Magill Ousts No. 4 Seed Hamlin in Rain-Interrupted Day Two at USTA Girls 18s Clay Courts

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Memphis, TN--

Maia Magill didn't feel well when she took the court this morning for her second round match with No. 4 seed Ellyse Hamlin, and her racquet wasn't cooperating either. Before long, she was down 0-3, 0-40, but she came back to win that game and didn't look back from there, posting a 6-4, 6-2 victory.

"I started feeling better as I started moving," said the 16-year-old from Studio City, Calif. "And my racquet was a little loose, so I had to switch racquets. But once I got that, I started feeling the ball more, making more balls and playing my pattern really well."

Magill also had a recent 6-3, 6-2 win over Hamlin in the third round of the Claremont ITF to give her confidence, although that was on hard courts.

"In Southern California our clay courts are like hard courts with sand; it's pretty dry out there," said Magill, who trains with Craig Cignarelli at the Malibu Racquet Club. "But I've been hitting with a lot of guys lately, who hit the ball pretty heavy, and when girls come to play clay, I think they naturally start hitting with more spin as opposed to hard courts."

Magill was able to keep the ball in the court with much greater regularity than Hamlin, who often caught the tape or sent the ball  long if a rally extended past four or five strokes.

As an unseeded player, Magill had the advantage of a first round match on Sunday to find her footing on the clay, and she was far from unhappy when she saw the No. 4 seed as her next opponent.

"I actually wasn't that disappointed," Magill said of her draw. "I like to play good players. I think I play better against better players. I saw that and I was happy. I also think it shows that I'm not scared to play these girls, not intimidated. Like I said, I think I play better."

Hamlin wasn't the only Top  8 seed sent to the back draw Monday, with 2011 Girls 18s Clay Court champion Gabby Andrews, the No. 7 seed, falling to Amanda Atanasson 6-4, 7-6(4).

Courts 1, 2, 3, and 4 were under water this afternoon

No. 8 seed Brooke Broda had her struggles with local favorite Kenya Jones before posting a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory in a match that took over three hours to complete, not including a nearly three-hour rain delay.

At around 1:30 p.m., a brief but heavy shower submerged the courts at the Racquet Club of Memphis, setting back the singles matches at least two hours, while the other two sites had either no delays or much shorter ones.

No. 2 seed Peggy Porter did not take the court for her 12:30 match with Anna Feaster until around 4:45 p.m., but Porter still finished before Broda, needing just over an hour to post a 6-1, 6-0 win.

Top seed Spencer Liang kicked off her tournament with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Christiana Brigante, with the 8 a.m. start time a definite advantage with its comfortable temperatures and humidity making a tough match a bit more pleasant.

"She was a great clay court player," said Liang, who will start at Harvard this fall. "She played very smart. It's always tough, your first match, getting used to the courts."

Liang had little time to prepare for the tournament, as she was in Newport, Rhode Island on Saturday to receive her USTA Bill Talbert Junior Sportsmanship reward.

"It's so classy and so elegant," said Liang, who was honored along with fellow juniors Hadley Berg, Xavier Gonzalez and Aaron Revzin. "Just being around such prestigious players and people, it puts things in perspective a bit. You can't help but respect every one of them, because they dedicated everything to this game."

Liang wasn't able to attend the dinner Saturday night, flying to Memphis instead, but she also had an important submission to Harvard due.

"I had to take a Harvard writing placement exam," said Liang. "They give you 72 hours, and I started it on Thursday evening. It took me hours and hours just to read the information on the sources. The prompt was on genetic engineering, and I didn't have any time to work on it when I was in Rhode Island Friday or Saturday. So yesterday, after I hit in the morning for 45 minutes, I rushed back to the hotel and worked diligently on the essay, for like five hours. I was very stressed yesterday, and I'm so relieved."

Liang will play 15-year-old Jessie Aney in Tuesday's second round.

In addition to Hamlin and Andrews, two other Top 16 seeds fell in their first matches, with Terri Fleming defeating No. 15 seed Keisha Clousing 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and Grace Tapak beating No. 13 seed Zoe Katz 6-3, 6-4.

Two No. 17 seeds fell Monday, with Felicity Maltby defeating Meredith Xepoleas 6-2, 7-6(2) and Yelizaveta Patenko downing Bennett Dunne 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

There was a major upset tonight in doubles, with top seed and Easter Bowl ITF champions Liang and Porter falling to Easter Bowl 16s doubles champion Caroline Dolehide and Brienne Minor 6-3, 6-2.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.

Gibbs Takes Yakima $50K Title; Krajicek Wins Futures in Canada; Santamaria Reaches Medal Round at World University Games

My live coverage of the Girls 18s Clay Courts in Memphis will begin on Monday, when the seeds take the courts for the first time.  Top seed Spencer Liang will be first on the Racquet Club of Memphis's stadium court at 8 a.m., against Christiana Brigante. The draws can be found at the TennisLink site.

Stanford's Nicole Gibbs wins her first title as a professional

Before the clay coverage takes over the site, I wanted to update the Pro Circuit results from this week, with two-time NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs winning her first tournament since turning pro at the $50,000 Challenger in Yakima, Washington.  Gibbs, seeded No. 8, beat unseeded Ivana Lisjak of Croatia 6-1, 6-4 in today's final. Overall, it's Gibbs' third Pro Circuit singles title.

At the $15,000 Futures in Saskatoon Canada, 2011 NCAA doubles champion Austin Krajicek defeated doubles partner Tennys Sandgren 7-5, 7-6(6) to win his fourth Futures title of the year in singles.  Top seeds Krajicek and Sandgren won the doubles title, Krajicek's fourth of 2013, defeating No. 2 seeds Roman Borvanov of Moldova and Milan Pokrajac of Canada 6-4, 3-6, 10-5.

Recent Duke graduate Henrique Cunha won the $10,000 Futures title in Turkey, defeating French junior Enzo Couacaud, seeded fifth, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. Cunha was unseeded in both singles and doubles, but he and UNC-Wilmington's Chris Cooprider also won the doubles title.

Former University of Virginia Cavalier Ted Angelinos took the title in the $10,000 Futures in Bulgaria. The top seed, Angelinos defeated No. 5 seed Gleb Sakarov of France 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the final.

The Pro Circuit events this week find the women in Portland, Oregon and the men in Binghamton New York, both $50,000 Challengers, as well as $10,000 events, in Joplin, Missouri for the men, and in Evansville, Indiana for the women. 

At the World University Games in Kazan, Russia, Southern Cal's Sabrina Santamaria, who is unseeded, reached the medal round, defeating Laura Siegemund of Germany 7-6(2), 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Santamaria will play Hiroko Kuwata of Japan, also unseeded, for a place in the gold medal match.  For complete results, go to the website and click on the tennis symbol.

Gibbs into Yakima $50K Final; Midwest Defends Intersectional Championship; US Open National Playoffs Update

Two-time NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs has reached the finals of the $50,000 Challenger in Yakima, Washington, defeating No. 3 seed Julia Glushko of Israel 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in Saturday's semifinal.  Gibbs, the No. 8 seed, fell out of the WTA Top 200 because she was unable to defend her points from last year's Denver $50K, which wasn't on the USTA Pro Circuit schedule this year.  Gibbs will play either Australia's Storm Sanders or Croatia's Ivana Lisjak, neither of whom are seeded, in Sunday's final.

Gibbs was also awarded a wild card into the WTA Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, which begins July 22nd. So far Mallory Burdette, also a former Stanford star, is still in the qualifying draw. Last year Gibbs, again a wild card recipient, won her opening match at the Bank of the West tournament before falling to Serena Williams in the second round.

Jan Abaza and Allie Will won the doubles title Saturday in Yakima, defeating Irina Falconi and Naomi Broady of Great Britain 7-5, 3-6, 10-3. Neither team was seeded.

The USTA Intersectional team competition for 16 and under players was held this week in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the Midwest section defended their title, defeating Southern California 5-4, in a match that was decided by the mixed doubles.

I would have had no clue who won the tournament without this article from the Shreveport Times, because following the tournament through the TennisLink site is close to impossible.  But below is a screenshot of the scores from the final.

I apologize for not posting the final few updates from the sectional playoffs of the US Open National Playoffs, but I got caught up in Wimbledon, which was going on when the last few finished.

The winners of the Middle States sectional tournament are both Princeton players, with Matija Pecotic earning his place in the National competition and Lindsay Graff winning the women's tournament.  They also teamed for the mixed title.

North Carolina recruit Ronnie Schneider won the Midwest men's sectional, and North Illinois' Nelle Youel was the women's winner.  Wil Lofgren and Sandy Niehaus, who won the mixed in 2011 when I covered the tournament back in 2011, won it again this year.

Charles Boyce, a University of California-Irvine recruit, won the Texas men's tournament, with 17-year-old Peggy Porter taking the women's. In keeping with the teen theme, John Mee, 17, and Karina Traxler, 15, won the mixed doubles in Texas.

University of Oklahoma player Nick Papac won the Missouri Valley men's tournament, with 14-year-old Victoria Flores taking the women's tournament.  University of Idaho's Victoria Lozano and Patrick Smith, a former University of Missouri-Kansas City player, won the mixed.

All of these players will be heading to New Haven, Connecticut next month to compete in the National Playoffs, with the winner of the men's and women's national playoffs receiving a qualifying wild card into the US Open. The team that wins the mixed doubles national playoffs will receive a main draw wild card.

For more on the the US Open National Playoffs, including links to each section's articles on their winners, see usopen.org.

Crawford, Duval and Hardebeck Enter USTA 18s Nationals; USTA Clay Court Wild Cards

The competitors selected for the USTA National Hard Court Championships next month were released today at the individual TennisLink sites.

The girls 18s field produced some of the most interesting names, with many players who have moved on to pro tennis and have played very little junior tennis in the past year entering in hopes of securing the wild card into the US Open main draw that goes to the winner.

US Open Girls champion Samantha Crawford, defending 18s National champion Vicky Duval and Stanford rising sophomore Krista Hardebeck are in the field, as are Allie Kiick, Chalena Scholl and Sachia Vickery.  Jan Abaza, who hasn't played a junior event since the 2010 Orange Bowl, also received entry. Two of the Wimbledon girls quarterfinalists--Jamie Loeb and Louisa Chirico--are in the field, but Wimbledon girls finalist Taylor Townsend is not.  Others not currently in the field include Christina Makarova, Johnnise Renaud, Katrine Steffensen and Tornado Alicia Black, all in the Top 80 of the ITF Junior world rankings.

Of course, there are still wild cards to be named, with the deadline for applying for a wild card Tuesday, July 16 at 5 p.m. Eastern.

The girls 16s field has two reigning Eddie Herr champions--12s winner Ellie Douglas and 16s champion Marie Norris.  Katerina Stewart is also entered in the 16s field.

Notables missing from the girls Nationals in any age division are Claire Liu, CiCi Bellis, Jaeda Daniel and Michaela Gordon, who may be representing the United States in the ITF World Junior Tennis competition held in the Czech Republic August 5-10.

The list of the girls 16s and 18s competitors is here.

The Kalamazoo 16s field will be especially strong this year, with Easter Bowl 16s champion Sameer Kumar, Francis Tiafoe and Tommy Paul all playing in that division. 

Wimbledon quarterfinalist Stefan Kozlov is again entered in the 18s, despite being only 15, and Michael Mmoh will make his Kalamazoo debut in the 18s.  2011 16s champion Ronnie Schneider is entered, as is 2012 16s champion Henrik Wiersholm, who is only 16. Thai Kwiatkowski, who has been injured throughout the summer, is currently in, as is Ernesto Escobedo.  Spring National champion Eliott Orkin is in the field, as is Easter Bowl champion Gage Brymer.

Winter National champion George Goldhoff is not in the current acceptances, nor is Dennis Uspensky, who is in the ITF Top 100.  Tommy Mylnikov, who played the 16s last year, is not among the 18s entrants this year.

For the complete list of the boys 16s and 18s competitors, see the TennisLink site.

The Clay Courts begin on Sunday, and I will be covering the girls 18s tournament in Memphis for the sixth consecutive year.  Below is the list of USTA wild cards granted for the tournaments.

USTA Clay Court Wild Cards:

Boys 12s
Josh Berman
Tauheed Browning
Benjamin Kittay


Boys  14s
Trent Kannegieter
Adam Neff
Beau Pelletier
Bryce Periera
Ivan Thamma

Boys 16s 
Yancy Dennis
Mark Epshteyn-Losev
Cameron Klinger
Alex Rybakov

Boys 18s
Justin Butsch
Xavier  Gonzalez
Carter Lin
Lamar Remy
Javier Restrepo

Girls 12s
Hailey  Baptiste
Cori Gauff 
Katherine Kachkarov
Madison Leal
Charlotte Owensby
Gabriella Price
Sierra Sandy

Girls 14s
Amanda Anisimova
Angelica Blake
Taylor Bridges
Riley McQuaid
Jada Robinson
Vanessa Streng 

Girls 16s
Usue Arconada
Ashley Chao
Jaeda Daniel
Jacqueline Pelletier
Amanda Rebol
Sydney Riley
Morgan Valentine
Tracy Van
Kylie Wilcox
Nicole Yermanos

Girls 18s
Mary Haffey
Josie Kuhlman
Arianna Rodriguez
Claire Sullivan

USTA Collegiate Team Update

The USTA Men's Collegiate Team camp was this week in Flushing Meadows, with the following players participating:

Andre Dome (Cal Poly)
Jeremy Efferding (Texas A&M)
Marcos Giron (UCLA)
Jared Hiltzik (Illinois)
Evan King (Michigan)
Peter Kobelt (Ohio State)
Kyle McMorrow (Washington)
Michael Redlicki (Duke)

Mitchell Frank of Virginia was invited to the camp, but declined the invitation.

The players already on the team are Jarmere Jenkins of Virginia, Dennis Novikov of UCLA and Jason Tahir of Duke. Tahir, a rising junior, recently earned his place on the team by accumulating the most points during the Pro Circuit events the past three weeks, making the semifinals in Amelia Island, the quarterfinals in Rochester and the final last week in Pittsburgh.

The camp in Flushing was to have been a four-player round robin with the two winners getting spots on the team, but a third spot opened, with Virginia's Alex Domijan's decision not to accept the place he earned by winning the ITA All-American in Tulsa last fall, complicating the situation. Rain then caused problems for the scheduled round robin tournament, so USTA National Collegiate Coach Dustin Taylor decided the best way to determine the final three team members was the way Tahir earned his place. The three players who earn the most points in the next four weeks of Futures and Challengers will be added to the team and receive help throughout the next 12 months. The points accumulation method will probably be used for team selection for those not qualifying automatically in the future.

In news from the women's team, Nebraska's Mary Weatherholt has been added as the seventh member of that team.  Julia Elbaba of Virginia, the ITA Rookie of the Year, and Krista Hardebeck of Stanford, ranked inside the WTA Top 500, were automatic qualifiers, but did not play the Sacramento Pro Circuit tournament with the rest of the team because they were recovering from illness and injury.

My USTA National Open Recap and Results from Around the Country; Jenkins and Embree Named ITA Players of the Year

I was fortunate to be able to cover a National Open just a few miles from my home last week, with the Boys and Girls 16s and the Girls 18s finals taking place at Kalamazoo College's Stowe Stadium last Friday. My recap is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and below are the results from the other National Open tournaments around the country.

B12s
Steven Sun(1) def. Richter Jordaan(4) 6-1, 6-1
Ronan Jachuck(2) def. Cannon Kingsley(1) 6-3, 6-2
Thomas Yu(1) def. Tristan Boyer(2) 6-2, 6-0
Kevin Zhu(1) def. Zane Khan(2) 6-3, 7-5

B14s
William Howells(5) def. Vasil Kirkov(3) 6-1, 7-5
Ivan Thamma(2) def. Roscoe Bellamy(8) 7-6, 6-4
Andrew Fenty(3) def. Trent Bryde(1) 6-4, 6-2
Brian Shi(8) def. Bryan Yoshino 6-4, 6-4

B16s
Tommy Paul(1) def. Robert Levine(2) 6-4, 6-4
Nathan Ponwith(1) def. Joshua Pompan(6) 6-3, 6-2
Jake DeVine(1) def. Reilly Opelka(5) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
John McNally(7) def. Gianni Ross 6-3, 6-1

B18s
John Mee(2) def. William Little(1) 6-4, 6-1
Hampton Drake def. Christopher Vrabel(1) 7-6(6), 7-6(4)
Gage Brymer(1) def. William Griffith(3) 6-3, 7-5
Ronnie Schneider(1) def. Jack Murray(2) 6-4, 6-2

G12s
Lahari Yelamanchili(1) def. Addison Brown(6) 6-4, 6-2
Emma Navarro(1) def. Brianna Shvets(5) 6-4, 6-4
Julia Haynes def. Amy Huang(2) 6-3, 6-2
Katelyn Thomas(1) def. Oghenesuvweh Ogbevire 6-1, 6-1

G14s
Kariann Pierre-Louis(4) def. Rachel Papavasilopoulos(3) 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(8)
Annette Goulak(7) def. Jenna Moustafa(6) 6-1, 3-6, 6-2
Meredith Roberts(1) def. Taylor Bridges 6-3, 6-2
Elysia Bolton(4) def. Marybeth Hurley(1) 6-2, 6-3

G16s
Raveena Kingsley(6) def. Jessica Livianu(4) 6-2, 6-2
Jessica Failla(3) def. Ryan Peus 6-3, 6-4
Jenna Friedel(2) def. Jaclyn Switkes(1) 6-2, 6-1
Kayla Day def. Sophia Abelson 6-2, 6-2

G18s
Karina Traxler (3) def. Chuyang Guan(2) 6-3, 6-1
Kaitlyn McCarthy(1) def. Rachel Pierson(2) 1-6, 6-1, 6-3
Gabrielle Smith(6) def. Alexandra Letzt(2) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
Kennedy Shaffer def. Meghan Kelley 6-2, 6-1

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its ITA Players of the Year today, with Florida's Lauren Embree and Virginia's Jarmere Jenkins receiving the awards.  Both finished at the top of the singles rankings and will be honored this weekend at the ATP Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island.

Southern Cal's Sabrina Santamaria and Kaitlyn Christian were named the women's doubles team of the year, and Duke's Henrique Cunha and Raphael Hemmeler were named the men's doubles team of the year.  Of the four year-end awards, only Santamaria and Christian won the NCAA championships.  They also will not be able to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony, since they are representing the US in the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.

For the complete release on the career achievements of Embree and Jenkins--and there are many--see the ITA website.