Kockinis Takes Out Top Seed Alexander, Rain Disrupts Hoo and Combs on the Brink, Top Seeds Johnson and Konduri Roll into Semifinals at J300 Pan Am Closed; Pareja and Penickova Reach Quarterfinals at W100 Templeton

©Colette Lewis 2026--
Spring Texas--

Carrie-Anne Hoo has had a long junior career, but the 17-year-old from New York had a new experience today in the quarterfinals of the World Tennis J300 Pan American Closed Championships today: a rain delay when she had reached match point.

The second-seeded Hoo, a singles finalist at this tournament last year, had taken control of her match against No. 12 seed Brooke Wallman, building a 5-1 lead in the third set, after Hoo had taken the first set 6-2 and Wallman the second set 6-4. As the sprinkles began and thunder approached, Hoo had worked her way back to 40-30 when the walkie-talkie call to the roving umpires came to suspend play at 11:45 a.m.

"I was actually down 0-30 in that game and I came back, so I felt like good momentum," said Hoo. "That's why I was a little bit upset. I was feeling good, and then the rain delay happened."

The downpour lasted only about 20 minutes, but play didn't resume until 1:45 p.m., so Hoo had a long time to think about how she would approach that match point.

"I was thinking when I went back on court that I had to focus on a first serve, getting that in," Hoo said. "I was definitely a little bit tight, a little nervous, but I tried to forget that it was match point. I was having problems with my serve, my toss, jumping, so I was focusing more on the steps in my serve rather than what the score was."

In ten seconds or less, the match was over, with Hoo getting her first serve in and Wallman sending the return long to secure the 2-6, 4-6, 6-1 victory.

Hoo's opponent in the semifinals, No. 4 seed Emery Combs, was not quite as unlucky as Hoo, but she was serving for the match at 7-6(6), 5-4, 15-0 against No. 10 seed Londyn McCord when play was suspended.

Combs, who had claimed the 95-minute first set by winning the last four points of the tiebeaker, ended up losing the first five points when play resumed after the rain delay, but chalked that up to a failure of execution, not a failure of strategy.

"My goal was just to play my game," said the 15-year-old from South Carolina, who will be playing in her second J300 semifinal Friday. "I have a very aggressive game, I'm an all-court player, so I tried to open up the court with big targets and make my way into the net. But I was very nervous. I think I did the right things, just didn't make the shots."

Combs broke McCord again and served for the match for the second time at 6-5, but didn't get to match point in that game either. In their second tiebreaker, Combs got the mini-break she needed with a great overhead from deep in the court for a 5-3 lead. McCord held for 5-4, but Combs earned her first match point by forcing an error with a big forehand and converted it with an excellent first serve.

Combs and Hoo have been doubles partners but have not played in singles.

"I've seen here play a little bit, but obviously I've never seen how my game would do against her," Hoo said. "I think it'll be a fun match tomorrow. She's younger, they play with no pressure."

"I think I can go into tomorrow with a similar game plan," Combs said. "She's a little craftier, but she's going to force me to make that extra ball."

The semifinalists in the top half both finished before the rain, with No. 11 seed Ellery Mendell ending the run of unseeded Sena Yoon 7-5, 6-1 and No. 5 seed Armira Kockinis taking out top seed Avery Alexander of Canada 7-6(3), 6-4.

Kockinis had beaten Alexander in July in the semifinals of a J200 in Mexico, a win that helped her in her approach to today's match.

"She played really well today and she played really well in Mexico as well," said the 16-year-old from Southern California. "I knew she wasn't going to miss many of balls, so I was definitely trying to be consistent, but when I saw something I could go for, I tried to go for it, move her around a bit."

Kockinis played a nearly flawless first set tiebreaker taking a 6-0 lead before making her only unforced error in the nine points played.

"In the breaker, it's obviously a tight situation, so I'm going to go for it," Kockinis said. "I was starting out in the first set I was going mostly cross, so in the breaker I started going line for the first time in the match."

Down 3-1 in the second set, Kockinis won five of the next six games, but had to come from 15-40 down to close it out serving at 5-4.

Kockinis has been disappointed in her results this summer.

"This whole year I've been working toward getting to the US Open and Hard Courts, I had a pretty bad result, College Park, I had a pretty bad result, and US Open (qualifying), I had a pretty bad result," Kockinis said. "So I've been trying to stay positive from the low, so this is my first tournament since US, so, so far, so good. Just trying to get back on track."

Kockinis knows she will always be trying to calibrate her big game with the errors that are a byproduct of that style.

"Me and my coaches have always said my game is going to have a lot of mistakes," said Kockinis, who is coached by Jay Leavitt at Tier 1 Performance. "But I'd rather go for it than stay in these long rallies. I think in breakers and in tight moments I know how to pull the trigger when other people wouldn't. That gives me an edge in third sets or breakers. I'm trying to be smarter on when to pull the trigger, but it's going to get pulled."

Kockinis and Mendell will be meeting for the first time in the first J300 semifinal for both.

The top two seeds in the boys draw made short work of their opponents today, with No. 1 Andy Johnson defeating 15-year-old qualifier Piotr Gradzki 6-1, 6-2 and No. 2 Tanishk Konduri avenging his loss this spring to No. 7 seed Erik Schinnerer 6-1, 6-1.

Konduri's semifinal opponent will be No. 4 seed Joshua Adamson of Canada, who reached the final of last week's J200 in Corpus Christi. The 17-year-old left-hander avenged his loss last month at a J200 to No. 9 seed Kamil Stolarczyk, beating the 2026 Kalamazoo 16s champion 6-3, 6-4 today.

Johnson will face No. 10 seed Teodor Davidov, who returned from the rain delay still in his second set with wild card Achyuth Binu. The 16-year-old Floridian, who had won the 100-minute first set 7-5, dropped the final two games of the second to give Binu a 6-3 set, but soon took control in the third for a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory and a place in his first J300.

Johnson and Davidov played in the quarterfinals of the J300 in San Diego this spring, with Johnson winning 6-1, 6-3.

The doubles finals Friday will feature four of the singles semifinalists.

Top seeds Konduri and Johnson will face No. 8 seeds Antoine Clavel and Andy Tchinda Kepche of Canada for the boys title. Clavel and Tchinda Kepche defeated No. 4 seeds Mason Vaughan and Stolarczyk 6-3, 4-6, 10-7, wheile Konduri and Johnson beat No. 3 seeds Caden Colburne and Adamson 6-3, 6-4.

Hoo and Combs will play twice Friday, with Hoo and her partner Isabelle DeLuccia, the No. 2 seeds, facing No. 3 seeds Combs and her partner Olivia De Los Reyes. Hoo and DeLuccia beat No. 8 seeds Anya Arora and Sylvana Jalbert 7-5, 7-5; Combs and De Los Reyes defeated No. 5 seeds Thara Gowda and Ireland O'Brien 3-6, 6-4, 10-4.

The three singles semifinals featuring players in doubles are scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, with the Kockinis - Mendell match second on, not before noon. The doubles finals times are to be determined, after the singles and suitable rest.

At the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Templeton California, 17-year-olds Julieta Pareja and Kristina Penickova advanced to the quarterfinals with wins today.

Pareja defeated No. 2 seed Mary Stoiana 7-5, 7-5 to avenge her 6-3, 6-4 loss to Stoiana this summer in the second round of the W100 in Evansville.  Pareja will play the winner of tonights second round match between No. 7 seed Carolind Dolehide and UCLA junior Kate Fakih, a qualifier. 

Penickova, who received a Junior Exempt entry into the main draw, defeated No. 6 seed Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round and LSU sophomore Carolina Kuhl of Germany 6-2, 6-3 in the second round today. Penickova will play another LSU Tiger in the quarterfinals: junior Ella McDonald of Great Britain. McDonald, a qualifier, defeated Whitney Osuigwe 7-6(3), 6-2 today to advance.