Jack Sock and Melanie Oudin Win Mixed Doubles Title

©Colette Lewis 2011--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

In the category of unexpected grand slam champions, it would be hard to top the fresh-faced pair that captured the 2011 mixed doubles trophy at the US Open. Nineteen-year-old Melanie Oudin and 18-year-old Jack Sock, a wild card entry playing together for the first time, beat No. 8 seeds Gisela Dulko and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 7-6(4), 4-6, 10-8 Friday evening to give the United States its first championship of the tournament.

Playing on Arthur Ashe stadium, where both John Isner and Andy Roddick had fallen in the quarterfinals, Oudin and Sock lifted the spirits of the thousands of fans who stuck around looking for a more positive ending to their tennis day.

Starting slowly, Sock and Oudin fell behind 3-1, but got the break back in the sixth game, and in the tiebreaker, held the slimmest of leads, getting a mini-break when Schwank double faulted at 1-1. Sock and Oudin held serve giving themselves three set points at 6-3. Schwank saved one, but Oudin hit a clean forehand return winner off a Schwank second serve, a shot that energized the crowd even more.

The second set saw no breaks and not even a deciding point in the no-ad format. Although Sock had served well throughout the match, he was broken for the first time serving at 4-5, which meant he and Oudin would need to win their third match tiebreaker of the tournament to satisfy the fans.

They didn't get off to the best of starts, trailing 4-2 at the first changeover, but the chants of USA, USA seemed to have their effect. Oudin hit a running forehand winner that got them started and the teenagers went on to win five of the next six points to take a lead 7-5 at the second changeover.

Dulko then double faulted, which gave the Americans a little breathing room, and after a Dulko poach made it 8-6, Schwank missed a forehand return to give Sock and Oudin three match points.

Schwank saved two of them, although he needed an assist from Hawkeye on the first one, when his second serve was called out, but reversed on review.

At 9-8, the match hinged on Sock's serve, a situation that suited him just fine.

"I felt comfortable serving all week, so I think I was pretty positive about it and felt like I was probably hitting a good serve," said Sock.

He did, and Schwank, lunging for the ball, sent it just long. Sock dropped his racquet and ran to hug Oudin, while the crowd rose in unison to applaud the unlikely champions.

"For me it was a lot of fun," said Sock, who according to Oudin, kept the tension down all week with his jokes and comments. "I think that's kind of why we have been doing well this week. It's been like that all tournament for us, kind of just like playing loose, swinging, and having a good time. I think that's where the success came from, too."

Oudin, whose Cinderella run to the US Open quarterfinals in 2009 was the highlight of her grand slam participation until now, remarked on their good fortune in saving a match point in their first round contest against Vladimira Uhlirova and Filip Polasek, and their ability to keep that momentum.

"Sometimes like getting through that, a little bit lucky here and there, and who knows? You can end up winning the title," said Oudin.

Mixed doubles records are difficult to find and confirm, but at age 18, Sock is the youngest man to win a US Open mixed doubles title in the Open era, and their combined age of 37 is the same as that of Belarus' Max Mirnyi, who was 21, and American Serena Williams, who was 16 at the time of their championship in 1998.

The complete mixed doubles draw can be found at usopen.org.

Min and Gibbs Play for Place in US Open Girls Singles Final

©Colette Lewis 2011--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

Unseeded Americans Grace Min and Nicole Gibbs will play Saturday for a place in the 2011 girls singles final at the US Open junior championships, assuring there will be an American finalist for the fourth straight year.

The juniors returned to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center after a day at the Sound Shore Indoor Tennis Club, with the spacious grounds, sunny skies and warm temperatures a welcome change after two days of rain and one day of doubled-up matches in less than ideal conditions.

Four American girls had won two matches at the indoor courts Thursday, and when all four fell behind in their round of 16 matches Friday, it looked as if the United States would be hosting a junior championship weekend without any Americans.

The unseeded Min trailed Sweden's Ellen Allgurin 5-2 in the opening set of their match, but fought back to take a 7-6(1), 6-2 victory.

"I was pretty nervous and she was making a lot of balls," said the 17-year-old Min, who trains at the USTA National Center in Boca Raton. "It was pretty close the first seven games, but she was just making one more ball than me. After than, I kind of settled down and got my feet moving and fought my way back into that. Once I started to move my feet, everything just fell into place."



Min had only played four sets of tennis on Thursday, but Gibbs had needed six. On Friday, against No. 6 seed and 2010 US Open girls finalist Yulia Putintseva of Russia, it looked as if Gibbs was paying for those two tough matches, dropping the first set 6-1. Gibbs credited her opponent, not her fatigue for the result in the opening set.

"I was definitely not running at my top speed, but I was also shocked. I thought I was coming up against kind of a grinder today," said Gibbs, who hadn't met Putintseva before. "That's what I had heard from scouting reports and stuff, but she was blasting the ball past me. So more credit to her than anything."

The second set was much tighter, and Putintseva began to exhibit signs that she was feeling the pressure from Gibbs. The 16-year-old from Moscow was given a warning for an audible obscenity when a line judge reported it to the chair umpire, and with Gibbs serving at 3-4, Putintseva was given a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct during an exchange with the chair umpire.

"We were both temperamental earlier," said Gibbs, who qualified for the tournament, so has now won six matches since last Friday. "I launched a ball and got a gentle warning, and when I bounced my racquet once, he said keep your racquet in your hand, but never an actual warning. But as the match went on she got more and more worked up and there was a little bit of antics there with her fist pumping and screaming c'mon in my face, and I'd win the next point and fist pump in her face."

The point penalty gave Gibbs a 15-0 lead in the ninth game of the second set, and she went on to break Putintseva. Serving for the second set, Gibbs, the sophomore at Stanford, needed five set points to finally take it, with her speed and composure finally getting the job done. Gibbs ran down a drop shot, somehow got to Putintseva's reply, scrambling,quickly finding her balance, then putting a perfectly placed backhand down the line past Putintseva.

Gibbs took a 2-0 lead in the final set, lost it, then broke and held to take a 4-2 lead. Serving down 2-4, Putintseva lead 30-0, but after hitting a serve and coming down on her right leg, Putintseva screamed and went down at the baseline. After receiving a medical timeout, during which Gibbs practiced hitting serves with a ball boy collecting the balls and returning them to her, Putintseva returned to the court. She had a game point after a Gibbs unforced error, but her heavily wrapped thigh seemed to give her the most trouble on the serve, and after a double fault and a forehand long, Gibbs was serving for the match.

Although Putintseva seemed to move normally on her ground strokes, something had changed, and her forehand contributed two errors in the final game, with a shanked one putting Gibbs in the semifinals by a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 score.

Gibbs and Min have played recently, with Gibbs winning by a 6-1, 6-2 score in the Vancouver Challenger qualifying last month.

"I'm hoping it's a better match than last time," said Min. "I didn't win that, or many games either. She qualified here and is playing well and she's a tough, tough competitor. I've got to be on my best game."

Gibbs said she would speak with her USTA coach Marc Lucero, who is back in Southern California, about what she had done successfully against Min before.

"I'm just going to have to stay in a lot of points tomorrow," said Gibbs, who beat No. 4 seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in the second round. "And keep defending, which I've been doing a lot of this week. But important against her is taking my opportunities, not letting short balls go unattacked."

In the other two quarterfinals featuring Americans, Krista Hardebeck lost to No. 3 seed and Wimbledon girls champion Ashleigh Barty 6-0, 7-5, and Vicky Duval battled valiantly against top seed Caroline Garcia of France before falling 6-3, 6-4.

The only American boy in singles action Friday was Alexios Halebian, who lost to top seed Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2.

"I was playing a little tentative, a little scared," admitted Halebian, who was playing in his first junior slam quarterfinal. "I wasn't going for my shots. He was a little more aggressive. I gave him a lot of respect, which is not a good thing. It's always good to respect your opponent but not fear the guy. I was a little nervous and he seized that opportunity."

The American girls are assured a finalist, as are the British boys, with No. 13 seed Oliver Golding facing compatriot George Morgan, the No. 10 seed, in one semifinal. Golding came back to beat No. 6 seed Filip Horansky of Slovakia 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, and Morgan also needed to claw back into his match, taking out Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4.

The third British semifinalist is Kyle Edmund, who defeated Egypt's Karim Hossam 6-2, 6-4. He will play Vesely in hopes of equaling the American performance last year when Jack Sock and Denis Kudla met in the boys final.

There were two rounds of doubles played today and two more are scheduled for Saturday. Four entirely American girls teams, as well as one German-American team, still remain in contention, but all the US boys playing doubles were eliminated today.

For complete results, see usopen.org.

Long Day at Sound Shore Produces Four US Girls Quarterfinalists at US Open; Halebian Sole US Boy Remaining

©Colette Lewis 2011--
Port Chester, NY--

Two days of rain forced the US Open junior championships indoors on Thursday, the third time in the past four years the USTA has sent matches to the Sound Shore Indoor Tennis Club in Port Chester, New York.

This year, the trip came much earlier than in 2008 and 2009, when the draw was down to the semifinals and quarterfinals respectively, so there were three and four times as many matches, which meant more buses, a very crowded lobby, unsatisfactory viewing options and various other inconveniences. Because of heavy traffic, the first bus containing the girls competitors took just under two hours to get the 25 miles from Manhattan to Port Chester, so second round starts were delayed, and the final boys round of 16 match didn't finish until after 10:30 p.m.

But when the final eight boys and eight girls emerged from the 32 who began the day in each draw, two countries could point to an outstanding day, with four US girls and three British boys reaching the quarterfinals.


Vicky Duval started her day by beating defending champion and 2010 World Junior champion Daria Gavrilova of Russia 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3, and then breezed by 14-year-old Francoise Abanda of Canada, who had upset No. 12 seed Madison Keys in the second, by an eye-popping score of 6-1, 6-1.

"I was really focused and into the match," said Duval, 15. "It wasn't that I wanted to get it over with, but I wanted an easier one than earlier this morning. I glad I played really well and got through that one quite fast. After I loosened up in the first game, it was all me from there."

It was an unusual circumstance for Duval, who trains at the IMG/Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, to be the older player on the court.

"To be honest, I was a little nervous going into the match," said Duval, who has now reached the quarterfinals in consecutive junior slams. "She's had a good win, but it's one of those matches where you're expected to win, because she's so young. For the first time, I'm the older player. But it's going to happen.

When Duval plays top seed Caroline Garcia in the quarterfinals on Friday, she will revert to her usual position.

"There's absolutely zero pressure on me," Duval said of her first encounter with the 17-year-old from France. "I have nothing to lose, so I'm going to go out there, play my game, take it to her, and see what happens."

The other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw will feature Krista Hardebeck against Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty of Australia. Both kept their time on court to a minimum Thursday, with Barty beating Gabby Andrews and Kyle McPhillips in straight sets, and Hardebeck downing Stephanie Nauta and Risa Ozaki, with her two wins also coming in straight sets.

Only one seed remains in the bottom half of the girls draw--2010 finalist Yulia Putintseva of Russia. Putintseva dropped Samantha Crawfored and Donna Vekic with the loss of only six games, while her opponent on Friday, qualifier Nicole Gibbs of the US, had two very tough three-setters.

Gibbs beat No. 4 seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-0, 6-7(7), 6-3 in the second round, then took on 15-year-old American Taylor Townsend, dropping the first set before posting a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Townsend played near-perfect tennis in the opening set, with her backhand return providing her with winner and winner, but Gibbs adjusted and stayed composed, battling back to take the second set. She trailed 4-2 in the final set, but won the final four games to earn her first appearance in a slam quarterfinals.

"By that point in the match, we were both playing sloppier tennis than we were in the beginning," said the Stanford sophomore, who said there was an ice bath in her immediate future. "I knew if I could find like and eighth wind, not a second wind, and stay in points, I was going to have opportunities to get back in."

"Down 4-3 serving and 15-40, I remember hitting this one ball, a forehand I hit into the middle of the court, and I remember thinking, oh man, it's 5-3 and that's the match. I just got really lucky she missed that ball, and I was right back in."

Gibbs said her year of college tennis provided her with the tools to handle the day's unusual circumstances.

"College tennis has prepared me very well for this type of situation, going out and playing multiple matches in day. A lot of these girls are playing elite tournaments where you never see that. My fitness could always be better, but I really think my match toughness, as far as playing consecutive matches, is at its peak right now."

In the other quarter in the bottom half of the draw, Ellen Allgurin of Sweden will play Grace Min in a quarterfinal that assures an unseeded semifinalist. Min beat two qualifiers, Valeria Patiuk of Israel and Su Jeong Jang of Korea, both in straight sets, to advance to her first junior slam quarterfinal.

Great Britain began the day with four boys in the draw and ended it with three: No. 10 seed George Morgan, No. 13 seed Oliver Golding and unseeded Kyle Edmund.



The only British player to lose was No. 9 seed Liam Broady, who fell to American Alexios Halebian 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Halebian saw his 3-0 lead in the final set slip away, but held for 4-3, broke Broady after the Wimbledon finalist made several unforced errors on the forehand, and held to 15 to reach his first slam quarterfinal.

"I made all my returns that game," Halebian said of the third set's eighth game, when he broke Broady. "I knew I had to do that and it paid off. In the first set, I wasn't returning too well, I couldn't read his serve. But I started playing a little better, making more balls and then everything started clicking a little bit He got negative after that, and I started feeding off that a little bit."

Halebian will play top seed and Australian boys champion Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic on Friday.

An unseeded boys semifinalist is assured, now that Edmund and Karim Hossam of Egypt are through with two wins today. Edmund beat Mitchell Krueger and Filip Peliwo of Canada, while Hossam took out Frederico Silva of Portugal and No. 4 seed Hugo Dellien of Bolivia.

In the bottom half, Golding will play No. 6 seed Filip Horansky of Slovakia after Golding avenged his two losses on clay to Bjorn Fratangelo, beating the French boys champion 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Morgan, who needed two tough tiebreakers to get past American Connor Farren in the second round, beat Robin Kern of Germany 6-2, 6-2 in the third round. Morgan will play unseeded Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic, who put an end to the run of qualifier Or Ram-Harel of Israel 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2.

The Friday schedule includes two rounds of doubles for those who did not play a round of Tuesday.

The junior draws, with all of today's results are update at usopen.org.

Jack Sock, the 2011 Kalamazoo champion, has reached the mixed doubles final with Melanie Oudin. Sock and Oudin received a walkover into the final, due to any injury to Leander Paes, who, with Elena Vesnina of Russia, was seeded No. 7. Wild cards Sock and Oudin's opponents in the final, which is scheduled to take place at Arthur Ashe after the two men's quarterfinals, are No. 8 seeds Gisela Dulko and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina.

US Open Final Eight Club Gets Youngest Member: Jack Sock

©Colette Lewis 2011--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

Because there wasn't any tennis played today in the juniors, I spent most of the day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center talking with fellow media members and keeping an eye out for an interesting story in case the junior matches didn't get played. I ran into Jim Russell, who is the tournament referee for the NCAA Men's team and individual events, and he is the Volunteer Coordinator for the Champions Invitational, which is the legends event held during the second week of the US Open. He mentioned the Final Eight dinner tonight, and although I was vaguely aware of the designation, which provides a US Open credential to any player who has made the quarterfinals in singles and semifinals in doubles for the rest of their lives, I realized I didn't really know what it meant to be a part of the club.

Russell didn't know exactly how long the club has been in existence, but Joel Drucker, the prominent writer who works for the Tennis Channel and is more conversant with tennis history than anyone else I know, told me the first such club was started at Wimbledon in 1986, and the other Grand Slams followed suit shortly thereafter.

I then talked to Joe Ceriello who is the manager of the USTA Training Center-East, but works in player services during the US Open. He spends most of his time providing tickets to players, and that includes members of the Final Eight club.

"It's really great," Ceriello said. "Kathleen Horvath comes in with her sons, who are tennis players, and she trades them out, and they get to watch matches courtside. The tickets are amazing in the sense that it's not a free supply of tickets, but it's for them, and a guest, every day they show up, as long as there are tickets remaining. And they have the party, but the most important thing is the credential. It's a D pass. It's the same credential a main draw player gets."

I then stopped over at the credential office, and they had a handy sheet telling me all of the perks of membership. In addition to the tickets and credentials (each member can bring one guest), club members also receive transportation and preferred hotel rates at the Grand Hyatt.

College coaches don't automatically get credentials to the US Open, so many are dependent on former players or other connections if they want to avoid the expense and inconvenience of obtaining access to the grounds. Steve Denton, the Texas A&M men's head coach, doesn't have those worries, because he is a member of the Final Eight club, having won the doubles title with Kevin Curren in 1982.

"I've only really used it since I've been at A&M the last five years," said Denton, who doesn't use the tickets for the pro matches because he is watching the juniors in action on the outside courts. "It's obviously been nice to come here, where all the good juniors are."

I wasn't able to determine who the oldest member of the club is, but I do know who the youngest one is--Jack Sock, who earned the honor when he and Melanie Oudin won their quarterfinal match in mixed doubles on Monday.

Not everyone Sock's age would be impressed with acceptance into a club that obviously skews toward older, long-retired players, but Sock was excited when he heard.

"I just heard that," said Sock, whose voice suggested he didn't still quite believe it. "I had to go downstairs and ask, because I thought someone was fibbing me. That's, wow, that's insane. I can come back here for the rest of my life if I want to. It's an amazing feeling."

Sock has ambitions to re-earn his membership via future singles or doubles performances of course, but he is grateful to have a lifetime invitation to the US Open already.

"No complaints here if I can always come back to the Big Apple and watch some good tennis. I love the sport, it's what I do, and I'm sure in the future I'll be using that little bonus."

August Aces

For a little rainy day reading, check out my August Aces feature for the Tennis Recruiting Network, posted today.

Slideshow: Americans in US Open Junior Championships

I usually don't have time to do anything with all the photographs we take at the US Open, but with the complete washout today, I put together this slideshow of all 35 US juniors who are competing this week in the singles main draw.

With the forecast calling for continuing rain Wednesday, it remains to be seen whether any matches will be played, but here is the link to the order of play.

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