Jones Defeats Schuman for Girls Title at ITF J300 College Park; Radulov Bests Razeghi in Boys Singles Final; Ganesan and Frusina Roll on in Doubles; Sonobe and Evans Take Girls Title; Six Americans, Including Fiona Crawley, Qualify for US Open
©Colette Lewis 2023--
College Park MD--
Iliyan Radulov and Emerson Jones, both No. 2 seeds this week, were the favorites coming into Saturday's singles finals at the ITF J300 at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, and they negotiated that pressure and the challenging conditions to earn straight-sets victories over their American opponents. Radulov defeated No. 15 seed Alexander Razeghi 6-4, 6-4 in the slightly less warm and humid conditions of the morning final, while Australian Jones felt right at home in her 6-2, 6-3 victory over qualifier Aspen Schuman.
"Most of the games were like this, and I just managed to win those points, I don't know how," said the 18-year-old from Bulgaria, who went down 15-30 serving for the set at 5-4, but got an unforced error, rifled a forehand winner and got another forehand error from Razeghi to close out the 45-minute set.
If Razeghi had visions of changing the script in the second set, they weren't realized, as he was broken at love in the first game, while Radulov came from 15-30 down again to go up 2-0. Razeghi then lost his sixth straight point on serve to go down 0-30, but he fought back to hold, then earned a break point at 0-2, his first since the second game of the match, only to miss a crosscourt backhand wide.
Razeghi saved another break point to hold for 2-3, and again had hopes of earning a break when he won the first two points of Radulov's service game, but again, he could not capitalize.
"I had a lot of game points in the second set especially, and a couple in the first," said Razeghi, a 17-year-old from Texas. "I felt I didn't play them bad at all. He played them well."
Radulov plays very quickly, so Razeghi was conscious of the need to play at his own pace, not Radulov's.
"He doesn't use a towel, and he does play fast," Razeghi said. "But I feel like I play at a normal pace, so I just didn't let it effect me."
Serving at 4-3, Radulov finally let Razeghi into the second set when he double faulted after Razeghi had hit a backhand winner to take a 15-40 lead. At 4-all, Razeghi had a three game points to take his first lead since the first game of the match, but he couldn't convert any of them, and was broken to give Radulov the chance to serve out the match.
The final game was full of drama, with Radulov saving break points and failing to convert his first match point, but he earned another and got a backhand error from Razeghi after a short rally to earn the third J300 title of his career.
"From the beginning of the match, every point was like 20 shot rallies," Radulov said. "By then, we were both very tired, and both hope to put the ball in the court and hope the other one misses the ball. "
Radulov saved two match points in the second round against Nikita Filin, and said this wouldn't be the first time he'd come back to win after tournament after saving match points, but he is not looking for that to be a strategy going forward.
"I hope I don't have to save match points to win," Radulov said. "It's tough to do."
Radulov is now headed to the J300 in Repentigny Canada and then the US Open Junior Championships, his last junior slam, and despite the heat and the ten matches he played this week in singles and doubles, he admits to no fatigue.
"Actually good, I'm feeling good," said Radulov, who is the top seed in Canada. "I'm not tired, two more weeks to play. I hope to play my best tennis and we will see."
Razeghi, who beat top seed Joao Fonseca of Brazil in the third round and No. 3 seed Branko Djuric of Serbia in the semifinals, is not playing the J300 in Canada, but will head to New York with the conviction he can beat anyone in the field.
"It was one of the better weeks I've had this year, so it was really fun," Razeghi said. "Just playing the top juniors, my last four matches, they were all inside the Top 20 of the ITF (junior rankings), so it was getting that level and knowing I can compete with anyone on the ITF Junior tour. It was a really good learning experience, for sure."
The girls final that followed was less dramatic than the boys, with Jones running out to 4-0 leads in both the first and second sets against Schuman.
Schuman was playing her ninth match in eight days, and while she had been in top form against No. 1 Mayu Crossley in the semifinals, the 16-year-old from California couldn't summon that level for a second consecutive day in 90-degree heat.
Jones served for the first set at 5-1, but double faulted at 30-40. Despite two aces, Schuman couldn't hold in the next game, with the unforced errors that she had avoided throughout her eight victories surfacing with regularity.
After losing her first service game at love, with several unforced errors again costing her, Schuman went down 3-0 in the second set and called for the trainer at the changeover. After a short medical timeout, Schuman again lost her serve at love, and her prospects dimmed even more.
"It was my leg, long week, cramping, the heat, it's a lot," said Schuman. "I tried to compete my best, but I'm a little bit tired, obviously, a little fatigued. Nine tough matches, nine great opponents, and also she played really well today, competed well. I tried to dig in, but she was playing really well today."
Schuman broke Jones to get on the board, but couldn't hold in the next game, with Jones having an opportunity to serve at 5-1, just as she had in the first set. And in a repeat of that first set scenario, she was broken, with Schuman hitting a perfect lob at 30-40 to get the break.
Schuman held for the first time in the match to make it 5-3, but as in the first set, Jones converted on her second opportunity, earning her first J300 title.
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"It feels great, knowing all the effort I put in to get this," said the 15-year-old from the Australian Gold Coast, which has its share of heat and humidity. "I've been training really hard, competing really hard in my matches, so it's great to finally get the win."
Jones said she didn't sense that Schuman was struggling physically.
"I think she's played well this whole time," Jones said. "I watched a couple of her matches and she has a really high standard, doesn't drop her standard. I thought it was a really great match."
Jones, who had lost her previous J300 final this spring in Thailand, said she did not let herself think ahead when she was up 4-0 in the second set.
"I just focus point by point," said Jones, who will also be the No. 2 seed in next week's J300 in Canada. "I can't get too ahead of myself because it can make me panic and catch up to me. So I just try to stay in the present."
Jones, who did not lose a set in her five victories, is looking forward to continuing to test herself in the next two weeks.
"This win has given me a lot of confidence in my game, knowing I can play like I did today and this week," said Jones. "Obviously I'm going to play different people in the US Open, but we'll see how it goes."
Schuman doesn't know when she'll compete next on the ITF Junior Circuit, but the Northern Californian said she learned a lot this week, in just her second ITF J300 tournament.
"I was very happy to just get the experience today," Schuman said. "Although I wish things went differently, the fact that I've been able to stay in it all week, I'm happy with that. It gives me a lot of confidence to be able to compete at this level for multiple days, in a little more humidity than I'm used to. I'm really grateful for every match I got this week, really happy for the opportunity to get on the court."
The doubles championships were both decided in match tiebreakers, and unlike the No. 2 seeds, who swept the singles titles, the No. 3 seeds managed just one title today.
Tatum Evans and Japan's Wakana Sonobe beat unseeded Kayla Chung and Alanis Hamilton 6-3, 3-6, 11-9, saving a match point with Chung serving at 9-8 in the tiebreaker.
Sonobe hit a forehand volley winner to extend the match, and Evans and Sonobe won the next two points to claim their first title in their first tournament as a team.
Evans and Hamilton, semifinalists at Junior Wimbledon this year, beat Sonobe and her partner in the second round, but Hamilton was playing with Chung this week, after the pair reached the USTA 18 finals in San Diego earlier this month.
Sonobe reached out to Evans, and the pair won two close matches in the second round and quarterfinals, 12-10 and 10-8 in match tiebreakers, convincing them they could compete for the title.
"We played well throughout the tournament and played tiebreakers really well together," said Evans, an 18-year-old from nearby McLean Virginia. "We play important points well, we make a good team, I think."
"She's so good," said Sonobe, a 15-year-old left-hander from Japan. "She has a good serve and good volleys."
Although Evans said all the close matches were good practice for the US Open Junior Championships, they will not be playing together, with Evans reuniting with Hamilton and Sonobe playing with Hayu Kinoshita of Japan, who did not play this week's tournament.
The boys champions played their first tournament together in Kalamazoo, and two weeks later Alex Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan are now on a 11-match winning streak after defeating No. 3 seeds Radulov and Tiahui Zhang of China 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-7.
After capturing the Kalamazoo 18s title as the No. 7 seeds while saving a match point in the final, Frusina and Ganesan prepared for their US Open men's main draw match next week by taking out five teams in the international field this week without the benefit of a seed.
The won their first two matches in match tiebreakers, so they were not about to panic when Radulov and Zhang took the second set in the final.
Down 3-0 to start the deciding tiebreaker, they went up 6-4, but they lost that mini-break when Ganesan missed a volley to make it 6-6 at the second change of ends. Frusina held for a 7-6 lead, then Ganesan redeemed himself with a volley winner on Zhang's serve to take an 8-6 lead. Zhang held for 8-7, but Ganesan stroked a backhand winner to get to match point and bombed a good first serve to convert it.
"We didn't necessarily start the way we wanted to in terms of our level, but we kind of stuck in there the whole time," said Frusina, a 17-year-old from Texas. "It's something we've been doing really good together, hanging in matches, just trying to be loose in crunch time, like we did in today's final."
"We have confidence now, each match it builds," said the 17-year-old Ganesan, who will be starting at Cornell in January due to all the school he will be missing in the next two weeks at the US Open. "We've won 11 matches now, we've played a lot of good teams, but we're just playing our game and whatever happens happens. In the pressure moments, we're playing better than our opponents."
Frusina and Ganesan are heading for New York Sunday and awaiting the draw, to see if they are able to match the 2022 Kalamazoo 18s champions Ethan Quinn and Nicholas Godsick, who won a round in men's doubles last year.
"We'll be getting there tomorrow, and obviously we're super excited about it," Frusina said. "We just have a lot of confidence and a lot of energy flowing with us right now. Look, we're going to be going up against the best teams in the world, and that's where you want to be, to be able to test our game, have a lot of fun out there and see where it takes us."
The final round of qualifying at the US Open concluded today, with six Americans, three men and three women, advancing to the main draw.
ITA Player of the Year Fiona Crawley of North Carolina, who had won her first two qualifying matches in third set tiebreakers, had a straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 13 seed Kimberly Birrell of Australia today to reach the main draw.
Below are the results from today; I'll have the main draw matchups for the American qualifiers in tomorrow night's post.
Third round US Open qualifying Friday:
Sachia Vickery d. Yanina Wickmayer[3] 3-1 ret.
Katie Volynets d. Erika Andreeva 6-1, 4-6, 6-2
Third round US Open qualifying Saturday:
Zachary Svajda d. Marc Polmans 6-2, 6-1
Nicolas Moreno De Alboran[25] d. Joris De Loore 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(12)
Emilio Nava d. Eliot Spizzirri[WC] 3-6, 6-3, 3-1 ret.
Olivia Gadecki d. Emina Bektas[26] 6-1, 6-1
Greet Minnen[5] d. Katrina Scott[WC] 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Eva Lys d. Maccartney Kessler[WC] 6-2, 6-1
Fiona Crawley[WC] d. Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 6-3
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