Top Two Girls Seeds Fall as Rain and Indoor Tennis Continue at Pan-American

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa, OK--

It was the girls who provided the upsets and drama at the ITF Pan-American B1 Wednesday, and again it was indoors at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center, with drizzle and cool temperatures continuing in the Tulsa area.

Second seed Madison Keys was defeated in a second round match by unseeded Blair Shankle 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and in marathon third round contest, unseeded Rachel Kahan beat top seed and defending champion Beatrice Capra 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Keys got off to a slow start against Shankle, dropping her serve twice to go down 3-0 in the 8 a.m. match. Shankle, who at age 15 was the senior player on the court, returned well and stayed steady in the face of Key's superior power.

"I just tried to get in position and get as many serves back and make her play the point," said the freshman from Texas. "I didn't want to give her free points all the time. I thought I played pretty well, pretty consistently most of the time and I served well when I needed to."

Keys seemed to find her form in the second set, but the 14-year-old, playing her second competitive match since May due to illness, couldn't shake Shankle. Serving at 4-5 in the third set, Keys double faulted and made two unforced errors to give Shankle three chances to grab the win. A netted pass attempt and a let cord in Keys' favor made it 30-40, but Shankle's sliced backhand, short and perfectly angled, ended it. Shankle went on to win her third round match against Jessica Wacnik 6-3, 6-1 to reach her first Grade 1 quarterfinal. She will play No. 7 seed Ester Goldfeld, who beat Vicky Duval and No. 12 seed Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada in her two matches Wednesday.

Capra knew she was in for a long afternoon when Kahan, a senior from Connecticut, jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set, with Kahan's pace and depth keeping the top seed in a defensive position. Capra won the final five games of the first set, when Kahan began to make errors and Capra started to eliminate hers.

In the second set, Kahan quickly found her rhythm again, keeping Capra under pressure by taking the ball early and putting away short balls so quickly that Capra couldn't use her patented defensive skills. Kahan got an early break and a late one to take the set, giving her the advantage of serving to open the third set.

After two and a half hours the match was still all even, with nearly every game going to deuce. Serving at 3-3, Kahan saved two break points, but in the next game Capra failed to convert a game point. Two futile drop shot attempts and a tired looking backhand wide gave Kahan the opportunity to serve out the match, and she did so quickly, ending the three hour and twenty minute match on her first chance.

Capra was playing her second match of the day, having defeated Breaunna Addison 6-4, 6-3 in the morning, while Kahan played her second round match on Tuesday, but Kahan did not detect any fatigue in her opponent.


"She played fine," said Kahan, when asked if she felt she had an advantage in playing just one match. "Advantage, I don't know. I had trouble warming up, because of the situation, so it works both ways. But it was a good match. I played really well--I needed to to win. She's a really good player."

Kahan's opponent in the quarterfinals, eighth seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, also played two matches on Wednesday. She defeated Hai-Li Kong 7-5, 6-4, then won a contentious match with No. 9 seed Sachia Vickery 6-0, 5-7, 7-5. There were line calls disputed regularly, a roving official near the court at all times, vocal objections from Vickery's coach on her being overruled and, at the match's end, Vickery's refusal to approach the net for the customary handshake. It was not junior tennis's finest hour.

In addition to Kahan and Shankle, two other unseeded girls have reached the quarterfinals. Oklahoma's Mia Lancaster, a qualifier, defeated Jacqueline Crawford 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4, for her third straight three-set win and will play Katarena Paliivets of Canada, who is the highest seed remaining at No. 4. Wild card Kaitlin Ray reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-6(5) win over No. 14 seed Marianne Jodoin of Canada. Her opponent will be Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, who beat Elisabeth Abanda of Canada 6-3, 6-3.

By contrast, there is only one unseeded boy in the quarterfinals, Nick Chappell, who earned his quarterfinal berth with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 14 seed Campbell Johnson. Chappell will play another left-hander, No. 5 seed Junior Ore, who beat unseeded Bjorn Fratangelo 6-4, 7-6(7).

Top seed Denis Kudla continues to breeze through the draw, beating No. 13 seed Nikolai Haessig of Canada 6-2, 6-1. He will meet No. 9 seed Sekou Bangoura Jr., who posted a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over unseeded Emmett Egger. No. 4 seed Raymond Sarmiento used one break in each set to overcome unseeded Dane Webb 6-4, 6-4 and will face No. 6 seed Dennis Novikov, who beat No. 10 seed Darian King 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.

No. 3 seed Mitchell Frank got by unseeded Zachary Leslie 7-6(3), 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal contest with No. 7 seed Bob van Overbeek. Van Overbeek defeated unseeded Shane Vinsant 7-6(7), 6-4.

For complete results, including doubles, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Blair Shankle, Rachel Kahan, Pan-American ITF, Colette Lewis

All Tennis Indoors at Pan-American ITF Tuesday

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa, OK--

A constant steady drizzle kept any matches from being played outdoors Tuesday, but the boys draw has managed to keep on schedule in singles, with two rounds now complete. Unlike Monday, when No. 2 seed Julen Uriguen was upset by Cale Hammond and four other seeds lost, Tuesday's contests went more to form. Number 11 seed Pavel Krainik of Canada was the only seed to lose, falling 6-3, 6-0 to Bjorn Fratangelo, and top seed Denis Kudla, No. 3 seed Mitchell Frank and No. 4 seed Raymond Sarmiento all advanced in straight sets. Hammond could not sustain his level from Monday evening, losing to Nick Chappell 6-4, 6-2.

Chappell's opponent in Wednesday's third round will be No. 14 seed and 2008 Pan-American quarterfinalist Campbell Johnson, who survived a bout of cramps to defeat Samuel Monette of Canada 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4). Monette served for the match at 5-4, but Johnson survived that, and down 2-1 in the tiebreaker, the Californian called for a trainer due to cramping. Down 4-2 at the changeover, Campbell continued to stretch and flex between points, but knowing that the end of the match was near, he played on. Monette, a 15-year-old left-hander, found the going difficult after that, and with a combination of Monette's errors and Johnson's winners the final five points of the match went to Johnson.

There were only three other three-setters in the boys draw, with No. 13 seed Nikolai Haessig of Canada coming from behind to down Mitchell Krueger 2-6, 6-0, 7-5 and No. 9 seed Sekou Bangoura overcoming Connor Farren 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. Dane Webb defeated Alexander Petrone 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 in a battle of unseeded boys.

The girls first round was not finished on Monday, so top seed Beatrice Capra and No. 2 seed Madison Keys played their opening matches today. Capra had no trouble with wild card Deborah Suarez, winning 6-1, 6-0, and Keys, playing her first competitive match since May, defeated Whitney Kay 6-1, 7-5.

In second round action, Edmond Oklahoma's Mia Lancaster upset No. 6 seed Alexandra Cercone 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-4. Lancaster broke Cercone at 3-4 after four deuces, but she was unable to finish the match on her own serve. Although Lancaster often approached the net and put away short balls, and hit with pace and depth, it was a moonball that ended the match. With Cercone serving at 3-4, Lancaster hit a ball so high and so deep that it bounced out of Cercone's reach after she had gone all the way to the back wall to retrieve it.

Elisabeth Abanda of Canada defeated No. 10 see Noel Scott 7-5, 6-1 and Annie Mulholland eliminated No. 16 seed Kerrie Cartwright of the Bahamas 6-4, 7-6(5) in second round action. No. 11 seed Brooke Bolender lost to last week's finalist in the Atlanta ITF, Jacqueline Crawford, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 in a first round match.

The top seeds have already been eliminated in the boys doubles. Raymond Sarmiento and Julen Uriguen were defeated by Eric Johnson and Michael Zhu 6-3, 1-6, 10-4.

For draws and results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Pan-American ITF, Colette Lewis

Clayton Commits to Duke

©Colette Lewis 2009--

This is a special post--the 2000th in the nearly five years of zootennis.com, and being this time of year, it's fitting that it's an announcement of Mary Clayton's commitment to Duke University.

Joining the NCAA team champions in January, Clayton, from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., considered Northwestern and Vanderbilt before making her decision to become a Blue Devil late last month.

During her visit to Durham, Clayton observed practice, met with the coaches and took a full campus tour. She went to two classes--music and economics--and talked with several of the players on the team that she had known from junior tennis: Liz Plotkin, Ellah Nze and Reka Zsilinszka.

"I fell in love with campus," Clayton told me this afternoon. "I felt like I was in a fairy tale. I'm really fond of the coaches and the team, and I felt I fit best there."

Clayton, who trains at Saviano's Tennis Academy in Sunrise, is graduating from Edison Academic Center in December. She knew that she wanted to begin at Duke right away, and having lost two seniors to graduation and Mallory Cecil to the professional ranks, the team had positions to fill for the upcoming dual season.

Although Clayton did admit that the Blue Devils' success in May was a factor, she had been considering Duke before the won the NCAA title in College Station.

"It did show that it was a solid team with great coaches," she said.

Clayton is interested in pursuing either political science or psychology, and her tennis goals include another team title for Duke and a chance to match Cecil's individual title.

Tags: college tennis, Mary Clayton, Duke University, Colette Lewis

Hammond Upsets No. 2 Seed Uriguen as Drizzle Plagues Pan-American First Round

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa, OK--

It was another damp and gloomy day in Tulsa, but from the indoor courts of the Michael D. Case Tennis Center Cale Hammond's hometown looked pretty good. Much to the delight of a couple dozen friends and family members, Hammond saved a match point against No. 2 seed Julen Uriguen of Guatemala and went on to a dramatic 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 victory.

The boys draw was played entirely indoors on five courts, so by the time Hammond and Uriguen took the court nearly eight hours worth of tennis had already been played. Hammond opened the match serving well, and aggressively finished points, but he admitted that he made a mental error in the second set.

"I was on a roll, I did everything right," said Hammond, who trains at the Junior Champions Tennis Center in College Park, Md. "After I won that set, he took his time and regrouped, and then played a lot more solid. I think I got a little more confident than I should have been because I'm not as good as he is off the ground, but winning that set made me think I was. I changed my game style from the first set to the second set. I didn't come in as much in the second set, and I stayed back and tried to hit forehands with him. He has the best forehand in the world in juniors, so that was a bad idea."

In the third set, Hammond was down a break, and when serving at 3-5, was down a match point at 30-40, but again his serve got him out of trouble.

"I hit a big serve and an overhead to win that point," Hammond said. "I kept serving and volleying and it kept working, and I kept pressuring his backhand."

Serving for the match at 5-4, Uriguen threw in two double faults, and also double faulted when serving to force a tiebreaker.

"It looked like he sort of checked out," Hammond said. "It didn't look like he was trying that hard on those (second) serves, and that helped me a lot, gave me free points. I had to work really hard for almost every point, finish it at the net, hit a million backhands to his backhand slice."

With that final break, Hammond's cheering section applauded loudly, while Uriguen took his frustration out on not one but two racquets, smashing them on the courts near his bag and chair.

Hammond, who agreed that playing indoors was an advantage for him, was not really looking ahead to the next round, where he'll play Nick Chappell.

"I wish I could just stop the tournament right now," Hammond said, wishing for more time to savor his win over the world's 19th-ranked junior.

Aside from Uriguen, four other seeds fell in the first round. Emmett Egger beat No. 8 seed Alexis Carlos of Mexico, Alexander Petrone defeated No. 16 seed Gabriel Flores Ruiz, Dan McCall downed No. 12 seed Brandon Burke and Zach Leslie defeated No. 15 seed Rodney Carey.

In a match featuring the last two 16s National Champions, Clay Court winner Bjorn Fratangelo defeated Kalamazoo winner Gonzales Austin 6-2, 6-4 (the TennisLink site is currently showing the wrong winner).



The girls first round saw some matches completed outdoors, but as of 9 p.m., there were several matches, including those featuring top seed Beatrice Capra and No. 2 seed Madison Keys, that had not yet begun indoors.

The biggest surprise of the girls matches that were completed was No. 3 seed Nicole Gibbs's loss to wild card Kaitlyn Ray 6-2, 6-4. No. 15 seed Khristina Blajkevitch of Canada was beaten by Rachel Kahan 6-2, 6-2.

More rain is in the forecast for Tuesday, with indoor tennis again likely for the second round of singles.

For results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Cale Hammond, Pan-American Closed, Colette Lewis

Tennessee's Smith Claims Two Championships at ITA D'Novo All-American

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa OK--

Of the two unusual occurrences Sunday in Tulsa, JP Smith's pair of titles were certainly viewed more positively by the spectators than temperatures that failed to reach the 50 degree mark, nearly 30 degrees below normal for this time of year in Oklahoma.

Under gloomy skies, in front of only a few shivering fans, the Tennessee junior collected his school's first All-American singles title with a 7-6(7), 6-3 victory over Oklahoma's Andrei Daescu, then won two doubles matches with teammate Boris Conkic to join Harvard's James Blake and Mississippi State's Daniel Courcol as the only players to sweep the All-American titles.

In the singles final, played prior to the doubles semifinals and finals, Smith, the No. 2 seed, and the unseeded Daescu started nervously in the first few games. Although there were six breaks of serve in the first set, midway through its 80 minutes the level of play rose noticeably, with lengthy points more often ending with winners than errors.

At 5-5 in the first, Daescu was broken when Smith stroked a backhand pass at 30-40, but Smith was unable to serve out the set, double faulting at 6-5, 30-40 to settle for a tiebreaker. Daescu took a 5-3 lead in the tiebreaker with a deft drop shot winner, but he said later that he thought the next point cost him the match.

"The momentum was with me after I broke him at 6-5," said Daescu, who had won all five of the tiebreakers he played in his previous matches. "I played well in the first couple of points in the tiebreaker but I interrupted that momentum when I double faulted at 5-3. To be honest, right now I feel like that cost me the whole match."

Smith had set points at 6-5 and 7-6, but Daescu's two clutch backhand winners kept him alive. On the third, at 8-7, Smith was able to force an overhead error on his lob, a tactic that proved successful against Daescu, who approached the net often to finish points. It was a long, tense set, and perhaps unsurprising that Smith would lose the opening game of the second set and fall behind 2-0.

"I got down an early break like I did yesterday in the second set against Farah," the Australian said, referring to his semifinal match with the third seed from Southern California. "I knew I had to compete well to win, so I forgot about it and just moved on, and played a really good second set."

Serving at 3-4, Daescu saved one break point, but sent a forehand feet long on the second, and suddenly Smith was serving for the match. Unlike the nervous game he played when serving for the first set, the 2008 NCAA finalist hit four first serves to close out what was certainly the match's shortest game.

"I connected on four serves in a row," Smith said. "I don't think I've done that all tournament. But it's good to save it for the end."

Daescu was gracious in defeat.

"He's definitely a smart player, really good touch, good serve, a lefty--it's hard to play against lefties," the senior from Romania said. "Overall he's very solid, doesn't give away free points. He plays the important points well. He didn't win today because he was luckier than me, he won because he was better."



Smith had no time to enjoy his victory, because minutes after the presentation and photographs he was back on the court for the doubles semifinal. He and Conkic downed No. 3 seeds Mortiz Baumann and Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin 8-3, and in the interest of making their 4:30 flight back to Knoxville, took only a brief rest before the final against Oklahoma State's Aleksey Bessonov and Oleksandr Nedovyesov, who were also unseeded.

Smith and Conkic had not played together before--Smith had reached the NCAA doubles final in May with Davey Sandgren--but aside from perhaps more calls of "yours" and "mine" than usual, there was no sign of unfamiliarity.

"We only had a couple of practices together before this tournament, but we've known each other for two years, so I guess we know what our strengths are, and we used them well in this tournament," said Conkic, a junior from Serbia who is also left-handed.

"It's really different, a different combination, but he plays well and we complement each other well, so it was good," Smith said.

The Volunteers were ahead throughout the pro set, although the Oklahoma State pair had gotten it back on serve with a break of Smith at 3-1, only to see Nedovyesov drop his serve in the next game. Leading 6-4, Conkic survived a break point for 7-4, and on their second match point with Bessonov serving, they secured Tennessee's second All-American doubles title. In 1986, Shelby Cannon and Byron Talbot won the school's first.

"To have two guys, to win both singles and doubles, it's really special," said associate head coach Chris Woodruff. "Hopefully we'll have this feeling at the end of May."

After 11 matches in four days, Smith admitted to some exhaustion, and although he has an 8 a.m. American history class on Monday morning awaiting him, his first thought was of rest and food.

"It won't be long before I have to get up and go back to school tomorrow, but other than that, it's been good," said Smith, who is the first to sweep both titles since Blake in 1998. "I don't know what to say right now. Get something to eat and to sleep, and I'll be good."

In consolation singles, SMU's Robin Fahgen defeated Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas 6-2, 7-5. Fahgen, a senior from Sweden, did not lose a set in his five consolation wins.

For complete draws, see the ITA tournament site.

In the Women's ITA Riviera All-American, No. 8 seed Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech downed No. 2 seed Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia 6-2, 6-1 to add a singles title to the doubles championships she won there last year. Tennessee captured its third All-American title of the day when 2009 NCAA semifinalists Natalie Pluskota and Caitlyn Whoriskey defeated Lauren Embree and Allie Will 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.

For complete draws, see the ITA tournament site.

Tags: college tennis, JP Smith, Boris Conkic, ITA D'Novo All-American Championships, Colette Lewis

Oklahoma's Daescu and Tennessee's Smith Reach D'Novo ITA All-American Final

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Tulsa OK--

For second seed JP Smith, a big match on the Michael D. Case Tennis Center court is nothing new. As an unheralded freshman in May of 2008, the Tennessee left-hander reached the NCAA final, losing to defending champion Somdev Devvarman of Virginia. For unseeded Andrei Daescu of Oklahoma, Sunday morning's final is unchartered territory, with the senior from Romania reaching his first major collegiate championship final.

After coming back from a break down in the third set against Tulsa wild card Ashley Watling in his 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 quarterfinal victory, Smith also faced a tough spot in his semifinal encounter with USC's Robert Farah. The first seven games went to the server, but with Smith serving at 3-4 30-30, he was overruled by the chair umpire on a Farah passing shot that Smith thought had missed the sideline. Although he didn't do more than shrug off the overrule, he double faulted on the next point, and Farah served out the set 6-3.

Opening the second set, Smith was broken at love, and Farah seemed in control of the match, but Smith held steady, breaking Farah in the next game when Farah double faulted at 30-40.

"He played a good game to break," said the junior from Australia. "I started to get the rhythm on my returns after that, which really helped toward the end of the second and the third set. After that I started to play really solid. He played a really good first set, and I was just happy to get the win."

With Farah continuing to struggle on serve--Smith broke him six times in the final two sets--one of the Columbian right-hander's biggest weapons was ineffective, and Smith eased to a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win.


Daescu had ended the run of Kentucky qualifier Eric Quigley in the quarterfinal 7-6(7), 6-3 and in his semifinal with unseeded Steve Johnson of Southern California he took advantage of some sloppy play by the Trojan sophomore to take a 5-2 lead in the opening set. Johnson cleaned up his game and got the one break back when Daescu had serving trouble, including two double faults, at 5-4. But Daescu didn't panic, and dominated in the opening tiebereaker, taking it 7-6(3).

In the second set, after four service breaks, Johnson had a 5-4 lead, but with Daescu serving, Johnson was unable to convert on any of the four set points he was presented with in that game. Johnson made errors on the first two, but on the second two, Daescue came up with winners, and then converted on his first game point to make it 5-5.

"It was a lot of pressure on those set points," Daescu said, although he recalled only three set points, not the four he actually saved. "But I like playing under pressure. I feel I'm playing better when I'm under pressure. I served really well in those moments, which helped me a lot. I'm glad I didn't lose it, because I didn't want to play a third set."

The second set also ended in a tiebreaker, and again the senior from Romania, got off to a great start, and Johnson couldn't find the form that had helped him win the final five games of his quarterfinal victory over Alex Lacroix of Florida. Daescu won every point with controlled aggression, while the errors that had cropped up at inopportune times for Johnson reached a crescendo, leaving the final score 7-6(2), 7-6(0).

Smith and Daescu have not played before, so Sunday's final will bring new challenges for them.

"I've seen him in pretty much all the tournaments we've played together, and I have an idea on the way he's playing," said Daescu, who, after beating No. 6 seed Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas in the first round, has not faced a seed. "I think it's going to be a great final tomorrow."

Smith is also looking forward to Sunday's match, although he is assured of at least two, with he and partner Boris Conkic advancing to the doubles semifinals against No. 3 seeds Mortiz Baumann and Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin.

"The only time I've seen him play is playing next to him twice today," said Smith. "I'd see a glance here and there a bit. It'll be a tough match. He's got a lot of confidence making the final also, so it should be a good match."

The other doubles semifinal will see No. 5 seeds Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher of Stanford playing unseeded Aleksey Bessonov and Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State. Due to the weather problems the first two days, the doubles semis and finals have been shortened to 8 game sets rather than best of three sets.

In the singles consolation final, Kutrovsky of Texas will play Robin Fahgen of SMU. In the doubles consolation final, played Saturday evening, Duke's Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha defeated Austin Childs and Simon Childs of Louisville.

For complete results, see the ITA tournament page.


At the women's Riviera All-American, No. 2 seed Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia will play No. 8 seed Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech for the singles title Sunday.
The doubles final will feature qualifiers Allie Will and Lauren Embree from Florida against Tennessee's Natalie Pluskota and Caitlyn Whoriskey.

For complete results, see the ITA tournament home page.

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