Friday's All-Day Rain Washes Out Wimbledon Junior Singles and Doubles Semifinals; U14 Boys Singles Round Robin Matches Moved to Indoor Practice Facility; USTA Clay Court Championships Approach Final Stages
©Colette Lewis 2023--
Wimbledon--
Not a single point was played Friday on the 16 Wimbledon courts that don't have roofs, as rain began at 9:30 a.m. and extended throughout the day, with just a few brief interludes. Tournament officials were never optimistic enough to prepare for resumption of play, and by 3:15 p.m. the junior singles semifinals were canceled. The doubles semifinals were not canceled until 5 p.m., but with rain, often heavy at times, continuing, there was no hope of playing those either.
The women's wheelchair singles semifinals were moved to Court One after the women's doubles semifinals, but those were the only two matches scheduled for outside courts today that were completed under the two courts with roofs.
There were some junior matches played however, with the U14 tournament moving boys round robin matches into the new AELTC Indoor Tennis Centre just across the street from Centre Court. The strikingly beautiful facility, which was opened last year, has six indoor hard courts, which were employed today due to the necessity of completing at least two rounds for the boys.
The U14 tournament format, which went perfectly with last year's rain-free conditions, calls for two round robin matches in the first day for one of the genders, and just one for the other gender. The boys played only one round yesterday, so were scheduled for two today, but with the weather not cooperating, eight matches were moved indoors. The third of the three round robin matches, which will determine the semifinalists, are scheduled for Saturday, as are the semifinals between group winners. The weather forecast for Saturday is better than today's but still contains a significant chance of rain and a high wind warning.
The unexpected move indoors still provided the full array of officials and ballrunners, as well as Wimbledon logos on the nets, live scoring and a manual scoreboard for those onsite. Viewing was excellent from the balcony overlooking the three courts in use for the tournament, and while seating was limited, chairs were brought out for the families and coaches who were allowed entry to the facility. The all-white dress code was enforced, including shoes, and for American Marcel Latak, that involved a last minute trip to the Wimbledon shop to purchase a pair that were suitable for hard courts. Some players sported shoes that still had traces of red clay visible, some were lucky enough to have packed white hard court shoes suitable for indoor court play they could never have anticipated.
Given the adjustments the players had to make at the last minute, the quality of the tennis was exceptionally high, with a riveting match between No. 3 seed Svit Suljic of Slovenia and unseeded Leo Wright of Great Britain the highlight of the day. Unforced errors were rare and the hitting was huge, with long rallies often ending with a spectacular winner, or at worst, a forced error. Suljic, the 2021 Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion, came away with a 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 victory and is now 2-0 in round robin play.
No. 7 seed Izyan Ahmad of the United States lost his match indoors to Matei Chelemen of Romania 6-2, 6-4 to go 0-2 in round robin play, eliminating his chance to reach the semifinals.
No. 4 seed Marcel Latak of the United States lost to Luis Queiroz Miguel of Brazil 6-4, 6-1, but got a walkover in his next match to finish round robin play 2-1. Queiroz Miguel, now 2-0, will advance to the semifinals if he defeats Kensuke Kobayashi of Japan Saturday.
No. 2 seed Vihaan Reddy, the USTA Winter Nationals 14s champion who represents India, won his second round match today to put his record at 1-1. He plays No. 8 seed Rhys Lawlor of Great Britain Saturday to determine the group winner.
Top seed Mark Ceban of Great Britain is 2-0 as is No. 5 seed Isik Kosaner of Turkey. They play Saturday to determine the Group A semifinalist.
The girls top two seeds, Kristina and Annika Penickova, both finished yesterday's play with 2-0 records and did not play today.
The last American in men's and women's Wimbledon competition lost today, with No. 16 seeds Caroline Dolehide and her partner Shuai Zhang of China falling in the women's doubles semifinals to No. 3 seeds Elise Mertens of Belgium and Storm Hunter of Australia 6-1, 6-1.
I don't remember Wimbledon ever being so late and the USTA Clay Courts being so early, but I wasn't able to so much look at this week's draws until today's washout here in London. Below are the results as of 10 p.m. British Summer Time; updated Saturday at 10 a.m. BST.
USTA National Clay Court Championships
Singles final:
Dylan Meineke[1] d. Tristan Ascenzo[2] 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4
Doubles final:
Adrian Sharma and Dylan Meineke[3] d. Sebastian Zavala and Tristan Ascenzo[5] 6-1, 6-4
Singles quarterfinals:
Nicolas Pedraza[16] d. Keshav Muthuvel[33] 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
Tanishk Konduri[5] d. Jerrid Gaines[17] 6-3, 7-5
Erik Schinnerer[4] d. Lucas Smith[17] 6-0, 6-2
Shaan Majeed[17] d. Joseph Nau[2] 6-3, 7-6(7)
Singles quarterfinals:
Cooper Han[1] d. Anirudh Dhanwada 6-0, 7-5
Jack Satterfield[7] d. Noah Johnston[17] 7-6(5), 4-0 ret. inj.
Nicholas Mekhael[5] d. Benjamin Sparks[12] 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3
Ronit Karki[10] d. Nicholas Patrick[11] 6-1, 6-2
Singles quarterfinals:
Zhengqing Ji[8] d. Cassius Chinlund[1] 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3)
Ian Mayew[33] d. Tanner Povey[33] 6-4, 6-3
Joseph Phillips d. Matthew Forbes[17] 6-3, 6-4
Cyrus Mahjoob[9] d. Tygen Goldammer 6-3, 6-1
Singles semifinals:
Sofia Kedrin[14] d. Aleksandra Jerkunica[11] 7-6(3), 6-4
Daniela Davletshina[10] d. Nikol Davletshina[3] walkover inj.
Doubles final:
Zoe Young and Olivia De Los Reyes[2] d. Juliana Diianni and Aleksandra Jerkunica 6-2, 6-2
Singles quarterfinals:
Anna Bugaienko[1] d. Jensen Diianni[17] 6-3, 6-1
Reagan Levine[3] d. Rose Biria[33] 6-0, 6-4
Londyn McCord d. Sephi Sheng[17] 7-6(5), 7-5
Janae Preston[8] d. Emily Golovanova[2] 6-3, 5-0, ret.inj.
Singles quarterfinals:
Christina Lyutova[1] d. Sarah Ye[33] 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
Julieta Pareja[10] d. Nicole Weng[3] 6-3, 6-2
Kenzie Nguyen[4] d. Kaia Giribalan 6-3, 5-4, ret. inj.
Bella Payne[2] d. Carrie-Anne Hoo[17] 6-0, 6-3
Singles quarterfinals
Piper Charney[17] d. Kinaa Graham[7] 6-4, 6-3
Claire Shao d. Lucia Donnelly 6-4, 1-6, 6-2
Alana Boyce[10] d. Ava Esposito Cogan[6] 6-4, 6-3
Christasha McNeil d. Esha Velaga[2] 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(4)
1 comments:
Dave ( Davo ) Borelli, Hall of Fame USC Women’s Coach, USC Player, former TCU Men’s Tennis Coach, and Former TCU Women’s Tennis Coach passed away this morning from his battle with Acute myeloid leukemia. Davo was a great friend of our family, a great coach, and a great person. He will be sorely missed. God’s Speed Davo. RIP
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