Woestendick Begins Defense of ITF J300 Indian Wells Title With Win; Mosejczuk Ousts Seeds in Singles and Doubles; Top Girls Seeds Fall in Doubles; Navarro Defeats Sabalenka to Reach Women's Quarterfinals

©Colette Lewis 2024--

Indian Wells CA--

Cooper Woestendick has already been in Indian Wells for more than ten days, after playing in the men's qualifying a week ago Monday thanks to the wild card he received for winning last year's inaugural ITF J300 title here during the second week of the BNP Paribas Open. 

Today he began his defense of the Fila International Junior Championships boys singles title as the No. 2 seed, beating qualifier Keaton Hance 6-0, 6-3 in second round action under sunny skies at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. 

Woestendick lost his first round qualifying match to Vit Kopriva of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3, yet he gained a new perspective on his own game from the experience.

"I played ok," said Woestendick, the reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion. "I didn't play my best tennis at all, but it was definitely good for me because I saw that my level is there with the pros. I didn't play very well, but I was in the match, totally in the match. It was 2 and 3, but I had lots of chances."

Woestendick also has been practicing with pros in the days since that qualifying match, which has also given him more confidence. 

"I practiced with (Cam) Norrie, I practiced with (Ugo) Humbert, I practiced with Norrie a lot actually, and I can see obviously, that they're unbelievable, but I saw that I'm not that far off," Woestendick said. "My level is getting higher and higher and I'm happy with that."

Norrie and Woestendick have two connections, one longstanding, as they both have worn the K-Swiss brand for years, and one new, with Woestendick recently committing to TCU, where Norrie competed in college.

"I'm really happy about my decision, I love the coaches," said Woestendick, who will join friend Jagger Leach in Fort Worth in 2025. "Norrie didn't try to sell it to me at all, but he was just like, yeah, if you want to play college tennis and then be a pro, you should go to TCU. That's all he said. But him and his team are some of the nicest people I've met and to have some hits and see his level, it's really impressive the way he plays."

Woestendick admits that returning to an ITF tournament as a defending champion is unusual, and he views it as a learning experience. 

"It's a different type of pressure, for sure, because there's not many tournaments where you have to defend," said Woestendick, who was always planning on returning for this year's event. "It kind of feels like Kalamazoo, there's a lot of Americans, and I'm definitely one of the favorites, but it's exciting. Today was a really good win for me today; Keaton's playing really well right now, and I played really good tennis actually."

Later in the day, Woestendick and Max Exsted, the reigning Australian Open boys doubles champions, played their first match as a team since then, with the number two seeds beating Denny Bao of Canada and Vihaan Reddy 6-3, 3-6, 10-6.

"That's still kind of surreal," Woestendick said of their title at the end of January. "At this point now, it's just something to be proud of, no one can take being a grand slam champion away from me, and me and Max are just ecstatic about it."

No. 2 seed Iva Jovic, a semifinalist here last year, also suffered a first round loss in BNP Paribas Open qualifying, but she too returned to junior competition with a impressive performance in her first match, beating qualifier Alyssa Ahn 6-2, 6-0.

Half the eight girls seeds playing their first matches Tuesday lost, and that was repeated today.  Valerie Glozman defeated No. 14 seed Kristina Penickova 6-1, 6-2; Canada's Nadia Lagaev beat No. 8 seed Alanis Hamilton 6-1, 2-6, 6-2; Alexis Nguyen downed No. 15 seed Sarah Fajmonova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1 and No. 10 seed Mia Slama retired with an injury after winning the first set from Anita Tu 6-3.

Three boys seeds lost in second round play Tuesday and three more were eliminated today, with wild card Mitchell Lee defeating No. 7 seed and doubles partner Matthew Forbes 7-5, 6-2 and Benjamin Willwerth taking out No. 12 seed Nikita Filin 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. Orange Bowl 16s champion Dominick Mosejczuk was particularly impressive in his 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 6 seed Max Exsted, whom he had never beaten.

"I've played him a couple of times before and he's gotten the better of me many times," said the 17-year-old from New York. "On these courts, it's definitely slower and he hits a very heavy ball. That's effective on clay and these courts bounce high as well, but I found my timing right, every forehand, every backhand, I was just ripping through the court, finding my space, finding my zone. And I didn't lose focus the entire match, stayed locked in, stuck with the game plan and it worked out."

Mosejczuk spent many months before the Orange Bowl last December training in Spain, but he has been in the United States or traveling in Central and South American tournaments since then. He is planning to return there after this US hard court run however, and this week he has his lucky charm back with him.

"I'm actually with my coach from Spain," said Mosejczuk, who trains there at BTT. "He was at Orange Bowl, so it's nice to have him here. We're going to try to keep the undefeated streak going here."

Mosejczuk hasn't played a junior slam yet, and didn't play this event last year, so this is his first real opportunity to rub elbows with the pros.

"It's an insane experience, definitely very different," Mosejczuk said. "Just walking past pros, it's very special, unique; it's the first time I'm walking the same areas as the pros, so hopefully I can stay at this level."

Mosejczuk and his partner Jack Secord also took out a seeded team in doubles, beating No. 5 seeds Maximus Dussault and Matisse Farzam 6-3, 7-5.

"We're definitely a strong team, have good chemistry together," Mosejczuk said. "We both bring very high energy. But I was definitely tired out there, so he helped me out with that."

The top two seeds lost in the girls doubles draw went out in their first matches of the tournament. No. 1 seeds Shannon Lam and Thea Frodin, who won the J300 title in Costa Rica in January lost to 14-year-old wild cards Welles Newman and Maggie Sohns 4-6, 7-5, 10-5. No. 2 seeds Ariana Pursoo and Mia Slama gave a walkover to Fajmonova and Lagaev due to Slama's injury.

All 16 round of 16 singles matches are Thursday, as are the quarterfinals in doubles. More of the big stadium courts will be used, with matches on Stadium Courts 5, 6 and 9 in additon to 7, 8 and practice courts 16, 17 and 18.

Although I spend nearly every minute of the day at the junior courts, it did work out that I was able to see the last few points of Emma Navarro's win over No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka and attend the press conference, which is the first one I've gone to in my two years here. (The juniors do not follow the pro press conferences procedures here like they do at the slams). Navarro, who a year ago lost in the second round here and went back to competing in $25K events last April, is now at No. 20 in the live WTA rankings, but said she has learned that just isn't that important to her. 

"Yeah, for sure. I guess I would say that I wasn't as comfortable with the ranking, but I also just felt like once I got to this point that maybe I would care more about my ranking, and I still don't really care (smiling).

I just want to play good tennis, and just keep getting better. Yeah, I think there has been a couple of times since I've been on tour that I've lost that mindset, where it's, like, I was close to breaking top 100, and I was, like, Okay, if I can just get top 100, then I'll be happy.

Once I kind of made these milestones, I was like, okay, that's cool that I did that but what's next? A ranking, it's just a number. Yeah, realizing that I really don't care about rankings."

Known for her poise and lack of emotion on court, Navarro also joked that she's trying to learn how to celebrate more dramatically, although she may need more practice.

"Yeah, also, I think maybe that was my second or third fist pump ever. If it was a little weird, cut me some slack."

The complete transcript of Navarro's press conference can be found here.