Semifinals Set at ITF J300 College Park After Six Routine and Two Tense Quarterfinals; US Open Junior Wild Cards; Kalamazoo Champion Tien Draws Tiafoe in First Round of US Open; Round Two of USO Qualifying Disrupted by Rain

©Colette Lewis 2023--
College Park MD--

After a plethora of three-set matches in the third round, most of the quarterfinals at the ITF J300 at the Junior Tennis Champions Center Thursday were less dramatic, with just one boys match and one girls match going the distance. The top three seeds in the girls draw, plus an American qualifier, have advanced to the Friday's semifinals, while the No. 2 and 3 seeds remain in the boys draw, as well as two Americans.

The weather was cool and overcast most of the day, with a 30-minute rain delay in the early afternoon due to a brief shower, so the physical demands weren't a big part of the story, but Alexander Frusina had to draw on his mental game to earn his fourth victory this week from a set down.

Frusina's 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over unseeded Charlie Robertson of Great Britain followed a similar pattern to his previous three victories.

"So far this tournament I've been starting slow the first few games of the first set, doing the right things, but not executing the way I wanted to," said the 17-year-old from Texas. "By the time I figure out what needs to happen, I feel like I make good changes and when I start peaking, it's quite a good level."

Frusina said he has no reason to doubt that he can come back regardless of the opponent or the situation.

"When you see a lot of things fall right and go your way in close three-set matches, seeing the things you did to get yourself back into the match and turn it around, it can definitely bring a lot of confidence," Frusina said.

Down a break early in the third set, Frusina knew there was no need to panic.

"I lost my serve at 1-all, just played a bad game, but I knew if I stayed with him in each of his service games I was going to get some of my own chances," Frusina said.

Holding at 4-all gave Frusina a chance to use the same pressure that had helped him get that early break back.

Robertson had a game point for 5-all, but netted a drop shot, then made an unforced error to give Frusina his first match point. A third shot forehand winner off a good first serve saved it, but Frusina earned another with a passing shot winner. Robertson missed his first serve, but Frusina broke a string, so Robertson got another first serve, but he didn't make that, or the next one, double faulting to give Frusina the win.

"My whole goal at 5-4 was to make every single return and really have him earn the last game," Frusina said. "I just told myself that I wasn't giving him anything, unless he played an incredible point. I was going to hustle and recover and stay in those long rallies, outlast him."

Frusina has reached J300 semifinals three times before, in Ecuador last year and in Egypt and in Thailand early this year, where he reached the final, but this is his first J300 semifinal in the United States.

"It's been a few months now, so it definitely feels good to be back in this position," Frusina. "I've seen my level peak at higher points every round. I wouldn't necessarily say I played my best in any match, but in today's match, when I got rolling, I was striking the ball really well, getting good depth on the ball and it was really challenging for him."

Frusina will face No. 2 seed Iliyan Radulov of Bulgaria, who ended the run of wild card Cyrus Mahjoob with a dominating 6-2, 6-1 victory. 

"I've never played against him in singles, just once in doubles," Frusina said. "He's going to be a very tough challenge, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm really excited to be playing on Friday."

No. 15 seed Alex Razeghi continued his dominance of No. 6 seed Rei Sakamoto, cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 victory to run his record against his fellow 17-year-old to 3-0.  Razeghi will face No. 3 seed Branko Djuric of Serbia, who defeated No. 7 seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway 6-3, 7-5. Razeghi won their only previous meeting, 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the Grade A in Milan in 2022.

The lone girls three-setter was No. 3 seed Teodora Kostovic's 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over No. 7 seed Gloriana Nahum of Benin, with the three-hour match ending with both players in tears after the match.

Today was the first day where chair umpires were used, with players no longer calling their own lines, but the chair responsible for calling all the lines. Every year this inevitably leads to issues; there are arguments between players in the early rounds, but they seem to trust each other more than the chair umpire when he or she misses a few calls early. 

Kostovic had saved two match points in her 0-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) win over No. 14 seed Ariana Pursoo Wednesday on the same court, so she was prepared for another battle, as was Nahum, who had beaten No. 11 seed Mika Buchnik of Israel 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in three-hour and 20-minutes in the third round.

"I just tried to stay positive, just keep going, no matter what the score," said the 16-year-old Serbian, a member of the ITF Grand Slam Player Development team during this North American swing. "When I was down, I just tried to keep going, and I win the match because I try to be aggressive and just focus on the ball."

With Kostovic attempting to serve out the match at 5-4 in the third, the chair signaled a Kostovic ball that appeared to be at least several inches behind the baseline was good, with Nahum reacting with disbelief at the decision. Nahum collected herself and continued, but as the next point was played, her several dozen supporters, many with ties to JTCC, expressed their disagreement with the line call decision.

Kostovic blocked out the anger from the sidelines and struck an ace on match point, which sent Nahum collapsing in sobs at the baseline, with her mother eventually going on to the court to comfort her. Kostovic briefly broke into tears as she began collecting her things at her chair, but recovered almost immediately.

"Everybody was cheering for her, and I just tried to look at my team and stay happy," said Kostovic, who makes an Azarenka-like sound when hitting the ball that can be heard from several courts away. "They started talking bad things about me and I didn't like, so that was a little bit of emotions, but it's ok now."

Despite two consecutive three-hour matches, Kostovic wasn't planning to take it easy the remainder of the day.

"I'll go onto the court again today to practice to fix my weaknesses, for tomorrow and I hope for the final," said Kostovic, who will face No. 2 seed Emerson Jones of Australia for the first time Friday. The 15-year-old from Australia defeated No. 9 seed Monika Stankiewicz of Poland 6-0, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Top seed Mayu Crossley of Japan, who saved two match points in her third round win over No. 16 Alexia Harmon Wednesday, rolled to a 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 8 seed Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-1. Crossley is now 3-0 against Dencheva since last December's Eddie Herr, with all three wins coming in quarterfinals.

Crossley will take on qualifier Aspen Schuman, who won her seventh match in six days to reach the semifinals of the second J300 of her junior career. The 16-year-old Californian defeated Ashton Bowers 6-1, 6-2 in an all-US contest. Crossley is 1-0 against Schuman, with that 6-2, 7-5 victory almost two years ago at a J30 in San Diego.

The boys doubles semifinalists were decided today, with two unseeded teams from the United States advancing against two seeded teams of international players. 

Twins Kaylan and Meecah Bigun defeated wild cards Cale Henceroth and Kase Schinnerer 6-2, 7-5, coming back from 5-2 down in the second set, and will play No. 3 seeds Radulov and Tianhui Zhang of China. Radulov and Zhang defeated No. 6 seeds Kevin Edengren of Sweden and Volodymyr Iakubenko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-2.  

Kalamazoo 18s champions Adhithya Ganesan and Alexander Frusina have now extended their winning streak to nine matches, defeating unseeded Andrew Delgado and Matthew Forbes 6-3, 6-2. They will play No. 5 seeds Robertson and Tomasz Berkieta of Poland, who beat No. 4 seeds Razeghi and Roy Horovitz 6-3, 6-3.

Play begins at 9:30 a.m. Friday, with one boys and one girls semifinal, followed by the other two singles semifinals, and the doubles semifinals after the singles.

Live scoring is available here.

The US Open Junior Championships wild cards have been released. While these are always fluid, this is the current list ahead of the competition, which begins with qualifying on August 31.

Boys main draw:

Nishesh Basavareddy

Max Exsted

Alexander Frusina

Adhithya Ganesan

Zhengqing Ji

Trevor Svajda

Cooper Woestendick

TBD

Girls main draw:

Valerie Glozman

Katherine Hui

Christasha McNeil

Victoria Osuigwe

Kristina Penickova

Anita Tu

Akasha Urhobo

TBD

Boys qualifying:

Calvin Baierl

Stiles Brockett

Matthew Forbes

Jagger Leach

Shunya Takekata (Japanese High School champion)

TBD

Girls qualifying:

Shannon Lam

Nancy Lee

Annika Penickova

Julieta Pareja

Nanaka Sato (Japanese High School champion)

TBD

The draws were released today for next week's US Open main draw, with Kalamazoo 18s champion Learner Tien drawn against 2015 Kalamazoo 18s champion Frances Tiafoe. San Diego champion Clervie Ngounoue will face Daria Saville(formerly Gavrilova) of Australia in the first round, and possibly Iga Swiatek in the second round. 

NCAA champion Ethan Quinn will play Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain.

Below are the matchups for the 16 American men and the 21 American women currently in the main draw. 

Women's Top Half (Monday):

Clervie Ngounoue[WC] v Daria Saville(AUS)
Lauren Davis v Danka Kovinic(MNE)
Bernarda Pera v Veronika Kudermetova[16]
Jennifer Brady v Qualifier
Danielle Collins v Linda Fruhvirtova(CZE)
Coco Gauff[6] v Qualifier
Kayla Day[WC] v Sorana Cirstea[30](ROU)
Emma Navarro v Magdalena Frech(POL)
Taylor Townsend v Varvara Gracheva(FRA)
Sloane Stephens v Beatriz Haddad Maia[19](BRA)

Women's Bottom Half (Tuesday):
Peyton Stearns v Viktoriya Tomova(BUL)
Claire Liu v Liudmila Samsonova[14](RUS)
Madison Keys[17] v Arantxa Rus(NED)
Jessica Pegula[3] v Camila Giorgi(ITA)
Madison Brengle v Linda Noskova(CZE)
Ashlyn Krueger[WC] v Marie Bouzkova[31](CZE)
Robin Montgomery[WC] v Qualifier
Alycia Parks v Daria Kasatkina[13](RUS)
Sofia Kenin v Ana Bogdan(ROU)
Venus Williams[WC] v Paul Badosa(ESP)
Caroline Dolehide v Clara Burel(FRA)

Men's Top Half (Tuesday):

Alex Michelsen[WC] v Albert Ramos-Vinolas(ESP)
Michael Mmoh[WC] v Karen Khachanov[11](RUS)
John Isner[WC] v Facundo Diaz Acosta(ARG)

Men's Bottom Half (Monday):

JJ Wolf v Zhizhen Zhang(CHN)

Sebastian Korda[31] v Marton Fucsovics(HUN)
Learner Tien[WC] v Frances Tiafoe[10]
Tommy Paul[14] v Qualifier
Marcos Giron v Alejandro Davidovich Fokina[21](ESP)
Ben Shelton v Pedro Cachin(ARG)
Christopher Eubanks[28] v Soonwoo Kwon(KOR)
Steve Johnson[WC] v Taylor Fritz[9]
Mackenzie McDonald v Felix Auger-Aliassime[15](CAN)
Brandon Nakashima v Laslo Djere[32](SRB)
Ethan Quinn[WC] v Bernabe Zapata Miralles(ESP)

The men's draw is here; the women's draw is here.

Thursday's second round of US Open qualifying has seen several lengthy rain delays and many matches have been canceled for the day. Below are the second round results; postponed second round matches and some third round matches can be found on Friday's schedule.

Second round of US Open qualifying:

Aidan Mayo d. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-6-(6), 7-6(8)

Katie Volynets[25] d. Celine Naef 6-3, 6-4

Elli Mandlik d. Anna Bondar[24] 6-3, 7-6(6)

Sachia Vickery d. Viktorija Golubic 2-6, 6-2, 6-2