My Kalamazoo Preview; Free Survives Oyebog's Comeback, Rain Delay to Reach Second Round in Kalamazoo 18s; First Round Doubles Washed Out; USTA Nationals B12s, G12s, G14s Seeds, Draws
©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--
My annual preview of the USTA Boys 18s and 16s National Championships was published today at Tennis Recruiting Network, as I run through the top seeds in both age divisions. Three 16s champions and last year's 18s finalist are in the field this year, while a relatively new set of competitors head up the 16s draw.
The first day of competition at WMU and Kalamazoo College started late due to overnight rain, and the first round of 18s singles finished indoors after a series of afternoon showers. Yet Parker Free managed to overcome all those challenges to come away with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over wild card Joseph Oyebog.
Free, an 18-year-old from Alabama who will start his freshman year at Samford in a few weeks, was up 4-0 in the third set, only to watch as Oyebog reeled off five straight games.
"When I was up 4-0 he started to lose his energy, and then all of a sudden he started to hit a ton of winners," said Free, who was scheduled to play at 8 a.m. and ended up closing out the match indoors at the Markin Center a few minutes before 4 p.m. "And all of a sudden it's 5-4 him."
Oyebog had called for a trainer after Free won the second set, and at 5-4 was wincing in pain as he approached his chair at changeover.
"He had to get a medical, for the second time, I think he was cramping and something was maybe wrong with his back," Free said. "That kind of changed the momentum and I was able to hold, and then I broke."
Serving for the match at 6-5, 30-0 Free didn't get to match point, with Oyebog looking revitalized. Free saved two break points, but double faulted on the third and a tiebreaker would decide which player would reach Saturday's second round.
Free broke to start the tiebreaker and held his first serve, taking a 2-0 lead when the rain started, nearly three hours after the match began. It was hardly an ideal time, with Free's lead a precarious one, and Oyebog having more than two hours to recover from his physical ailments.
When the decision was made, after a second rainstorm, to finish the first round matches indoors, Oyebog and Free were the first to go on, given how close they were to finishing. But facing an opponent as powerful as Oyebog on indoor courts without an extended warmup wasn't the ideal scenario to hold onto a precarious 2-0 lead in the tiebreaker.
"I didn't know his serve was that big," said Free. "That's probably the biggest serve I've ever faced, especially in the first set. It seemed like his injury affected it until he was down 4-0 and then he started hitting it massive again. I guess he found an extra gear there. But I knew if I could get in the point, he might spray a couple more balls, and that's what happened at the beginning of the breaker. But towards the end, he started making a lot of balls, and I was super tight there too, so I did the same thing, and it worked."
Oyebog didn't get a first serve in either of his points at 2-5, and lost the second to give Free three match points. Free made a forehand error to squander one, but Oyebog went big on the second and sent a forehand well long to end it.
"That was super nerve-racking," said Free, who faces No. 33 seed Declan Galligan in Saturday's second round. "But this is my last junior tournament, so I came with an excited attitude, whatever happens it's just going to be a fun tournament. I'm just glad I'm here."
The first round of doubles was scheduled for both the 16s and 18s, but those matches were cancelled mid-afternoon. The forecast is much improved for Saturday and Sunday before the rain returns to start next week.
Live streaming of Stowe matches is available through the link at ustaboys.com, with live scoring available via iOnCourt. All of today's first round 18s singles results and match times for Saturday can be found at the USTA PlayTennis tournament site.
The draws for the G18s, B12s, G12s and G14s are now up, with the Top 16 seeds in the 12s and 14s listed below. Click on the headings for the draws. A complete list of the top 16 seeds in all eight divisions can be found in this google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mY1xLvdwWGhnIJUUnqCcmHPRGraoGTXQ189DNd_s9Vw/edit?usp=sharing
1. Enya Hamilton
2. Daniela Del Mastro
3. Bella Arwood
4. Corinne Winningham
5. Adelyn Gross
6. Molly Widlansky
7. Savannah Schmitz
8. Elle Groslimond
9. Sofia Basto Cabrera
10. Teaghan Jou An Keys
11. Aarini Bhattacharya
12. Ariana Morris
13. Michelle Lee
14. Juliana Diianni
15. Evelynn Kwak
16. Michelle Flyam
1. Nadia Poznick
2. Isha Manchala
3. Violetta Mamina
4. Tara Guhan
5. Ava Chua
6. Anna Kapanadze
7. Jacqueline Nick
8. Wendy Fan
9. Jessie Janiak
10. Harshitha Thirugnanam
11. Karena Cross
12. Luca Dupere
13. Christina Li
14. Aimee Peng
15. Cydney Crocker
16. Isabella Bosso
1. Daniel Gardality
2. James Borchard
3. Rex Kulman
4. Nathan Lee
5. Blount Williams
6. Michael Chervenkov
7. Pranav Vignesh
8. David Bender
9. Eli Flynn
10. Ayush Ananthuni
11. Matthew Finn
12. Jason Ye
13. Wyatt Markham
14. Srijan Gourineni
15. Ishaan Marla
16. Ciaran O'Donnell
At the Paris Olympics, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz lost in the semifinals to Matt Ebden and John Peers of Australia 7-5, 6-2, so will play for a bronze medal on Saturday against Tomas Machac and Andrew Pavlasek of the Czech Republic.
Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Rajeev Ram(Illinois) will play Ebden and Peers(Middle Tenn, Baylor) for the gold medal Saturday guaranteeing a collegiate gold medalist.
Diana Shnaider(NC State) and Mirra Andreeva of Russia will play for the women's doubles gold medal against Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy on Sunday.
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