Razeghi Ousts No. 6 Seed, Jodar Comes Back to Defeat Wild Card Quan, Top Seeds Pushed to Three Sets at US Open Junior Championships

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Flushing Meadows, New York--

The last two ITF J300 boys champions had mixed results against their American opponents Monday, with Repentigny winner Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic falling to Alex Razeghi 6-2, 6-2 in first round action and College Park winner Rafael Jodar of Spain defeating wild card Rudy Quan 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the US Open Junior Championships.

After the humidity and precipitation that had caused annoying disruptions on Sunday, the skies cleared and the heat index dropped, but Mrva, the No. 6 seed, could not find the rhythm that had led him to the title on Saturday. Razeghi took full advantage of Mrva's poor serving to capture the first set in 32 minutes.

"His first serve percentage was down and he was double faulting a lot," said Razeghi, who thought he had an advantage after playing in the men's doubles last week and practicing on the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center courts while Mrva was in Canada. "I was getting a lot of free points, which was good, and I was making a lot of first serves so that definitely helped."

Mrva's level didn't improve much in the second set, while Razeghi was able to apply pressure by just keeping the ball in the court and waiting for one of the 47 unforced errors Mrva committed.

"I got lucky today, it wasn't his best day," said Razeghi, who starts his freshman year at Stanford later this month. "I knew he probably wasn't going to be one hundred percent, he had a long week last week so I tried to use that to my advantage, make him play every ball."

Being onsite for over a week, Razeghi has gotten to witness the second week runs of Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Brandon Nakashima and Tommy Paul in person, even rubbing elbows with them in the locker room. 

"I've been following them a lot, I was in the locker room last week, so I got to talk with them," said the 18-year-old from Texas. "I'm pretty good friends with Frances, he's the only guy I'm close with, and he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met. I'm glad to see him doing well here and hopefully he can bring it home."

The marquee second round match of day two of the junior championships featured two 2024 ITF J300 champions on hard courts in Jodar, who won College Park nine days ago, and Quan, who won Indian Wells back in March.

With Quan not active on the ITF Junior Circuit, Jodar didn't know much about the UCLA freshman, but the University of Virginia recruit found out in the late stages of the first set just how dangerous Quan could be, going from 3-all to 6-3, breaking Jodar in his last two service games.

"The first set was tough, I was missing some balls that I didn't have to," said the No. 12 seed, who won the College Park title without dropping a set. "He has been playing pro tournaments and just a few ITF juniors, and it was difficult to know how he was going to play at the beginning of the match."

Quan then held to open the second set and had a look at 0-40 with Jodar serving, but Jodar won the next five points, raising his hopes for a comeback.

"That was a very important game," Jodar said. "If he had broken in that game I think the match would have changed a lot. I was thinking I was playing in the US Open at a grand slam, it was my dream so I had to enjoy it, maybe in the first set, I wasn't enjoying it that much, I was suffering more. But I took the chance when I could, and that's why I won this match."

Quan had been serving as high as 122 mph in the first set, but the pace began to come off his serve and the ground strokes began to fall closer to the service line than the baseline. After Quan was broken for the first time, after a brief delay for a Hawkeye Live disruption due to a fire alarm in the control room, and Jodar held the next two games to take the set, Quan asked for a medical timeout. A trainer worked on his legs during that MTO and on the changeovers, but it didn't appear to help much and he was broken in the first game of the third set.

But down 3-1, Quan held for 3-2 and broke Jodar on his seventh break point of the game on a perfect backhand pass to pull even. As the crowds on Court 14 began to build after the Ashe day session finished, both Jodar and Quan treated them to some great shotmaking, but Quan could not sustain it in the next game. Jodar began taking advantage of Quan's inability to use his legs on his serve, punishing the second serves. After Quan netted a backhand to get broken, Jodar won the last eight points of the match, which ended on a double fault.

Jodar was impressed with Quan's game.

"He's a really good player, I didn't know much about him, but if he keeps playing at this level, he can win many things."

With both heading to college, Quan this month and Jodar in January, Jodar is anticipating a possible rematch.

"Maybe we play in college again," Jodar said. "And I'll be more prepared."

The top seeds in both draws advanced to third round matches Wednesday, but, as was the case Sunday, both Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and Emerson Jones of Australia, struggled with their form.

Both managed to get through in straight sets in their first round matches, but both dropped sets today, with Jones down 7-5, 2-0 to ITF No. 20 Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic before rebounding for a 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 victory.

Jones was down 4-3 in the third set, but got the break back, then broke at love with Kovackova serving at 5-6.

"I knew it would probably be this tough," said Jones, who is seeking her third junior slam final this year. "She's a pretty good player to have second round, so I kind of expected this, but I fought my way through."

Jones, who lost in the second round of College Park two weeks ago and didn't play in Canada, admits she's not at the top of her game right now.

"I wasn't there mentally in the first set, and if I'm not playing my best tennis, and I'm not really right now, I just tried to find a way in the second set," said Jones, who had 25 unforced errors in the first set. "At 2-0 down, I just said I'm going to stay calm, because I haven't been this whole time. I told myself to just get the ball in the court, because I really didn't do that at the start."

Jones will face unseeded Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain on Wednesday.

"I play Mika, I can't say her last name, next, and these courts are pretty fast and she hits a good fast ball," said the 16-year-old from the Gold Coast. "So I'm just going to have to try to figure it out again as I did with my last two matches."

Budkov Kjaer faced Lorenzo Angelini, who had avoided qualifying by making the quarterfinals in Canada to receive a special exempt entry. Budkov, who did not play a warmup tournament, started well enough, but had to break in the final game to earn a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory.

Aside from Mrva, the only other boys seed to lose was No. 13 seed Cooper Woestendick, who went out to Timofei Derepasko of Russia 7-6(5), 6-3 in the second round. Two seeded girls lost, both Americans, with Stojasavljevic beating No. 13 seed Kaitlyn Rolls 6-1, 6-0 and Eliska Tichackova of the Czech Republic defeating No. 16 seed Akasha Urhobo 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Half of the first round of doubles were played today, and two seeded boys teams featuring Americans were eliminated. No. 2 seeds Hayden Jones of Australia and Jagger Leach lost to Angelini and Lorenzo Beraldo of Italy 7-6(5), 7-6(2) and Australian Open boys champions Maxwell Exsted and Woestendick, the No. 8 seeds, lost to Flynn Thomas of Switzerland and Denis Petak of the Czech Republic 7-6(4), 6-1. No. 6 seeds Jangjun Kim of Korea and Marko Maksimovic of Serbia lost to Naoya Honda of Japan and Nathan Trouve of France 7-5, 4-6, 10-4.

One seeded girls team lost, with Julie Pastikova of the Czech Republic and And Julia Stusek of Germany beating No. 8 seeds Luna Cinalli of Argentina and Mayu Crossley of Japan 6-0, 7-6(8).

Monday's first round results of Americans:

Alexander Razeghi d. Maxim Mrva[6](CZE) 6-2, 6-2

Mees Rottgering[4](NED) d. Jack Kennedy 6-4, 6-1

Theo Papamalamis[8](FRA) d. Benjamin Willwerth[WC] 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 

Jagger Leach[9] d. Denis Petak[Q](CZE) 6-3, 6-4

Oskari Paldanius(FIN) d. Jack Secord[Q] 

Noemi Basiletti(ITA) d. Anita Tu[WC] 6-0, 6-2

Tereza Krejcova(CZE) d. Shannon Lam[WC] 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-3

US Boys 9-10, US Girls 10-9 in round 1

Monday's second round results of Americans:

Dominick Mosejczuk[WC] d. Petr Brunclik(CZE) 6-4, 6-4

Kaylan Bigun[2] d. Karim Bennani[LL](MAR) 6-2, 6-2

Timofei Derepasko(RUS) d. Cooper Woestendick[13] 7-6(5), 6-3

Matthew Forbes[WC] d. Nathan Trouve(FRA) 6-4, 6-4

Rafael Jodar[12](ESP) d. Rudy Quan[WC] 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 

Rositsa Dencheva[10](BUL) d. Ishika Ashar[WC] 6-3, 6-4 

Eliska Tichackova(CZE) d. Akasha Urhobo[16] 4-6, 6-3, 6-0

Kristina Penickova[9] d. Joy De Zeeuw(NED) 6-3, 6-4

Annika Penickova[WC] d. Kanon Sawashiro[Q](JPN) 6-3, 6-3

Mika Stojasavljevic(GBR) d. Kaitlyn Rolls[13] 6-1, 6-0

Tuesday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Jagger Leach[9] v Thomas Faurel(FRA)

Noah Johnston v Flynn Thomas(SUI)

Alexander Razeghi v Charlie Robertson(GBR)

Kase Schinnerer[WC] v Luca Preda[5](ROU)

Tyra Grant[2] v Lea Nilsson(SWE)

Iva Jovic[3] v Monika Stankiewicz(POL)

Valerie Glozman[WC] v Iva Ivanova[11](BUL)

Alanis Hamilton[WC] v Sonja Zhiyenbayeva[14](KAZ)

Christasha McNeil[Q] v Mingge Xu[8](GBR)

Grant will play her mixed doubles semifinal Tuesday after she and partner Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) received a walkover from Ellen Perez(Georgia) of Australia and Sander Gille(E Tenn St) of Belgium, due to an injury to Gille. Their opponents in the semifinals are No. 3 seeds Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy.

The US Open run of titles came to an end today for Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Great Britain's Joe Salisbury(Memphis). The three-time defending champions lost to No. 13 seed Nathaniel Lammons(SMU) and Jackson Withrow(Texas A&M) 7-6(3), 6-3. 

No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula advanced to the women's quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Diana Shnaider(NC State) of Russia and will face top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland.

On Tuesday, three Americans will attempt to make the US Open singles semifinals: Emma Navarro[13], who plays No. 26 seed Paula Badosa of Spain; Taylor Fritz[12], who plays No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany; and Frances Tiafoe[20], who plays No. 9 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.