Lee Defeats No. 4 Seed Exsted, 2023 Finalist Horowitz Cruises to ITF J300 San Diego Quarterfinals; Easter Bowl Wild Cards, 12s and 14s Draws Posted with Play Beginning Saturday

©Colette Lewis 2024--
San Diego California--

The quarterfinals are set for the ITF J300 North American Closed at the Barnes Tennis Center, with just one Top 4 seed still alive in the boys draw after Mitchell Lee defeated No. 4 seed Maxwell Exsted 6-4, 7-6(3) Wednesday morning to join two other unseeded boys in the final eight.

Lee, an 18-year-old from California, trailed Exsted 4-1 in the second set, but was able to get that break back and hold when serving down 4-5 and 5-6 to force the tiebreaker.

"Every service game and return game was back and forth," said Lee, who will be heading to Harvard this fall. "Even though he went up 4-1 in the second, there weren't too many momentum swings. I think it was just whoever could stay mentally stronger, deal with the back and forth pressure, and I think I did that very well today, and I'm proud of myself."

Lee, who defeated Exsted at the College Park J300 last August, has been concentrating on upgrading his serve and forehand since then, and that has resulted in two quarterfinal appearances, last week at Indian Wells and now this week in San Diego, which he was not expecting.

"In the past, I have not done well here San Diego," said Lee, who has one win at this event in the previous two years. "So my first match here was really a mental battle with myself. The conditions are different, the ball doesn't move through the air as fast, I kind of favor the Indian Wells conditions. But making quarterfinals there gave me the confidence to get through the tight matches here and I'm hoping to capitalize this week."

Lee showed a willingness to come forward during the crucial stages of the match today, with his confidence in his all-court game growing due to his recent upgrades.

"For me, it's improving my serve and forehand. "My backhand has always been solid throughout my tennis career, but the last six months, I've really been focusing on my serve and forehand and today, my serve came up big and I just had to commit to my forehand. There were times when I let off a little bit and that's when I went down 1-4 in the second, gave him some opportunities, but once I put it in my mind to swing out on every shot, eventually it worked out today."

Lee will face No. 8 seed Jack Kennedy, who defeated Calvin Baierl  6-4, 6-4.

"He's had a great year and it's going to be a battle," said Lee, who hasn't played the 15-year-old from New York before. "It should be a fun one."

The other top half quarterfinal will feature unseeded Keaton Hance, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over unseeded Ronit Karki, and No. 10 seed Nikita Filin, who beat doubles partner and No. 6 seed Jagger Leach 0-6, 6-2, 7-6(5). Down 0-30 serving at 5-all, Filin stepped up his game, winning the next four points, pushing Leach to deuce in the next game and playing excellent defense to get a lead in the tiebreaker, which he ended with a great second serve return.

Unseeded Dominick Mosejczuk continued his run, avenging a recent J300 loss to No. 13 seed Maximus Dussault with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory.  Mosejczuk will have a chance to avenge another J300 loss, from last September, when he faces No. 7 seed Ian Mayew, who defeated No. 12 seed Kase Schinnerer 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

The lone Top 4 seed remaining in the boys draw is No. 3 Roy Horovitz, who has advanced the quarterfinals with the loss of just two games. 

Horovitz, the 2023 San Diego finalist, beat Prathinav Chunduru 6-0, 6-1 today, with his dominance this week a bit surprising given his absence from the Indian Wells ITF J300 last week due to a scheduling snafu.

"I was talking with my coach about probably having to start out the week winning some ugly matches," Horovitz said. "But I'll take this. I definitely don't mind it."

Horovitz missed Indian Wells when he was automatically withdrawn from the tournament when he made the qualifying draw at the 25K in the Dominican Republic the same week as Indian Wells.

"I actually had no clue that men's qualies gets priority over junior main," said Horovitz, a 17-year-old who now lives in Orlando. "On day my dad called me and told me that I had gotten pulled out of Indian Wells. I could have applied for a wild card, but there were other reasons, financial and stuff like that, and if I had the opportunity to get matches in near home, why not do that."

With the other juniors regularly training at the USTA Campus competing in Indian Wells, Horovitz had to find an alternative, and given his results this week, it was an effective one.

"On the weekend, I played like five matches in a UTR weekend tournament in some small town near Orlando, so I got a few good matches in. Then I had the week off, just finding hits, so it was a little weird training week, but once I got here the dots were connected."

Horovitz will face No. 5 seed Matthew Forbes for the first time, after Forbes advanced with a 7-6(8), 6-3 win over No. 9 seed Noah Johnston. 

"We've practiced together so many times, but I don't think we've even played a practice set against each other," said Horovitz, who has verbally committed to Virginia for 2025. "But I find it hard to believe that it's going to be like my first two matches."

Girls top seed Iva Jovic, also a 2023 San Diego finalist, has nearly matched Horovitz's dominance this week. After losing one game in her first round match Tuesday, Jovic defeated qualifier Daniela Borruel 6-2, 6-1 to advanced to a meeting with No. 12 seed Capucine Jauffret. In the longest match of the day, totally just over three hours, Jauffret defeated No. 5 seed Kate Fakih 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, after Fakih had served for the match at 5-4 in the third.

Wild card Elizabeth Ionescu, a 6-2, 6-0 winner over Adla Lopez, will face No. 9 seed Monika Ekstrand, who beat No. 8 seed Claire An 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

The other unseeded girl, and the only non-US quarterfinalist, is Nadia Lagaev of Canada, who defeated No. 6 seed Christasha McNeil 6-4, 6-4. She will play No. 4 seed Aspen Schuman, who beat unseeded Jessica Bernales 6-1, 6-2.

The fourth quarterfinal will be between 14-year-old twin sisters Annika and Kristina Penickova, who have played each other three times on the ITF Junior Circuit, with Annika winning two of those matches. They were scheduled to play in the Eddie Herr 16s semifinals last December, but Annika suffered an injury that kept her out for two months and they didn't compete again in the same tournament until last week at Indian Wells. Annika, the No. 15 seed, defeated Kayla Chung 6-3, 7-5, while Kristina, the No. 11 seed, beat No. 7 seed Alanis Hamilton 7-5, 7-5. 

The doubles semifinals are set for Thursday, with top seeds in both the girls and boys draws still alive.

Girls No. 1 seeds Shannon Lam and Thea Frodin defeated Borruel and Eva Oxford 6-2, 6-4 in this afternoon's quarterfinals and will play No. 3 seeds Fakih and Olivia Center, 7-5, 6-1 winners over Bernales and Anya Murthy.

The unseeded team of Anita Tu and Tianmei Wang will face No. 7 seeds Hamilton and Chung, with Tu and Wang beating Jauffret and Kori Montoya 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 and Hamilton and Chung defeating Ionescu and Gianna Oboniye 6-2, 7-5.

Boys No. 1 seeds Horovitz and Alexander Razeghi received a walkover due to the illness of Benjamin Willwerth, who was partnering with Noah Johnston and were the No. 7 seeds.

Horovitz and Razeghi will play No. 3 seeds Filin and Leach, who beat No. 5 seeds Dussault and Matisse Farzam 4-6, 6-2, 10-5.

Ian Mayew and Kase Schinnerer won the Indian Wells J300 doubles title, but played with different partners this week, and it was Schinnerer and Forbes, the No. 4 seeds, beating No. 6 seeds Mayew and Jordan Reznik in today's quarterfinals 6-4, 2-6, 10-8.

Forbes and Schinnerer will face No. 2 seed and Australian Open boys doubles champions Exsted and Cooper Woestendick, who defeated the Canadian twins Mikael and Nicolas Arseneault 6-4, 7-6(3).

The USTA Level 1 Easter Bowl begins Saturday for the 12s and 14s, with the draws posted now at the USTA tournament page. 

Smyan Thuta(B12s), Safir Azam(B14s), Nikol Davletshina(G12s) and Reiley Rhodes(G14s) are the top seeds.

The list of wild cards, which I received last week, are as follows:

Boys 12s

Anders Lake

Liam Dent

Kavi Sarai

Brayden Etti

Girls 12s

Sofia Cannon

Brielle Amey

Skylar Mandell

Mika Wei

Boys 14s

Andre Quijada (withdrew)

Joseph Kim

Girls 14s 

Emery Combs

Blake Chang

Olivia De Los Reyes

Abigail Haile 

Boys 16s

Vihaan Reddy

Marcel Latak

Teodor Davidov

Shaan Majeed

Girls 16

Carolina Castro

Amy Lee

Natalie Kha

Claire Macedo

Boys 18s

Nischal Spurling

Nathaniel Suh

Jordan Chang

Nicholas Mekhael

Girls 18s

Thea Latak

Anna Frey (withdrew)

ITF J300 Indian Wells champion Valerie Glozman, who won the 18s title last year, entered the tournament, but has now withdrawn.