Indian Wells ITF J300 Recap; Mayew Versus Kennedy in Boys ITF J300 San Diego Final, Jovic and Penickova Reach Girls Championship Match; Stanford Teammates, SMU's Svajda Reach Calabasas $25K Semifinals

©Colette Lewis 2024--
San Diego California--

Wild card Rudy Quan and unseeded Valerie Glozman were not projected to claim their first ITF Junior Circuit titles last week in Indian Wells, but the former Easter Bowl champions proved their mettle once again at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. If you weren't able to follow my daily coverage, my recap, posted today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, will bring you up to speed on a good week for American juniors, with all four champions from the United States.

The odds for US champions were even greater this week in San Diego, with the ITF J300 tournament open only to players from the United States and Canada. Although Quan and Glozman did not compete this week, Americans will sweep the championships again after all-US singles semifinals and doubles finals were played today at the Barnes Tennis Center.

The first player into the final was top seed Iva Jovic, who also was a finalist last year. The 16-year-old from California has spent very little time on court this week, losing only six games; this morning's match with wild card Elizabeth Ionescu was even shorter than her previous three contests, with Ionescu retiring down 4-0 with an injury to her left knee.

"When I saw her walking to the court, I could tell there was something wrong," Jovic said. "So I just told myself to make some balls in the court, test it out, see how she's was feeling. The court was very open, so I tried to open it up with wide serve targets then hitting the open court. Unfortunately she was hurting really bad, which sucks; she's a good friend of mine, so I hope she feels better soon."

Jovic got to know the 15-year-old from Pennsylvania during a  training block at the USTA National Campus. 

"I roomed with her at the Orlando dorms a month ago," Jovic said. "Roommates, you meet someone pretty closely, so we became good friends there."

That interaction in Lake Nona also provided Jovic will a feel for how Ionescu would play.

"I definitely had a good idea of how I was going to play her, but there wasn't much of a match today because of physical circumstances," Jovic said. "But she's a great player, and I know it would have been a fight if she was healthy."

Jovic, who lost to Clervie Ngounoue 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-0 in last year's final, will face No. 11 seed Kristina Penickova, who came back to post a 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 win over No. 4 seed Aspen Schuman. Schuman received changeover treatment for cramping down 1-4 in the second set, and Penickova didn't lose a game after that.

It was Penickova's first win over Schuman, after losing to her in straight sets in both the Pan American Closed J300 last September and the USTA Winter Nationals last December.

"I was definitely more patient and consistent today," said the 14-year-old from California, who will be playing in her second J300 final of the year and her career Saturday. "The two times I played her I tried to be too aggressive and I would make the mistake in the end. I mean, she would hit really good shots and we would have really good rallies, but today I was patient and consistent with my shots."

Once she dropped the first set, Penickova vowed to change the match dynamic.

"I think I just changed my mindset a little bit, I was just like, I'm going to grind now, not miss at all," said the Eddie Herr 16s champion. "I was making more mistakes, going for a little too much in the first set, so I was like, I'm not going to miss now, stay consistent and wait for her mistake. I did feel like around 2-1 in the second, she started to move a little slower, but I tried not to be too conscious of that, to start getting ahead of myself. So I just tried to continue to play my game, pretend like nothing's happening and I think that worked."

Penickova admitted that not only did her 0-2 record against Schuman provide motivation, but her win over twin sister Annika in the quarterfinal also made today's victory a high priority.

"Yesterday was really tough," Penickova said. "Playing your sister is never great, but it is what it is. By now we know, one of us is going to win and we wish the best for the other one after the win, so yeah, I felt this (win today) was a little more important, since I beat her yesterday, I felt the need to show her I can win."

Penickova and Jovic haven't played before, but have practiced together, so Penickova is familiar with Jovic's game.

"I'll need to stay really consistent and really positive, because I think for me, staying positive really helps," said Penickova, who lost in the second round here last year. "Consistency, but stay aggressive as well. I've played her in practice matches before and I know she likes to be aggressive, so I don't want to be passive."

The boys final will feature two of the hottest players on the ITF Junior Circuit, with No. 7 seed Ian Mayew, 20-1 this year, taking on No. 8 seed Jack Kennedy, 22-3, who lost in last week's J300 Indian Wells final.

Mayew defeated No. 3 seed and 2023 finalist Roy Horovitz 6-2, 7-5 in a first-time meeting that lasted just short of two hours.

Mayew, who lost in the singles quarterfinals at Indian Wells last week and won the doubles title, said that his first loss of the year, to top seed Kaylan Bigun, didn't dent his confidence.

"I knew my level was still there, even if I lost to Kaylan," said the 17-year-old from North Carolina. "It didn't ruin my confidence at all, so I came in here with the same mindset, that I'm coming off great tennis and I know I can compete with anyone out here."

Mayew got an early break in both sets against Horovitz, but he couldn't serve out the match at 5-4, which didn't faze him.

"The second set was a lot closer, we had a lot longer points because he really locked it down, cut down his errors," said Mayew, who has verbally committed to North Carolina for 2025. "I had broken him a lot before; his serve is very tricky, has a lot of spin on it, but I felt I could get a racquet on it every time."

Mayew did break back immediately after getting broken, and converted his his second opportunity to serve it out.

Kennedy also had a slight blip closing out his 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 10 seed Nikita Filin. 

The 15-year-old from New York had a 5-1 lead in the second set and served for it at 5-2, but Filin broke and held to put the pressure back on Kennedy. 

"At 5-2 he raised his level, put in a good return game and got a little momentum," Kennedy said. "He had a good service game at 5-3, so I kind of slowed things down to calm down the momentum a little bit. At 30-all I played a good point, hit a good approach and he missed a lob, so after that I had a little more of the momentum and confidence for that 40-30 point and was able to close it out."

Kennedy and Mayew will be meeting for the first time, but are well aware of the other's success this year.

"He's been on a good run recently and I think he's really confident," Kennedy said. "I've been more confident recently, with the results I've been having, so that just shows it's going to be a good match tomorrow, that we're both going to bring a high level. I'm looking forward to it, and another learning experience."

"He's a pretty young kid and he's also having a really good run," Mayew said. "He's balling out right now, so it's going to be a great final tomorrow, I'm sure of it."

While both singles finals will be a first-time meeting, the girls doubles final, played during the four semifinals in singles, was definitely not. No. 7 seeds Alanis Hamilton and Kayla Chung got their revenge on No. 3 seeds Kate Fakih and Olivia Center, taking the title 6-4, 6-3.

Unseeded Fakih and Center had beaten No. 4 seeds Hamilton and Chung 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4 on the very same Barnes Tennis Center Stadium Court, in the final of last August's USTA 18s National Championships.

"We definitely had motivation," said the 16-year-old Chung, who partnered with Hamilton to claim the USTA Winter National 18s and Easter Bowl 16s titles last year. "And we really did well on our service games. We pretty much had an easy time holding throughout the match and we kind of mixed it up well on the close deuce points."

"I agree we were serving pretty well," said the 16-year-old Hamilton, who reached the Indian Wells ITF final last week with Claire An. "A high first serve percentage and knocking off the volleys very easily, which helped us big time. And early on, in both sets, we got a break which I believe was one of the most important games. We've been in this situation multiple times now, so I think we went out there today loose and just ready."

Chung and Hamilton did not lose a set all week, so when Hamilton dropped serve on a deciding point with a double fault serving for the match at 5-2, they didn't panic, and broke Fakih in the next game on another deciding point.

The boys doubles final, played in the afternoon with Horovitz needing rest after his singles semifinal, pitted the top two seeds, with Australian Open boys doubles champions Max Exsted and Cooper Woestendick beating No. 1 seeds Horovitz and Razeghi 6-4, 7-6(3).

Woestendick and Exsted won the first set on a deciding point with a huge first serve by Woestendick, and they came up big late in the second set, saving four set points on serve, at 4-5 and 5-6.

"Cooper came up clutch, we both came up clutch in the big moments," said the 17-year-old Exsted, who won the doubles title last year with Nikita Filin. "When it comes down to small margins I think we have an edge."

"I feel like we've just have enough trust in each other, we've played with each other enough, we're confident in each other so we know what we're going to do," said Woestendick, also 17. "So it's not just the big points, but every point. We know our patterns, and have been doing that pretty well, and on the big points, can you play simple tennis. And we did that pretty well today."

Woestendick and Exsted didn't drop a set all week, with their last three matches all ending with scores of 6-4, 7-6.

"In each of them we were up a set and a break and we let them back in it," Woestendick said. "These guys played really well and we got lucky to win the (second) set."

Woestendick and Exsted have now won two J300 titles and a junior slam this year, with their only loss of the year in the quarterfinals last week at Indian Wells.

The singles finals are both scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, in the hope of beating the rain that is predicted to arrive during the day.

At the $25,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Calabasas California, Stanford sophomores Nishesh Basavareddy and Samir Banerjee have advanced to Saturday's semifinals. Basavareddy, the No. 8 seed, defeated No. 3 seed and last week's Bakersfield $25K champion Brandon Holt(USC) 6-1, 6-3; the unseeded Banerjee beat qualifier Pablo Masjuan Ginel(UC-Santa Barbara) of Spain 6-3, 6-2.  Stanford freshman Kyle Kang lost to Charlie Broom(Dartmouth/Baylor) of Great Britain 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, but he and teammate Neel Rajesh, who received a wild card, have reached the doubles final.

Basavareddy will play Broom, with Banerjee taking on 17-year-old wild card Trevor Svajda. Svajda, a freshman at SMU, defeated Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in a match that finished at 9:30 p.m. Pacific time.