Semifinals Up Next at D'Novo All-American

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa, OK--

With a break here between the quarterfinals and semifinals at the D'Novo All-American championships, I thought I would post a short wrap of this morning's matches.

The USC Trojans have two semifinalists in No. 3 seed Robert Farah and unseeded Steve Johnson. Farah downed Michigan's unseeded Jason Jung 7-5, 6-3 despite being unable to hold serve with any regularity. Johnson had another dramatic victory, winning the final five games from unseeded Alex Lacroix of Florida. Lacroix was serving for the match at 5-3, having won the first set 6-2 and dropped the second set 6-3. But Johnson's forehand, which had been erratic throughout the match, suddenly became unstoppable, and although Lacroix didn't play badly, Johnson took the match from him with winner after winner. Johnson had also stared down that barrel in his third round match with Bradley Klahn, breaking the Stanford sophomore serving for the match at 5-4 in the third.

Second seed JP Smith was also down a break in the third set, but the junior from Tennessee won the last four games from Tulsa wild card Ashley Watling to secure a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win and an afternoon meeting with Farah.


Johnson will play Oklahoma's Andrei Daescu, who put an end to qualifier Eric Quigley's run with a 7-6(7), 6-3 win over the Kentucky sophomore. Quigley got off to a slow start, going down 2-0 and 0-40, but he eventually served for the opening set. His first serve eluded him most of the day however, and Daescu scrapped out a 70-minute first set before taking control in the much shorter second set.

For the consolation results, see the ITA tournament website.

Tags: college tennis, Steve Johnson, Andrei Daescu, Rob Farah, JP Smith, ITA All-American Championships, Colette Lewis

D'Novo All-American Quarterfinals Feature Both New and Familiar Faces

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa OK--

Two seeds, a qualifier, a wild card and four others survived a challenging day at the D'Novo ITA All-American to reach Saturday's quarterfinals.

Wet courts and temperatures in the upper 40s are not the best way to start the second day of a major collegiate tournament, but with the help of the six indoor courts at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center, one round of doubles and two rounds of singles were completed, all before 8 p.m. Friday evening.

Qualifier Eric Quigley, who had upset top seed Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State Thursday, kept it going on Friday, winning five straight games in the second set to take a 6-2, 7-5 decision from Baylor's Jordan Rux in his first match, then rolling past No. 9 seed Sanam Singh of Virginia 6-1, 6-3 in the third round evening match. His opponent in the quarterfinals is unseeded Andrei Daescu of Oklahoma, who beat Georgia's Jamie Hunt and Texas Tech's Raony Carvalho to earn his spot.

Alex Lacroix of Florida faces Steve Johnson of Southern California in the other quarterfinal in the top half. Lacroix downed Drew Courtney of Virginia and Brennan Boyajian of North Carolina, while Johnson took out Moritz Baumann of Wisconsin and longtime nemesis Bradley Klahn of Stanford, the No. 14 seed. Last year the two freshman had met three times, with Klahn winning on each occasion, so Johnson came into Friday's match determined to break through against his former junior rival.

"We have just battled," said Johnson, who sported a USC stocking cap when he wasn't playing. "Going back to the juniors I'd lost to him 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 or whatever. And then last year we had a battle at Stanford, 6 and 4, at Ojai (the Pac-10 individual title) 6 and 4, and then the NCAAs was 6 in the third. It was time. I guess I was due for one."

It looked as if he might fall short once again. After winning the first set 6-4, Johnson lost the second 7-5, and was broken serving at 3-4 in the third. But Klahn couldn't serve it out, Johnson held at love to make it 5-5, then got another break to serve for the match.

"I was fortunate enough to make a couple of first serves in that last game, get a couple of easy points, which really helps when you're serving for it," said Johnson, who looked more relieved than elated when he had won the final point of the 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 victory.

Johnson's teammate Robert Farah, the NCAA Team MVP when Southern California won the title back in May, also reached the quarterfinals, coming from a set down in his second round win over Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin. The No. 3 seed outlasted qualifier Ionut Beleleu of Oklahoma 7-6(3), 6-4 in the third round, leaving the Trojans as the only team with two players in the quarterfinals.

Farah will play unseeded Jason Jung of Michigan, who breezed past No. 10 seed Saketh Myneni of Alabama in the second round, then came from a break down in the final set to get by qualifier Neal Skupski of LSU 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Second seed JP Smith of Tennessee earned a quarterfinal spot with two straight set victories. The 2008 NCAA finalist defeated UCLA's Kalim Stewart in the second round and No. 13 seed Michael Shabaz of Virginia in the third round. Smith's 6-3, 6-4 win over Shabaz was the only round of 16 match that featured two seeded players.

Smith's opponent Saturday is wild card Ashley Watling of Tulsa, who derailed Duke freshman Henrique Cunha in the second round and stormed past Boise State's James Meredith in the third round 6-2, 6-1.

The doubles are also at the quarterfinals stage, and with today's loss by top seeds Jamie Hunt and Nate Schnugg to Aleksey Bessonov and Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, and yesterday's loss by No. 2 seeds Farah and Johnson, No. 3 seeds Moritz Baumann and Michalicka of Wisconsin are the highest remaining seeds.

For complete draws, including consolation, see the ITA tournament page.

At the women's All-American at Riviera, three of the four semifinalists are set. No. 2 seed Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia play No. 4 seed Lena Jurikova of Cal, and Georgia Tech's Irina Falconi, the No. 8 seed, will play the winner of the Marina Cossou - Venise Chan quarterfinal.

For complete results, see the ITA tournament page.

Tags: college tennis, Steve Johnson, ITA All-American Championships, Colette Lewis

Lauren Davis Profile; Julie Ditty Feature

While waiting for main draw singles to begin here at the D'Novo All-American, I wanted to link to my article yesterday on the Tennis Recruiting Network on Lauren Davis and her run to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open and McCarton Ackerman's story today about Vanderbilt graduate Julia Ditty.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Lauren Davis, Julie Ditty, Tennis Recruiting Network, Colette Lewis

Quigley Upsets Top Seed Nedovyesov in Opening Round of D'Novo All-American

©Colette Lewis--
Tulsa OK--

Although it didn't rival the deluge outside, there was a steady stream of upsets in the opening round Thursday at the ITA D'Novo All-American Championships on the campus of the University of Tulsa. The biggest one, Kentucky's Eric Quigley's 7-5, 6-1 victory over top seed and 2009 ITA Player of the Year Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, came early and the weather may have played a role.

"I do like indoors, and it definitely helped my serve," said the Wildcat sophomore. "Last time we played it was indoors and he was victorious, but it didn't hurt me today, that's for sure."

With his movement, serve and forehand meshing perfectly, Quigley made very few errors, even though he was going for big shots. He held serve easily, which kept the pressure on Nedovyesov. Once he fell behind 3-0 in the second set, the senior from Ukraine made Quigley's task easier by regularly donating points.

Quigley also believed he had an advantage in having come through qualifying.

"I don't know if he's played any college tournaments before this season, but I played a tournament last weekend, and then three matches going into this one definitely helped. It helped a lot."

Admitting that it was the best win of his career, and not one he expected, Quigley also conceded that he had found that territory described as "the zone."

"It was everything. It was like I was hitting with my eyes closed, but they were all going in."


Also joining Nedovyesov on the sidelines was Nate Schnugg of Georgia, the No. 4 seed, who also fell to a sophomore qualifier, Brennan Boyajian of North Carolina. Boyajian failed to serve out the first set when up 5-4, but did capture the tiebreaker 7-6(3). Schnugg was serving for the second set, but he couldn't overcome Boyajian's speed and anticipation during those last four games, dropping the second tiebreaker 7-6(5).

In addition to Nedovyesov and Schnugg, five other seeds lost their opening matches. Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech, the No. 5 seed, lost to qualifier Neal Skupski of LSU; No. 6 seed Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas was beaten by Andrei Daescu of Oklahoma; No. 8 seed Jean Yves Aubone of Florida State lost to Steve Johnson of Southern California; No. 11 seed Austen Childs of Louisville fell to qualifier Drew Courtney of Virginia and No. 16 seed Dean Jackson of San Diego was defeated by freshman qualifier Henrique Cunha of Duke.

No. 9 seed Sanam Singh of Virginia saved two match points with Austin Krajicek serving at 5-4 in the third set, and went on to scrape out a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory. No. 3 seed and 2007 All-American finalist Rob Farah of Southern California survived a tough battle with qualifier Alex Stamchev of Auburn 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 while No. 2 seed JP Smith had a long wait for a short evening of work, when qualifier Matt Kecki of USC retired down 6-1, 3-0 in the night's last match.

For complete results, see the ITF tournament page, which also has all the doubles results from this morning's first round.

Nedovyesov wasn't the only top seed to lose on Thursday. Maria Mosolova of Northwestern, the top seed at the Riviera All-American, was defeated by wild card Caitlyn Whoriskey of Tennessee 6-1, 6-3. Freshman qualifiers Danielle Lao of USC and Allie Will and Lauren Embree of Florida advanced to the second round. For complete results, see the ITA tournament page.

Tags: college tennis, Eric Quigley, D'Novo All-American Championships, Colette Lewis

Florida, Texas and USC Earn Two Main Draw Spots at Riviera All-American

The flights were uneventful, except for the lightning outside the windows as we made our descent into Tulsa. These flashes, lighting up the distant thunderheads, were a new air travel experience for me, but fortunately they were far enough north to be harmless. There was some drizzle on the way to the hotel, and rain in the forecast for tomorrow, so Thursday's first and second rounds at the D'Novo All-American could be disrupted.

The eight spots reserved for qualifiers at the women's ITA Riviera All-American are going to only five schools, with Florida, Texas and Southern California each having a pair of players qualify. Half of the qualifiers--Allie Will and Lauren Embree of Florida, Danielle Lao of Southern California and Aeriel Ellis of Texas--are freshman, and all but Embree, who was a wild card into qualifying, made it through pre-qualifying. Will actually lost in the final round of pre-qualifying, but given a second chance as a lucky loser, made the main draw. Ellis is joined by Longhorn teammate Vanja Corovic and Lao by Trojan Alison Ramos. Southern Methodist's Marta Lesniak, a 9-16 seed. and No. 6 seed Natasha Marks of Arizona are the other two qualifiers. Lao and Ellis play each other in the opening round of the main draw, as do Embree and Lesniak. Embree and Will also earned one of the four spots for qualifiers in doubles.

For draws and results, see the ITA tournament home page.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, ITA Riviera All-American Championship, Colette Lewis

Onsite Coverage of ITA All-American and ITF Pan American Begins Thursday

An early post today, as we are traveling this evening to Tulsa, where the main draw matches of the D'Novo All-American championships begin Thursday. Most of the singles qualifying matches have been completed;doubles qualifying is scheduled for this afternoon, but I know they've had some rain at the Michael Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa the past two days.

NCAA champion Southern California has two qualifiers: Matt Kecki and Jaak Poldma. Oklahoma, now coached by John Roddick, also has two: freshman Costin Paval, who has already won seven matches because he came through pre-qualifying, and Ionut Beleleu. Virginia's Drew Courtney and Lee Singer have made the main draw, as has Duke's star freshman Henrique Cunha. Dusan Medan of Marquette urvived pre-qualifying and qualifying, although he had a bye in the first round and has won "only" six matches in the past four days. North Carolina's Brennan Boyajian, Auburn's Alex Stamchev, UCLA's transfer Kalim Stewart, Radford's Ivan Salec, Kentucky's Eric Quigley, LSU's Neal Skupski, Middle Tennessee State's John Peers and Texas A&M's transfer Jeff Dadamo have also reached the main draw. For results, see the ITA tournament page.

With the women playing in California, and starting at noon there, I don't have any information this early, but I will try to at least post the names of the qualifiers this evening after we arrive in Tulsa. In the meantime, see the ITA tournament page.

The challenger in Sacramento always gets good coverage from the Bee and today Paul Bauman posted this story about Daniel Evans's victory over second seed Wayne Odesnik, Ryan Harrison's win over eighth seed Grega Zemlja of Slovenia, ranked 157, and Alex Domijan's loss to third seed Kevin Kim. Kim predicts big things for Domijan.

Before the North American ITF junior circuit moves to Tulsa next week, it stops in Atlanta for a Grade 4 event. See the TennisLink site for draws and results.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, ITA All-American Championships, Colette Lewis