Kay and Price Meet Again to Decide Girls 18s Clay Court Championship

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Memphis, TN--

They've won a gold ball together, but when Georgia's Caroline Price and Whitney Kay take the court on Sunday morning, they will be in a more familiar position--facing each other for a singles championship, this one the title at the USTA girls 18 Clay Courts.

In Saturday's semifinals, Price, the No. 13 seed, came from 5-2 down in the second set to defeat No. 5 seed and local favorite Catherine Harrison 6-2, 7-5, while the top seeded Kay put an end to the impressive run of 13-year-old Gabrielle Andrews 6-4, 6-2.

For the sixth straight day, there was no threat of rain, and although the temperature did not reach 100 as predicted, the heat index did. It didn't take Price and Harrison long to warm up, given those numbers, but it was Price who came out firing in the morning's first semifinal.

Price hit a sizzling forehand return winner to earn her first break, taking a 3-1 lead in the opening set. Harrison had a chance to get that break back in the seventh game, when Price fell behind 15-40 on her serve, but Harrison netted three consecutive shots, and Price held with an ace.

"I was just getting more balls in play," said Price, a 5-foot-11 left-hander. "I think we were both nervous, but I would just get one more ball and then she'd miss. I was fortunate in the first set, because I don't think she was playing her best."

After Price broke to take the first set, Harrison struck back, holding easily and taking a 5-1 lead in the second set. There seemed little doubt that a third set would decide the match, when Price began to come back, using what she called her "one point at a time" strategy. Harrison was broken serving for the set at 5-2 and at 5-4 she earned her first and only set point. After a long rally of punishing ground strokes, Harrison put a backhand into the net, the first of three straight backhands she would net, and Price had pulled even. She held, and now the pressure was squarely on Harrison, who was unable to force a tiebreaker, dropping serve for the third straight time, and with it, the match.

Harrison, who lives in suburban Memphis, had several dozen supporters cheering for her, while Price had only her mother providing encouragement. But Price took some tips from her father Mark, a former NBA star, about playing "on the road."

"He used to tell me when he would go to stadiums where there were tons of people, he would use it as a pump-up. I used it to help me get more determined, telling myself, I can do this, when people were cheering against me."

Although Gabrielle Andrews, known as Gabby to friends and family, also had local support from her relatives in the Memphis area, they weren't able to help her overcome the more experienced Kay.

Kay led the entire match, and each time Andrews got a break back, she was immediately broken in the next game. Kay was broken serving for the set at 5-4, something of a pattern for her this week, and in the next game Andrews was up 40-15, but an untimely double fault and several unforced errors gave Kay the first set.

"I think experience definitely helps," said Kay, who turned 17 last month. "She missed a few shots that she probably should have made. She probably got a little tight, thinking big point here, but I got a little lucky on some of them."

In the second set, Kay built a 4-0 lead, but Andrews brought it back to 4-2 and had two break points to get back on serve in the seventh game. Kay hit a perfect drop shot to save the first, and Andrews hit a backhand wide on the second, and Kay took a 5-2 lead. Andrews had two game points to force Kay to serve out the match in the next game, but couldn't convert and Kay earned her spot in the final on her first match point.

Back in April of 2009, Price and Kay, both from suburban Atlanta, met in the finals of the Easter Bowl 16s, with Price winning in three sets, then joining forces to earn the doubles title in Rancho Las Palmas. The most recent result in their long intrasectional rivalry came in February, with Kay winning that Southern Designated final 7-5, 6-3.

"It's really important to hold serve against Caroline, try to break her early on," Kay said.

Price, 17, still isn't convinced that clay is the surface best suited to her game.

"I'm not a fan of clay," Price confessed. "I have kind of a hard court game, with a big serve and forehand, but my coach has been helping me a lot, and we've been working on putting one more extra ball in play. Normally on hard, I can hit a shot and it won't come back, but he's gotten me to expect it back. But it's not my favorite."

Kay wasn't ready to concede that she had an advantage.

"She looks like she's playing well on clay too," Kay said. "So we'll see."



In the doubles final, the unseeded team of Breaunna Addison and Kelsey Laurente claimed the title with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 victory over the seventh-seeded team of Katie Goepel and Blair Shankle.

Addison and Laurente, who were the champion and finalist respectively at the Dunlop Orange Bowl 16s last December, had not had success in their first pairing several years ago, but were happy to be playing together once Addison received a wild card into this year's Clay Courts.

The two 15-year-olds from Florida survived two match tiebreakers in the early rounds, but from the round of 16 on, they dominated their opponents.

"I think when one of us isn't playing so well, the other one can pick her up," Addison said. "I'd start getting nervous and she would come through for me, and when she got nervous, it'd be vice versa."

"We help each other out," agreed Laurente, who won the 14s Clay Court singles championship last year, and looks very comfortable on the surface.

"My coach says my game is better on hard courts, but I just love sliding on clay," Laurente said.

Addison had played two consolation matches earlier in the day, while Laurente had played one, but neither showed any signs of fatigue in the late afternoon heat.

"I just tried to focus on each point and making smart decisions, so I wouldn't have to be out here as long," Addison said. "I knew this was going to be a tough match, that both of them are great players, so I just tried to focus."

Addison and Laurente didn't have any big plans to celebrate their victory, with Laurente looking forward to a shower and Addison doing some math homework.

"We'll leave with smiles on our faces, though," Laurente promised.

In the third place match in doubles, Mara Schmidt and Tina Tehrani defeated Elizabeth Begley and Alecia Kauss 6-3, 7-6(2) in a battle of unseeded teams.

There will be three matches on Sunday morning, beginning with the consolation final, where No. 4 seed Kyle McPhillips will play unseeded Whitney Ritchie. Also at 8 a.m., Harrison and Andrews will play for the bronze ball in singles, with the championship singles match beginning at 10 a.m. CDT.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Caroline Price, Whitney Kay, Kelsey Laurente, Breaunna Addison, USTA National Clay Court Championships, Colette Lewis

Andrews Defeats McPhillips, Joins Kay, Price and Harrison in Girls 18s Clay Court Semifinals

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Memphis, TN--

She may not have much experience with clay or with the heat and humidity plaguing Memphis this week, but 13-year-old Gabrielle Andrews proved in her 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 4 seed Kyle McPhillips that she is a title contender under any conditions.

Seeded eighth, Andrews, from Pomona, Calif., came into the match between the two reigning Easter Bowl champions (Andrews in 14s, McPhillips in 16s) with confidence, having beaten McPhillips in the Claremont, Calif. ITF this spring. But that was on hard courts, on Andrews' home turf; this match was on green clay, against the 2009 girls 16s Clay Court champion.

"We don't have a lot of clay courts in California," said Andrews, whose father grew up in Memphis and whose grandmother and aunt still live here. "And before this tournament I didn't hit on clay at all. But once I got to Memphis, I hit on clay a couple of times and I got used to it."

McPhillips started well, breaking Andrews to open the match, but she was broken right back and lost four straight games. Usually a very precise shotmaker, McPhillips was making errors of every kind--Andrews said she "caught her on a bad day today."

Andrews was able to keep McPhillips off balance, mixing in a forehand slice with her usual array of powerful backhands. In the second set, serving at 3-2, Andrews survived one break point in a five-deuce game and another serving at 4-3, with her serve helping her on key points. McPhillips couldn't dent Andrews' composure in the final game, and she calming served out the match to reach her first semifinal in an 18s National.

"I didn't know if I'd make it this far actually," Andrews said. "I knew I was going to play a lot of big girls who are used to playing on clay."

Andrews will meet top seed Whitney Kay in Saturday's semifinal. Kay spotted unseeded Californian Ashley Dai the first set but went on to take control late in the second to earn a 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-1 victory.

Kay had difficulty closing out sets yesterday against Meghan Blevins, and against Dai today she was also unable to serve out the first set with a 5-4 lead. In the tiebreaker, Kay, of Alpharetta, Ga., had a 3-1 lead, but lost the next six points, mostly on her unforced errors.

Down 2-0 in the second set, Kay rallied to win the next two games, and both players held serve until Dai was broken serving at 5-6. Kay's serve was effective throughout the match and her forehand was frequently putting Dai on the defensive, but it wasn't until Dai started making unforced errors that Kay was able to take control. Down 5-0, Dai managed one game on serve, but when it came time to serve out the match,
Kay had no difficulty, taking it at love.

Local favorite Catherine Harrison needed five match points to subdue No. 9 seed Ronit Yurovsky 6-1, 7-6(9), who had two chances to put the match into a third set.

Harrison came out very strongly, with her depth and pace giving Yurovsky problems, but Yurovsky, from New Kensington, Pa., adjusted in the second set, and took a 3-0 lead. Harrison won the next three games, and broke Yurovsky to take a 5-4 lead. She had two match points in that game, but didn't convert, and the set went to a tiebreaker. There were not a lot of scintillating points, with more errors than winners, but Yurovsky managed to save a match point at 6-5, and earn set points at 7-6, and 8-7. At 9-8 Harrison had another match point, but hit a forehand long; she earned her fifth and final by forcing an error after a long rally. Yurovsky missed her first serve, then her second, and an engrossing tiebreaker came to an anticlimatic end.

I've seen very little of No. 13 seed Caroline Price this week, as she has not played on Stadium Court, and today the daughter of former NBA player Mark Price was not on Court 5 very long. Price, from Duluth, Ga., defeated unseeded Oklahoman Whitney Ritchie 6-2, 6-1, her fourth straight two-set match. Price and Harrison will play Saturday's first semifinal on Stadium Court.

The doubles finals are set, with No. 7 seeds Katie Goepel and Blair Shankle meeting unseeded Breaunna Addison and Kelsey Laurente for the gold balls. Goepel and Shankle defeated the unseeded team of Elizabeth Begley and Alecia Kauss 6-2, 6-0 in one semifinal, while Addison and Laurente beat the unseeded team of Mara Schmidt and Tina Tehrani 6-4, 6-1 in the second.

Both Addison and Laurente are still in the consolation tournament, so the time for the doubles final will depend on their morning results.

And speaking of the consolation tournament, it's worth noting that after losing in the second round on Monday, Emina Bektas, the No. 2 seed, has played and won eight singles matches in four days of oppressive heat and humidity.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Gabrielle Andrews, USTA National Clay Court Tennis Championships, Colette Lewis

Local Girl Fights Back to Reach Quarters at Girls 18 Clay Court Championships

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Memphis TN--

As Catherine Harrison, both calves wrapped with bags of ice, made her way from the trainer's table to a shady spot to talk with reporters about her 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-1 victory over Breaunna Addison, the 16-year-old from Germantown, Tenn. stopped several times to accept the congratulations of the family members and friends who had vocally supported her for nearly three hours.

With the temperatures nearing 90 degrees and the humidity becoming more oppressive with each passing hour, the fifth-seeded Harrison was serving for the match at 5-1 in the third set when she began to cramp for the first time ever.

"I've never really cramped before, but when I hit my first serve, whoa, both my calves kind of seized up," Harrison said. "I was definitely trying to end the points early that last game. I had to go for it, because I didn't quite know what would happen if I kept on playing. I think the heat was kind of getting to her also."

Addison asked for a trainer at the changeover at 5-4 in the second set, having just broken Harrison, who couldn't capitalize on her one set point in that game. It wasn't a long visit, and there was no massage or apparent cramping. Addison didn't play well in the next game, double faulting to make it 15-30, and when a forehand that Harrison called just long was confirmed by an examination of the mark by the chair umpire, Harrison had two additional set points. Addison hit a backhand wide on the first one, and the match, already over two hours in duration, would go to a third set.

The first set had been an excellent display of tennis by both players, with only one break of serve each. There were many 30-30 points, almost all of which were won by the server, and the level was consistently high.

It was even better in the tiebreaker, where winners outnumbered errors by a wide margin. Addison had a 6-4 lead in the tiebreaker, but Harrison saved both of those set points, and another at 6-7. Addison finally prevailed on her fourth set point, to end the 70 minute set.

In the second set Addison led 3-2 and was serving at 40-0, when suddenly she lost five straight points. Harrison held then broke to take a 5-3 lead, although she expressed surprise that she was down a set and a break.

"I remember the 40-0 game, and I knew the score, I guess I just didn't realize it would have been 4-2," Harrison said.

After she extricated herself from that predicament, Harrison's confidence level seemed to rise, and after taking a 3-0 lead in the third set, she definitely looked the fresher of the two. Addison called for the trainer a second time at that stage, but lost the game after taking a 40-15 lead, and her body language was becoming increasingly negative. Harrison continued to blast two-handed ground strokes from both sides with the occasional perfect drop shot thrown in for good measure, and with a final winner had reached her first quarterfinal at a USTA National Championship.

Harrison's opponent in Friday's quarterfinal will be No. 9 seed Ronit Yurovsky, who defeated Nicole Long, a No. 17 seed, 6-3, 6-4.

The other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the draw will feature No. 13 seed Caroline Price against unseeded Whitney Ritchie. Price beat Skylar Morton 6-1, 6-4, while Ritchie battled unseeded Riko Shimizu for more than three hours in the midday 95 degree heat before earning a 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-3 victory.

In the top half, No. 1 seed Whitney Kay survived unseeded Meghan Blevins 7-6(2), 7-6(2). Both Kay and Blevins served for the first set, Kay at 5-3, Blevins at 6-5, but neither could finish the job. Kay played the more steady tiebreaker, and Blevins looked doomed when she trailed 5-2 in the second set, but she used an effective combination of defense and variety to mount her comeback. Kay served for the match at 5-2, 5-4 and 6-5, but couldn't convert. She didn't let the frustration she must have felt show however, and again played consistent, confident tennis to win the second tiebreaker.

On Friday, Kay will play unseeded Ashley Dai, who has yet to lose a set in the tournament. Dai defeated unseeded Lindsay Graff 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday. No. 4 seed Kyle McPhillips takes on 13-year-old Gabrielle Andrews in the fourth quarterfinal. McPhillips defeated unseeded Amber Li 6-2, 6-4, while the eighth-seeded Andrews downed Katie Goepel, a No. 17 seed, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

The doubles quarterfinals were played Thursday afternoon, and only one seeded team has advanced to the semifinals.

Goepel and Blair Shankle upset top seeds Emina Bektas and Jasmine Minor 4-6, 6-1, 12-10 and will face Elizabeth Begley and Alecia Kauss, who ousted No. 4 seeds Kay and Megan Kurey 2-6, 7-6(2), 10-6.

The other semifinal features Addison and partner Kelsey Laurente against Mara Schmidt and Tina Tehrani. Addison and Laurente beat unseeded Leyla Erkan and Cece Witten 6-4, 6-2, while Schmidt and Tehrani defeated Yurovsky and Ellen Silver, a No. 9 seeded team, 6-3, 6-1.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Catherine Harrison, USTA National Clay Court Championships, Colette Lewis

Seven Unseeded Players Reach Thursday's Round of 16 at Steamy Girls 18s Clay Courts

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Memphis, TN--

The upsets may have abated on Wednesday, but the heat certainly didn't. With temperatures climbing into the mid-90s and the heat index well over 100 degrees most of the afternoon, no one was interested in staying out on the court one moment longer than necessary. The misting sprinkler (pictured above) that was installed for cooling off overheated players, spectators and college coaches was a popular spot by late in the day.

Only three matches went the distance, with the top seeds remaining in the draw, No. 1 Whitney Kay and No. 4 Kyle McPhillips, avoiding any prolonged time on the court. Kay defeated No. 17 seed Shayne Austin 6-0, 6-3 and McPhillips breezed past unseeded Katie Klyczek 6-1, 6-2. Each will play an unseeded player in the round of 16 Thursday, with Kay taking on Meghan Blevins, who beat No. 17 seed Sherry Li 7-6(5), 6-3 and McPhillips facing Amber Li, who beat unseeded Erin Stephens 6-1, 6-4.

No. 5 seed Catherine Harrison looked very strong while playing at her customary time, 8 a.m., on her customary court, Stadium. Harrison, from the Memphis suburb of Germantown, just had too much depth and pace for unseeded Lynn Chi, and the 16-year-old with the two-handed forehand advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Her next opponent is likely to present a very serious challenge however. Although unseeded, Breaunna Addison, the 2009 16s Orange Bowl champion, is playing outstanding tennis in Memphis, and in her first match at the Racquet Club of Memphis site, she blitzed No. 16 seed Haley Driver 6-2, 6-0. Those courtside at 8 a.m. will need to be wide-awake to follow the blasts from each player Thursday morning.


One of the closest matches of the day was No. 17 seed Skylar Morton's 7-6(0), 7-5 victory over unseeded Rachael Reed, who had beaten No. 3 seed Danielle Collins on Tuesday. Reed served for the opening set twice, at 5-4, and 6-5, but in a set that saw eight service breaks, it wasn't exactly a surprise that the first set went to a tiebreaker.

Reed simply could not make a shot in the tiebreaker and seemed to lose interest and concentration as the errors mounted.

"She had some easy balls, that's the thing," said Morton, 16. "She missed a swinging volley, and some other shots. But even if she made some of those, I was fighting harder than her."

When Morton took a 3-0 lead in the second set, it looked as if Reed was still feeling the effects of that dismal tiebreaker, but she fought back, and actually led 5-4 before Morton won the final three games of the match.

Staying focused and composed while watching Reed's big shots sail by her was key to Morton's win.

"I tried to stay mentally tough," Morton said. "I just say good shot, and if I actually say it, it helps me. There's nothing I can do, so I can't get mad at myself. She was hitting a lot of winners."

Morton, who trained for the tournament on clay in the heat and humidity of Maryland, was working on making the transition from grass, after reaching the finals last month at the ITF International Grass Courts in Philadelphia.

"It's a totally different game style," Morton said. "Grass is serve and volley, coming to the net a lot, points are really short. But here, points are really long, you have to keep the ball higher over the net. I guess it's whoever's more fit on clay."

Morton's opponent on Thursday is No. 13 seed Caroline Price, who defeated unseeded Mary Jeremiah 6-2, 6-3. The two have never played.

The round of 16 does not feature a single match that was anticipated when the draw was released. In addition to Blevins, Li and Addison, there are four other unseeded players in the final 16, playing each other: Ashley Dai, who plays Lindsay Graff, and Riko Shimizu who plays Whitney Ritchie.

Katie Goepel and Nicole Long join Morton as No. 17 seeds remaining, with 13-year-old Gabrielle Andrews (8) and Ronit Yurovsky (9) joining Price, Harrison, Kay and McPhillips as Top 16 seeds still in the hunt for the championship.

The round of 16 doubles were still incomplete when I left the site, but results can be found soon at the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, USTA Clay Court National Championships, Skylar Morton, Colette Lewis

Reed Ousts No. 3 Seed Collins in Girls 18s Clay Courts Third Round

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Memphis, TN--

With temperatures in the 90s and high humidity, the third day of the USTA Girls 18s Clay Courts certainly had its challenges.

Catherine Harrison, the No. 5 seed, who is from suburban Memphis, had the most benign conditions, with an 8 a.m. start time on Stadium Court. After barely an hour, she had powered past Madeleine Hamilton 6-2, 6-3 and could go home to the air conditioning, but the rest of the field wasn't so fortunate.

There were main draw matches played at two other sites in addition to the main site, the Racquet Club of Memphis, where I stayed throughout the day. While the day's first round of consolation matches occupied nine of the ten RCM courts, the Stadium Court was reserved for main draw matches, and following Harrison's win another Tennessee player took the court, Caitlyn Williams, a No. 17 seed. Williams and Indiana's Katie Klyczek battled for two hours and 45 minutes before moving to a third set tiebreaker to decide it, but that ended quickly, with Klyczek winning every point to earn a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(0) victory.

Klyczek, who had plenty of power on her serve and her ground strokes, got the only break of the third set at 5-5, but she was unable to serve it out, making an unforced error at 30-40. That was the last unforced error Klyczek would make, as Williams simply could not keep a ball in the court or over the net in the tiebreaker.

As the temperature continued to climb, the remaining main draw matches began to reclaim the other courts. Top seed Whitney Kay looked as if she might be an upset victim when she dropped her serve at 5-5 in the first set on a double fault, and Hailey Johnson held in her service game to claim the lead. That would be the last time Johnson would hold her serve in the match, as Kay eliminated the uncharacteristic errors that popped in the first set, and won ten straight games before Johnson finally ended the streak by breaking Kay. The players were required to take a heat break after the second set, but it didn't change the momentum, with Kay rolling to a 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 win.

While I was watching the end of Kay's win, No. 3 Danielle Collins was falling behind Rachael Reed 5-0 in a match played on one of the three lower courts. Collins, who had barely escaped Laura Wiley 7-5 in the third on Monday, fought back to force a tiebreaker in the first set, but when Reed won it, the wheels fell off for Collins and she was beaten 7-6(7), 6-1.

Reed blamed her nerves and Collins's improved play for the disappearance of her big lead in the first set.

"I started getting really nervous and she started playing much better," said the 16-year-old from The Woodlands, Texas. "She was striking the ball more. In the tiebreaker, I just wanted to get off to a good start and keep doing what I was doing that got me to 5-0. I started putting pressure on her and moving into the court."

Reed had no trouble matching Collins's power and Collins became increasingly frustrated with her own errors. Although she finished sixth here in 2009, she never looked comfortable on the clay and was not able to find any rhythm in the second set.

"I wasn't expecting to do so well playing on clay," said Reed, who was a finalist at the 16s Winter Nationals in January. "I'm more of a hard court players and I don't have a lot of experience playing on clay courts. I played the Intersectionals, but I usually don't play on clay. I'm more of a one-two punch sort of player, take a lot of balls on the rise, go for more and be in the court. This, you can't hit every ball as hard as you can. It's really about placement and working the point."

Collins was not the only Top 8 seed to lose on Tuesday. No. 6 seed Elizabeth Begley was beaten by Ashley Dai 6-2, 6-2 and No. 7 seed Hanna Yu lost to Aria Lambert 7-6(3), 7-6(1). Of the 32 seeds who should be playing on Wednesday, only 14 are.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, USTA National Clay Court Championships, Rachael Reed, Colette Lewis

Erkan Upsets No. 2 Seed Bektas as Seeds Begin Play at Girls 18s Clay Courts

©Colette Lewis 2010--
Memphis, TN--

When she stepped to the line at 5-3 in the second set, having just broken No. 2 seed Emina Bektas in the second round of the USTA Girls 18s Clay Courts, Leyla Erkan was serving for her biggest win of the year. She had won the first set 6-4, playing controlled and solid tennis against the error-prone Bektas, and Erkan had continued that steady play throughout the second set.

The nerves that accompany closing out a victory appeared however, and Erkan wasn't able to seize her opportunity; despite taking a 30-0 lead, she double faulted twice and ended up losing the game. But she was determined to take the positives from that misstep.

"I focused, I tried to win that game, fought really hard, even though I lost it," said the 17-year-old, who trains at the Smith-Stearns Academy in Hilton Head, South Carolina. "I tried to keep my composure, which I did, and then on her serve, I just tried to get every return in. She has a huge serve."

When it is working, Bektas's first serve can be devastating, and in one game, she aced Erkan three consecutive times. But in that final game, Erkan succeeded in getting her returns in play, and Bektas was unable to eliminate the errors that had plagued her all afternoon. On match point, she missed a sitter at the net, which despite her previous errors, still came as a shock.

Erkan had been playing ITF junior events this year prior to resuming USTA play with two National Opens this summer in Atlanta, and she enjoyed the opportunity to travel and play international competition. She also got a lot of practice on clay, although it still is not her favorite surface.

"I don't really enjoy it; I like hard courts more," Erkan said. "I train on clay at Smith Stearns, so I'm used to it, and I'm able to adjust my game well to play on it."

Two other Top 10 seeds escaped with victories, although both played much longer that they would have liked under the hot afternoon sun, which was only made bearable by a fresh breeze. Kendal Woodard served for the match against No. 9 seed Ronit Yurovsky at 5-3 in the second set, having won the first set 6-4. But Yurovsky broke back, held, won the second set tiebreaker 7-6(4), and took the third set 6-2.

Against No. 3 seed Danielle Collins, Laura Wiley served for the first set twice, but ended up losing it a tiebreaker. Wiley won the second set, was down a break in the third at 4-2, got the break back, then lost her next service game to give Collins the opportunity to serve for the match. In what was a theme of the final games of the match, Collins was broken to make it 5-5 and with Wiley serving in the next game, after six deuces and four game points, Wiley was broken.

This time Collins didn't flinch, winning her service game at love to end the over three-hour match.

Five alphabetically 17th-seeded players lost today. Gabrielle Devlin lost to Alyssa Ritchie 6-3, 1-6, 6-3; Jasmine Minor was beaten by Theresa Smith 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-4; Megan Kurey was defeated by Mary Jeremiah 6-2, 6-2; Danielle Flores lost to Lynn Chi 6-1, 6-2 and Molly O'Koniewski was beaten by Emily Flickinger 7-6(5), 6-2.

Top seed Whitney Kay and No. 4 seed Kyle McPhillips lost only one game between them in their second round wins.

For complete draws, including doubles, which are now down to the round of 16, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Leyla Erkan, USTA National Clay Court Championships, Colette Lewis