Filin Aces Hot, Humid Weather on Day One of ITF J300 in College Park; US Open Qualifying Begins Tuesday with 64 Matches, Including National 18s Finalists

©Colette Lewis 2023--
College Park MD--

Pleasant summer temperatures for the qualifying weekend turned to conditions more typical of this time of year in the Washington DC area, with the "feels like" temperature approaching 100 degrees today for the first round of the  ITF J300 Wayne K. Curry Prince George's County International Junior Tennis Championships presented by Laurel Spring School. 

The best strategy was to get through your match quickly, and qualifier Nikita Filin did just that, bombing ace after ace in his late afternoon victory over wild card Jagger Leach.  

Filin, who earned the 6-4, 6-3 decision over Leach without facing a break point, said he had a career day serving.

"I'm not even joking, I had like 20, 25 aces," said the 17-year-old left-hander from Illinois. "I think I averaged one or two per game. It's one of the best serving performances of my life, to be honest. Everything felt like it was clicking, everything went to plan."

Filin got an early break in the second set, and had no trouble serving out the match, hitting two first serve aces for 30-0, and a second serve ace to earn three match points, only one of which was necessary.

"That just summed up the whole match, how I was serving," said Filin, who will join the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2024.

With four wins under his belt now, all in straight sets, Filin is convinced he can continue his streak, even when facing No. 2 seed Iliyan Radulov of Bulgaria in Tuesday's second round.

"Obviously he's really good," Filin said. "I've never seen him play, but I'm pretty confident in my game, and I'll give him a run for his money tomorrow. I come to the net a lot, find the forehand a lot, don't let them get a rhythm on anything. So hopefully that will work tomorrow."

Filin was one of three qualifiers to reach the second round. Mitchell Lee defeated Maxwell Exsted 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 and Nicolas Arseneault of Canada beat Seungmin Park of Korea 7-6(0), 6-2.

Four wild cards advanced to the third round, three of whom train at the Junior Tennis Champions Center: Stiles Brockett, who beat Volodymyr Iakubenko of Ukraine 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Kase Schinnerer, who defeated Maximo Zeitune of Argentina 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, and Cyrus Mahjoob, who cruised past Nicolas Oliveira of Brazil 6-1, 6-1. The fourth wild card winner was Calvin Baierl, who defeated Segundo Goity Zapico of Argentina 6-3, 6-2.

The girls qualifiers and wild cards had similar success, with Aspen Schuman defeating wild card Trinetra Vijayakumar 6-3, 6-2 and Monika Ekstrand beating Claire An, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1. Three wild cards advanced to the second round: 2023 San Diego 16s finalist Anita Tu, who beat Anna Maria Fedotova of the Dominican Republic 7-6(4), 6-3, and the 13-year-old Penickova twins, with Annika defeating wild card Reiley Rhodes 6-0, 6-3 and Kristina beating Anastasiia Firman of Ukraine 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The hopes of playing all the first round of doubles Monday were not realized with the length of the singles matches, but both USTA National 18s champions, who will be playing in the US Open men's and women's main draw next week, won their first round matches, with neither pair seeded this week.

Kalamazoo champions Adhithya Ganesan and Alexander Frusina defeated Brockett and Theo Papamalamis of France 6-1, 5-7, 10-8, while San Diego champions Kate Fakih and Olivia Center beat Taylor Goetz and Leena Friedman 6-2, 6-2.

Both teams told me they were not quite grasping the reality of playing in the main draw of the US Open, but are happy to have this event to help them prepare.

Second round singles matches begin at 9 a.m., with the completion of the first round of doubles to follow. Frances Tiafoe will again train on Stadium court Tuesday morning; Monday he hit with another JTCC alum, Michigan graduate Andrew Fenty.

The US Open qualifying begins Tuesday in New York, with both the finalists in the USTA National 18s Championships in action. 

Trevor Svajda will play No. 12 seed James Duckworth of Australia, in the first round of men's qualifying, while Katherine Hui will play Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in the first round of women's qualifying. 

John Parsons has the scoop on all the 2023 collegians and their matchups in the qualifying; with the men's here and the women's here.