Glozman, Farzam Oust No. 4 Seeds, Wild Card Quan Rolls into Quarterfinals at ITF J300 Indian Wells; Top Seeds, Australian Open Champions Upset in Boys Doubles Quarterfinals

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Indian Wells CA--

Cool and breezy conditions were no impediment to a trio of Americans, who took out more highly ranked players to reach Friday's quarterfinals at the ITF J300 FILA International Championships at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Valerie Glozman, Matisse Farzam and Rudy Quan all have had success on these courts in past years and continue to prove up to the challenges in the less than ideal playing conditions.

Glozman, a 17-year-old from Washington, won the Easter Bowl 16s title on these courts in 2022, the Easter Bowl 18s title last year, while also reaching the quarterfinals at the inaugural tournament here the second week of the BNP Paribas Open in 2023. Today she defeated No. 4 seed Shannon Lam 6-4, 6-2, who she had beaten last year in the Easter Bowl 18s semifinals and in the second round of the USTA 18s in San Diego.

"Every time it's a battle," said Glozman, who has committed to Stanford for this fall and had several future teammates cheering her on earlier in the week. "She's just incredibly fast and tenacious out there, she never gives up. I just find her style really challenging to play, she's super disruptive, she'll come up with some great shots at the right moments, so I know I have to be on my game the whole match. It's a little bit of a nightmare to play against her, but I guess I knew what to expect going into it and that helped."

Glozman has taken the opportunity to watch the pros play in the six days she's been onsite, including yesterday's match between Emma Navarro and Aryna Sabalenka.

"It's just really cool observing the pros," said Glozman, who has played the US Open women's qualifying the past two years and has picked up a victory each time. "Watching you think, how on earth do they do that? but some of them are a little more relatable, because when you watch the highlights you only see the crazy points, but when you watch them in person and live, you see the ebb and flow of the match and it's a little more relatable, a little more achievable."

Glozman will face 14-year-old Anita Tu, who defeated Nadia Lagaev of Canada 6-4, 7-6(4) to reach her first J300 quarterfinal.

Like Glozman, wild card Rudy Quan made a quarterfinal appearance here last year and has an Easter Bowl title on these courts as part of his junior resume, winning the boys 12s championship in 2018. Facing No. 8 seed Jagger Leach this morning, when the wind was at its worst, Quan adjusted quickly, coming from 3-1 down in the first to claim a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Quan said he has a lot of experience dealing with wind and did not find it particularly frustrating.

"I live in Thousand Oaks and in the winter and spring it's very windy," said the 18-year-old Californian. "So I'm really used to it, have already played a lot of matches in super windy conditions. You've got to accept what it is, and it probably took me three games to get used to it. When the wind dies down, you can play your game a little more, but it didn't really take too much adjusting for me."

After dropping six straight games, Leach held, but he was broken in his second service game of the set, and Quan made that lone break hold up. He didn't face a break point in the second set and made over 80 percent of his first serves in the match, closing out his first meeting with the 16-year-old Leach with another clean game.

"You've got to know where you want to serve and where the next ball is going to go," said Quan, who will join the UCLA Bruins this fall. "You have to have a clear mindset throughout the whole thing. You've got to make him hit four winners to beat you, you've got to make him raise his level to beat you. But honestly it was just to stay present, to control what you can control out there."

Quan will face the only non-American left in the draw, unseeded Bernardo Munk Mesa of Spain, who defeated Jordan Reznick 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The other quarterfinal in the top half will feature top seed Kaylan Bigun against No. 9 seed Ian Mayew. Bigun defeated No. 14 seed Kase Schinnerer 6-2, 6-2, while Mayew added to his J300 winning streak with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 4 seed Tiangui Zhang of China.

Defending champion Cooper Woestendick defeated No. 16 seed Hugh Winter of Australia 7-6(5), 6-3 and will face the other wild card to advance to the quarterfinals, Mitchell Lee. Lee defeated Benjamin Willwerth 6-4, 6-2.

The fourth quarterfinal will feature No. 10 seed Jack Kennedy and No. 13 seed Farzam, with Kennedy beating Dominick Mosejczuk 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Farzam coming from 4-1 down in the third set to take out No. 4 seed Viktor Frydrych of Great Britain 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3).

Farzam qualified for last year's tournament here and reached the third round before falling to top seed Bigun, a result that boosted his confidence.

"Last year I came through qualies, won two good main draw matches and lost to Kaylan, which was an amazing experience, especially then," said the 17-year-old left-hander from Connecticut, who has verbally committed to Ohio State. "I was ranked outside the Top 500 at the time, so last year was a great memory for me, when I started to set things up."

Farzam had lost to Frydrych last November at the J300 in Mexico 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, so he knew what to expect.

"I knew coming into this match I should try to get on top of him quick, but he came out firing," said Farzam, who took a break after the set to change his outfit. "I reset a bit, and decided to be more aggressive and I think that paid off because he was dictating and I did a good job of putting the pressure back on him."

Farzam went up two breaks in the second set, lost one of them, but held serving at 5-4 to send the match to a third set. Down 4-1, Farzam got back to even and had two break points with Frydrych, also a left-hander, serving at 15-40. But Frydrych served his way out of that spot to take a 5-4 lead, putting the pressure back on Farzam, who won a deuce game to pull even. After Frydrych held at love for 6-5, Farzam fell behind 15-30, but Frydrych couldn't capitalize, making an unforced forehand error and missing a volley and a backhand to send the match to a final tiebreaker.

Frydrych had won a third set tiebreaker in his second round match with Canadian Connor Church on Wednesday, but he fell behind immediately and then lost both his serves down 3-4 to give Farzam three match points. He only needed one, with Frydrych sending a backhand long to end the match.

"It was a really good match, really high level," said Farzam, who was already looking forward to playing his friend Kennedy on Friday. "We used to train together when we were younger, he's a super kid, he was cheering me on today, helped me get through that one. But we've never played before in singles or doubles, so it should be fun. He's playing great right now and I'm really excited for it."

Christina Lyutova may have needed to save a match point in the final round of qualifying, but the 14-year-old continued her impressive play in the main draw, defeating No. 9 seed Ariana Pursoo 6-1, 6-1. Lyutova, who lives in Washington but does not yet have the immigration status to compete for the United States, will play top seed Teodora Kostovic of Serbia, who needed two hours and 26 minutes to get past No. 13 seed Maya Iyengar 7-6(5), 7-6(5).

That is the only quarterfinals that doesn't feature two Americans. In the top half with No. 3 seed Thea Frodin will face Olivia Center, after Frodin defeated Dune Vaissaud of France 6-3, 7-5 and Center downed Leena Friedman 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2, in three hours and 35 minutes.  

In the bottom half, it's Tu and Glozman, and No. 2 seed Iva Jovic against No. 12 seed Monika Ekstrand. Jovic defeated wild card Alexis Nguyen 6-3, 6-3, while Ekstrand beat No. 6 seed Kate Fakih 6-4, 7-5.

Several accomplished doubles teams were upset today in the quarterfinals, with both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds losing in the boys draw.

Australian Open boys doubles champions and No. 2 seeds Cooper Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted had a match point at 9-8 in the match tiebreaker against unseeded Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth, but Willwerth hit a spectacular overhead winner from an awkward position to save it, and they won the next two points to claim a 7-6(4), 3-6, 11-9 victory. They will play No. 4 seeds Ian Mayew and Kase Schinnerer, who beat No. 8 seeds Rafael Botran Neutze of Guatemala and Joaquin Guilleme of Nicaragua 2-6, 6-4, 10-7.

Unseeded Dominick Mosejczuk and Jack Secord defeated top seeds Viktor Frydrych and Tianhui Zhang 6-1, 6-4 in a match that finished well after dark; they will play No. 3 seeds Nikita Filin and Jagger Leach, who beat No. 7 seeds Meecah Bigun and Alex Razeghi 6-2, 7-5 in another all-United States semifinal.

Only one seeded team remains in the girls doubles semifinals, with No. 5 seeds Claire An and Alanis Hamilton defeating No. 4 seeds Teodora Kostovic and Yichen Zhao of China 6-1, 2-6, 10-5. An and Hamilton will play the unseeded 14-year-old wild cards Welles Newman and Maggie Sohns, who beat No. 7 seeds Leena Friedman and Christasha McNeil 7-5, 6-2.

In the bottom half, the only international team still remaining is Sarah Fajmonova of the Czech Republic and Nadia Lagaev, who beat 2023 San Diego 18s champions Kate Fakih and Olivia Center 6-4, 6-3. Lagaev and Fajmonova will face unseeded Alyssa Ahn and Bianca Molnar, who beat Capucine Jauffret and Kori Montoya 6-3, 6-4. 

Play begins at 10 a.m. Friday, with the first four quarterfinals, followed the four more quarterfinals and the doubles semifinals on Stadium Courts 3, 4, 5 and 6.