©Colette Lewis 2026--
Spring Texas--
Heavy rains overnight caused a slight delay in the start of the Pan Am singles semifinals, but few would have guessed that when the match between top seed Andy Johnson and No. 10 seed Teodor Davidov began at 10:22 a.m., the winner had yet to be decided four hours later.
Davidov held off a furious comeback by Johnson, survived several falls, cramping, and a heat index of 102 degrees to earn an improbable but well deserved 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) victory.
Johnson served for the match at 6-5 in the second set, after breaking Davidov at 5-all 30-40 in a spectacular rally that brought appreciative applause from the small crowd watching from the Giamalava Racquet Center's veranda. That boost of momentum didn't last however, as Davidov broke Johnson at love to force the tiebreaker.
"I started hitting the ball a little more, being a little more confident, in terms of having nothing to lose," said the 16-year-old from Bradenton Florida, who hits only forehands, switching hands when required, and serves both right-handed and left-handed. "I just kept fighting."
Two-and-a-half hours into the match, Davidov was able to pick up his energy in the tiebreaker, with Johnson looking weary and unable to hold any of his four serves. Davidov took a 6-2 lead, and after two winners from Johnson made it 6-4, Johnson double faulted to send the players off court for the 10 minutes mandated by the heat rule.
Davidov was more familiar with that scenario than Johnson, with all four of his matches this steamy week going to three sets, and he returned, his momentum still intact, to take a 5-1 lead in the third set.
With Johnson serving at 1-5, 30-40, Davidov had his first match point, but Johnson saved it with a good first serve and held. Davidov's errors, few in the first seven games, began to pile up, and he won only two points in his next two service games, with Johnson pulling even, then taking a 6-5 lead after saving a break point.
Davidov did display a few signs of frustration at that point, and darker thoughts began creeping in during the next game.
"At 5-6, I was getting really emotional, like I'd already lost," said Davidov, who managed to hide that negativity well. "I had that eternal battle, but I just said to myself, 'it's ok, your level's there, so just keeping fighting and if you lose, it was a good match, and if you win, great.'"
Davidov recognized that the five-game skid was not simply because his own level dropped.
"He started hitting the ball way more, he started being super aggressive," said Davidov, who requested that his post-match interview be conducted while he was riding the stationary bike in the club gym. "It caught me by surprise a little bit, and I started getting a little shaky with my shots--I almost thought I was pushing at one point, scrapping, running side to side, and that's the exact opposite of my style and mindset."
Davidov finally stopped his five-game skid winning a deuce game to force another tiebreaker, and by this time he'd already taken two falls that left him sprawling on the court.
"I don't think I've ever fallen that many times in a match," Davidov said. "I didn't know what was going on. I fell pretty bad today, I thought I might have done something to my leg, but I was good."
Both players were going to their towels after every point, leaning on the fence, hands on knees, as the final tiebreaker approached.
As in the second set tiebreaker, Davidov got off to a good start, hitting forehand winners both left-handed and right-handed to take a 5-1 lead at the change of ends. Davidov lost the next three points however, then got a reprieve when Johnson made an unforced error on the forehand side to give Davidov two more match points, more than an hour after Johnson saved the first. Johnson bought himself another chance with a forehand volley winner, but Davidov got a first serve in at 40-30 and Johnson sent a forehand long to end it.
Davidov will face No. 2 seed Tanishk Konduri in the first J300 final for both players, after Konduri defeated No. 4 seed Joshua Adamson of Canada 7-6(4) 6-1, more than two hours before his opponent had been decided.
Konduri, who has yet to drop a set in the tournament, said his serve finally began to click in the second set.
"My first three games I think I made only one first serve," said the 17-year-old from Northern California. "And the guy was actually returning super well. As a lefty, he was just ripping middle, and I thought he was playing very well. But I found my rhythm a little bit, figured out what he likes and what he doesn't like and I started making him play at my tempo."
Konduri did not know who he was going to play in the final, but he expressed no preference.
"I'm not sure who's going to win this match, they're both incredible competitors, great players," said Konduri, who has never played Davidov. "But to me, I don't really care. Especially this week, this tournament, if I'm doing things that I do well, playing my game, I'm not really going to have much trouble. The trouble is going to come when I'm not sticking to my game, being mentally unsolid. It's in my control tomorrow, I feel."
The girls final will also feature two J300 finals debutants, with No. 4 seed Emery Combs defeating 2025 finalist and No. 2 seed Carrie-Anne Hoo 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 and No. 5 seed Armira Kockinis getting past No. 11 seed Ellery Mendell 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4.
Combs started out on top of her game, holding at 15 in all four of her service games, while Hoo was still trying to find her range. In the second set, Hoo began to find her rhythm, while Combs had more trouble holding and was broken for the first time in the match in the sixth game. Hoo served for the set at 5-3, but Combs got the break and held, giving herself a chance to get through in straight sets. But Hoo held and broke to force a third set, triggering the 10-minute break due to the heat and humidity that have been smothering the event all week.
Hoo's momentum didn't survive that break, with Combs breaking in the first game of the third set, which changed her outlook.
"There was definitely a lot of negative thoughts that I had," said the 15-year-old from South Carolina of getting broken to lose the second set. "But I kept pushing myself, telling myself I want it more than she does, so that helped."
The break was short-lived, with Combs giving it right back, but she broke and held for a 3-1 lead, with Hoo, a 17-year-old from New York, staying close the rest of the set.
Combs did not feel she could afford to underestimate Hoo despite holding on to the lead.
"I know she's a great player and very tough, she's going to fight," Combs said. "I don't think I relaxed at all; if anything, I expected her to fight more."
Hoo spent much of the match defending Combs' powerful all-court game, which didn't give her the time to take control of the rallies. Serving at 3-5, Hoo fell behind 15-40, but saved the first match point when a Combs slice was wide. On her second match point, Combs made the uncharacteristic decision to stay in the point as long as she could, rather than go for a winner.
"I think every shot was a backhand," said Combs, who is coached by Jimmy Mendieta of Playmakers Tennis Academy in Myrtle Beach. "I told myself I was going to out-rally her, high percentage tennis and I was not going to miss. Instead of going for a big backhand line, I thought that was the only thing that would help me."
Combs did not miss, with Hoo making the error that ended the long rally, and the match.
Unlike Combs, Kockinis was cruising along in the second set against Mendell, leading 6-2, 4-1.
"At 4-1 she started playing like nothing to lose," said the 16-year-old from Southern California. "She started going for her shots more and mixing it up a bit, so I had to adapt, and I didn't adapt in time."
Serving for the match at 5-4, Kockinis was broken without getting to match point, and in the tiebreaker that followed she couldn't shake Mendell who broke at 5-all and won the next point to earn a third set.
Kockinis took the 10-minute heat break as an opportunity to reset.
"I had a decision to make," Kockinis said. "I could either dwell on the second or change the third. I made sure to go in there, make a lot of balls and stay positive, regardless of what the score was."
Kockinis credited her serve as the difference maker late in the third set.
"I tried to serve really big, because we were both pretty tired and I wanted to start the points out on offense," said Kockinis. "I tried to use a lot of serve plus-ones, which was going pretty well, and at 4-all I served well and it went my way."
Combs and Kockinis played in the quarterfinals of the J300 in Tucson this past spring, with Combs winning 6-4, 6-3.
"I didn't play too well that match but I'm playing much better now, have improved a lot and so has she," Kockinis said. "She's a good doubles player, good at the net. I'm just going to slap it and pray, and you can put that in there too. I'm just going to hit hard, and if I make it, I make it; if I miss it, I miss it. Hopefully I can just keep her back, serve well, make a lot of balls, and pray."
"I feel like Armira's game is pretty straighforward," Combs said. "She's just going to attack, attack, attack. I just need to neutralize and try to get on offense."
Combs has already captured one Pan American Closed title, winning the doubles championship Friday evening with partner Olivia De Los Reyes. The singles semifinals avoided any rain delays, but the doubles finals were interrupted for over an hour, with the girls final in the second set and the boys final in the first set when a brief light shower and lightning caused play to be suspended.
No. 3 seeds Combs and De Los Reyes were trailing No. 2 seeds Isabelle DeLuccia and Hoo 2-3 when play was suspended, and lost the set 6-3, after taking the first 7-6(1). But they were in a familiar position, having won the match tiebreaker in both their quarterfinal and semifinal matches, so they were confident they could raise their level again.
"I think we can read momentum, and that we can trust each other," said De Los Reyes, who now lives in Orlando Florida. "We're very aware of situation, especially in tiebreaks, and that showed this week," Combs said. "We try to stay more active and keep it simple in the tiebreaks."
At 5-all, the pair, who have now won seven World Tennis junior titles in the past 12 months, began to show that trust and teamwork, with Combs hitting a reflex lob winner and De Los Reyes making it 9-5 with a soft drop volley winner.
Combs missed an overhead on their first championship point and DeLuccia held her two serves to make it 9-8, but De Los Reyes and Combs kept it simple, with a De Los Reyes first serve and a Combs volley putaway delivering their biggest WT junior doubles title yet.
"During pressure moments, we trust each other and believe in our skills," said De Los Reyes. "I think she believed in my serve, and obviously I think my serve is a huge weapon, so I focus on that, and I know she's going to put that plus one away. We know our strengths and we can rely on them."
Konduri is also going into Saturday's singles final with a title already secured after taking the doubles championship with Johnson. The top seeds, who started around 5 p.m. in order to give Johnson appropriate recovery time, defeated No. 8 seeds Antoine Clavel and Andy Tichinda Kepche of Canada 6-2, 6-4 under the lights.
Johnson referred to his singles loss as a heartbreaker, but both he and Konduri were happy with their level throughout the match.
"That's a match I won't forget for a while," Johnson said of his loss to Davidov. "It was four and a half hours. But I wasn't thinking about it at all in the doubles, it's a different sport really and I'm feeling fine. We played really well."
Konduri agreed that Johnson didn't need any extra effort from him.
"I couldn't even tell Andy played a match this morning," Konduri said. "He came out with so much positive energy around the court and was volleying really well. We got an early break on the bigger serve and that really loosened us up for the rest of the match."
Although Johnson and Konduri have played together before, this is their first title as a team, with each making a junior slam doubles final this summer with other partners: Johnson with Michael Antonius at Wimbledon and Konduri with Marcel Latak at the US Open.
The singles finals are both scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, with a chance of thunderstorms again in the forecast for the afternoon.
At the
USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Templeton California, unseeded 17-year-old Julieta Pareja has reached Saturday's semifinals, defeating No. 7 seed Caroline Dolehide 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Pareja will face No. 8 seed Madison Brengle, who beat SMU sophomore Amelie Van Impe of Belgium, a qualifier, 6-0, 6-4.
In the top half, No. 1 seed Tatjana Maria of Germany will face qualifier Ella McDonald of Great Britain, a junior at LSU. Maria beat wild card Malaika Rapolu(Texas) 6-0, 6-3, while McDonald defeated 17-year-old Kristina Penickova 6-4, 6-3.
