. "Getting to play the second seed, even though I lost, I'm right there and I know that if I keep working hard I can get there. It was such an amazing experience and it gave me a lot of belief that I can make it."

Three of the girls singles semifinalists are also into the doubles semifinals, with Hamilton and her partner Claire An pulling off the biggest upset today with a 6-1, 7-6(6) win over top seeds Evans and Valeria Ray.

Zampardo and her partner Gabriella Broadfoot of South Africa defeated No. 2 seeds Joint and Iva Jovic 6-3, 6-0 and Bernales and her partner Maren Urata beat No. 5 seeds Ashton Bowers and Taylor Goetz 6-2, 6-3.  The only seeded team remaining in the girls doubles is No. 4 Ariana Pursoo and Brooke Lynn Schafer, who beat Charney and Isabella Chhiv 3-6, 6-1, 12-10. They face An and Hamilton in Friday's semifinals.

The only boys semifinalist still in doubles is Drover-Mattinen and he and partner Rohan Belday got there via a walkover from No. 7 seed Jonathan Irwanto and Pinzon Moreno. Drover-Mattinen and Belday will face No. 4 seeds Nikita Filin and Razeghi, who beat Maximus Dussault and Maxwell Exsted 6-3, 6-4. No. 3 seeds Luis Alvarez Valdes and Armando Sotelo of Mexico saved four match points in their 1-6, 7-6(11), 12-10 win over No. 5 seeds Evan Wen and Marko Mesarovic. They will face No. 2 seeds Boika and Stearns, who beat No. 8 seeds Rice and his partner Francisco Cordova 7-5, 6-4. 

The upsets continued today at the All-American Championships, with men's top seed Stefan Dostanic of Southern California falling to Jeremy Schifris of Drake, No. 106 in the preseason rankings, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. With the first round losses of No. 2 seed Cannon Kingsley of Ohio State and No. 3 seed Inaki Montes of Virginia, that leaves TCU's Luc Fomba as the highest seed remaining in the round of 16. Qualifier Alexander Bernard of Ohio State and wild card Ethan Quinn of Georgia are the two freshman to advance to the final 16. The round of 16 and the quarterfinals will both be played Friday in Tulsa.

The men's draws can be found here.

The women's draw is half the size of the men's, so they completed their round of 16 today, and the quarterfinals definitely have a Carolina Blue tint to them, with four Tar Heels advancing.

UNC's Fiona Crawley defeated top seed and defending champion Sarah Hamner of South Carolina 6-3, 6-4, and teammate Anika Yarlagadda beat No. 2 seed Daria Frayman of Princeton 6-1, 6-4. The other two UNC women will play each other, with qualifier Abbey Forbes taking on Carson Tanguilig, so there's no chance of an all-North Carolina final four. An unseeded champion is now guaranteed, with none of the quarterfinalists seeded.

Friday's women's quarterfinals:

Fiona Crawley, UNC v Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
Abbey Forbes, UNC v Carson Tanguilig, UNC
Kylie Collins, LSU v Alex Noel, Miami
Rebeka Mertena, Tennessee v Anika Yarlagadda, UNC

The women's draw is here.

Cracked Racquets is providing its CrossCourt Cast for both the men's and women's tournaments at their YouTube Channel.

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