Tien Comes From Behind to Beat Blanch and Return to 18s Semifinals; Kennedy Rebounds from 6-1 Third Set Tiebreaker Deficit to Reach 16s Quarterfinals; Grand Rapids' Caldwell Bounces Back Again
©Colette Lewis 2023--
Kalamazoo MI--
The weather wasn't particularly hot and humid, but the tension and lengthy of three of the Kalamazoo 18s quarterfinals brought cramping to the forefront Thursday afternoon on the front courts at Stowe Stadium.
2022 Kalamazoo 16s champion Darwin Blanch had a 6-2, 3-1 lead on defending 18s champion and top seed Learner Tien, but Tien managed to find his way back, despite not playing his best tennis. After taking a 2-0 lead to start the match, Tien then lost the next eight games, which he attributed to a lack of execution on his part.
"I had some opportunities to hold at 2-0, and I didn't play badly on my game points," the 17-year-old left-hander said. "But it wasn't bad decisions, I just missed balls that I shouldn't have missed. He kind of capitalized, momentum shifted, I started pressing a little bit more and missing, so he kind of ran away with it."
Tien didn't exactly panic down 3-1 in the second set, but he knew he could not get any further behind.
"I knew if I got broken again, that would be match," Tien said. "I knew that he might give me one, but he wouldn't give me two. So I thought if I kept it close, I know he's younger, he obviously doesn't quite have the experience of closing some of these matches out, might have times when the focus slips, so if I kept it within one, I'd be giving myself a legitimate shot."
Blanch, the No. 6 seed, was up 40-15 serving at 3-2 in the second set, but Tien got the break back, then held a crucial game at 5-all, saving three break points in the six-deuce game and finally ending it with a volley winner.
Tien said he thought that whoever won that game would win the set and probably the match, and although Blanch held at 15 to send the set to a tiebreaker, Tien took a quick 5-1 lead that turned into a 6-1 lead when Blanch was given a point penalty for racquet abuse, with his racquet flying into the bleachers after he swatted at the ball, angry at his miss.
"I noticed, randomly during that match that he wasn't wearing a wristband or anything, wondering how his hands wouldn't be sweaty, how he would hold his grip," Tien said. "Then when he went to hit that ball, it just flew straight out of his hand. It didn't look intentional at all, but it went into the stands and someone was sitting right there, it could have hit someone for sure. I wasn't surprised he would get a code, I just wasn't sure if it would be a warning or a point right away."
Blanch made another error on the next point, and didn't look fully recovered after the 10-minute break between sets that is mandated by USTA rules.
Tien took a 2-0 lead in the third, but then he started to donate points and suddenly Blanch was back in the match, breaking for 2-2 and holding to regain the lead. But the 15-year-old left-hander began to show obvious signs of cramping, especially when landing after a serve, and he began to try to end points as quickly as possible.
"It was in his third service game, when he had his hands on his knees a little bit, but that's when I started to feel it too," Tien said. "At first, I was like, oh, he's cramping now, and then two points later, I was like, oh, now I'm starting to cramp. I think I was able to hide it a little bit better, and maybe it wasn't as bad, and I was able to control it a little bit better. It was majority nerves; we had a long match, but it's not super hot, it was just a lot of close games, a lot of tight moments."
Tien broke Blanch, who did not call a trainer for any treatment, to go up 4-3, held for 5-3, then broke again for a 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3 victory and a semifinal meeting with doubles partner Cooper Williams.
Williams, seeded fifth, avoided any possibility of stress cramping by cruising past No. 3 seed Kyle Kang 6-3, 6-0 in an hour and 20 minutes. Williams, who suffered one of his three losses to Tien last year in the quarterfinals of Kalamazoo 7-6(5), 6-3, has dropped just 13 games in his first five victories.
"I feel we see each other a good bit, we hit together, practice together fairly frequently," Tien said. "I know he's playing well, but we see so much of each other, I think we know what to expect from each other, how we're both going to play. It just depends on how well we can execute."
The other semifinal Saturday will feature No. 10 seed Trevor Svajda and No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy, after both came through in three arduous sets.
The 17-year-old Svajda, who was also showing signs of cramping against No. 16 seed Lucas Brown, survived their three-hour and 38-minute battle to post a 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-3 victory. Svajda build a 3-0 lead in the third set, but Brown, who took a medical timeout for what appeared to be a back problem before serving at 0-3, got back on serve only to get broken again. Brown, the 2021 Kalamazoo 16s finalist, saved a match point serving at 2-5, but Svajda closed it out in his first opportunity on serve.
Basavareddy and Roy Horovitz, the No. 9 seed, had a marathon second set, with two 8-deuce games and one that went nine deuces. Basavareddy trailed 4-1 in the second, came back for 4-all, but was broken in the second 3-deuce game of the set.
After the break Basavareddy took control with a break at love to go up 3-1 and after holding for 4-2 looked much the fresher player in the final two games of the three-hour contest.
The 16s played their round of 16 in singles Thursday morning, with top seed Maxwell Exsted and No. 2 seed Cooper Woestendick getting through in straight sets, although not without challenges. Exsted defeated No. 11 seed Nicholas Mekhael 6-2, 6-3 to set up a meeting with No. 6 seed Jagger Leach, who came back to defeat unseeded Mark Krupkin 2-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Woestendick defeated No. 12 seed Ronit Karki 6-1, 6-3, but it took two hours despite the routine-looking score. Woestendick will face No. 10 seed Jack Kennedy, who had what can only be described as a miraculous victory over No. 7 seed Maximus Dussault, winning the final seven points of the match after trailing 6-1 in the third set tiebreaker.
Kennedy took the first set 6-2, lost the second 1-6, then served for the match at 5-3 in the third. He didn't close it out then, but had three match points with Dussault serving at 5-6, 0-40, only to watch as Dussault held to force a tiebreaker.
Kennedy had a strategy for playing those three match points, but couldn't execute it.
"I said to myself, ok, let's make him play as much as we can, and I did the complete opposite," said the 15-year-old from New York. "I got ahead of myself a little bit."
After that streak of poor play continued into the tiebreaker, Kennedy looked down and out, but Dussault made several unforced errors, and, at 5-6, Kennedy got a net cord winner.
"When I saw that drop on the other side of the net, I was just thanking god, thank you so much for that," said Kennedy, who had never saved more than one match point before going on to win. "Also, at that point, I felt really bad for him. But when you're down that much, you just trust your shots and go for it. And I guess it just worked out this time."
Although his comeback wasn't quite as dramatic, No. 30 seed Simon Caldwell has now beaten higher seeds on two consecutive days after dropping the opening set.
After taking out No. 3 seed Cassius Chinlund 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Acker Court Wednesday, the 16-year-old from Grand Rapids defeated No. 16 seed Keaton Hance 1-6, 6-0, 6-4 on Stowe Court 4 to advance to the quarterfinals.
"I built off what I did yesterday," said Caldwell, who is making the hour-long trip from Grand Rapids daily. "I knew if I could beat that player yesterday, I can win any match."
Caldwell attributed his slow start to being a bit off on his targets.
"He came out well, and my execution wasn't as good in the first set," Caldwell said. "I wasn't playing bad, but just wasn't hitting my spots perfectly. But I knew I could do it and came out in the second set and did it."
After taking the second set at love, Caldwell couldn't have welcomed the 10-minute break, but he said he did get some advice from his coach Tom Walker.
"He told me to make sure I was slowing down between points, that was a big thing that he said," Caldwell said. "And having a great time out there, just loving to play, and we love those third sets."
Caldwell was up 5-2, serving for the match, but was unable to close it out.
"I was playing pretty well and Keaton may not have been playing his best," Caldwell said. "But when it was 5-2, he played a good game and I maybe wasn't ready for it. He got those two games pretty quickly, so I had to keep my level for that last game. That might have been my problem when I was up 5-2, slowing my speed down, so towards the end I started going for my shots more."
On his second opportunity Caldwell didn't flinch, coming with first serves and two forehand winners to post another popular victory for the local fans.
Caldwell's opponent in Friday's quarterfinal will be No. 32 seed Noah Johnston, who defeated Cooper Han 6-2, 6-3.
The other quarterfinal in the 16s will feature No. 5 seed Dominick Mosejczuk, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Ilija Palavestra, and No. 27 seed Lachlan Gaskell, who defeated Abinav Chunduru 6-1, 6-2.
The doubles semifinals in both age divisions are set for Friday afternoon.
In the 18s, Williams and Tien, the top seeds, will face No. 7 seeds Alexander Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan, and No. 2 seeds Nicholas Godsick and Aidan Kim will play No. 3 seeds Basavareddy and Kang.
Williams and Tien played a flawless match tiebreaker to beat No. 6 seeds Nikita Filin and Stiles Brockett 4-6, 6-3, 10-3, while Frusina and Ganesan took out No. 10 seeds Brendan Boland and Jack Ingram 6-3, 6-2.
Godsick and Kim defeated No. 5 seeds Kaylan and Meecah Bigun 7-5, 6-3, while Basavareddy and Kang closed out the evening's action with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over unseeded Eli Stephenson and Hank Trondson.
In the 16s, Exsted and Woestendick defeated No. 6 seeds Dussault and Matisse Farzam 6-3, 6-2 and will play No. 3 seeds Ian Mayew and Oliver Narbut. Mayew and Narbut defeated No. 11 seeds AJ Deem and Blake Anderson 7-5, 6-3. Kennedy and Hance, the No. 4 seeds, defeated No. 9 seeds Chinlund and Jimin Jung 4-6, 6-4, 10-6. They will face No. 14 seeds Maxim Kalinin and Nicholas Patrick, who beat No. 13 seeds Jack Satterfield and Nathan Germino 6-1, 7-6(2).
Two of the 16s quarterfinals will begin at 9:30 a.m., with the other two to follow. The 18s doubles semifinals will be next, followed by the 16s doubles semifinals.
Live streaming is available at ustaboys.com.
Live scoring is available at ioncourt.com.
Draws and results, including all consolation results, can be found at the USTA tournament site.
Tomorrow's matches at the other USTA National Championships:
Quarterfinals:
Clervie Ngounoue[1] v Tatum Evans[5]
Victoria Osuigwe[3] v Valerie Glozman[6]
Piper Charney[17] v Eleana Yu[17]
Katherine Hui[17] v Reese Brantmeier[2]
Semifinals:
Christina Lyutova[1] v Julieta Pareja[9]
Anita Tu[7] v Anna Frey[11]
Semifinals:
Reiley Rhodes[7] v Reagan Levine[3]
Ellery Mendell[4] v Lyla Middleton[6]
Semifinals:
Allison Wang[1] v Nikol Davletshina[3]
Daniela Del Mastro[4] v Daniela Davletshina[5]
Semifinals:
Safir Azam[5] v Tanishk Konduri[3]
Erik Schinnerer[4] v James Andrew Ross[17]
Semifinals:
Payton Yea[17] v Joshua Dolinsky[3]
Rex Kulman[5] v Tristan Ascenzo[2]
0 comments:
Post a Comment