Lahey and Ito Claim ITA All-American Singles Championships; Gauff Wins WTA Title in Austria; Pro Circuit Update

Pepperdine senior Ashley Lahey and Texas senior Yuya Ito captured the Saint Francis Health System ITA All-American singles titles tonight in Tulsa Oklahoma, with Lahey defeating North Carolina's Alexa Graham 6-4, 7-5 and Ito taking out Sam Riffice of Florida 6-4, 6-4 in matches televised on ESPNU.

Lahey, seeded No. 12, started the match on fire, rushing out to a 4-0 lead, but Graham worked her way into the set by virtue of winning four deciding points in the next five games. Lahey had set points on deciding points with Graham serving at 2-5 and when she served at 5-3, but Graham won both, only to get broken serving a 4-5.

Lahey, who has played three full years of college tennis while still just 19 years old, was broken in the opening game of the first set, with an unfortunate overrule by the chair umpire overturning a Lahey winner on a deciding point, but she did not let that carry over into the next game, and she broke right back. Lahey, who reached the 2018 NCAA singles final, lost her serve at 2-2, but again broke right back, with Graham finally losing her first deciding point. The third-seeded Graham, a senior, played well in the next four games, but Lahey held on a deciding point to take a 6-5 lead, and Graham went down 15-40 in the final game. Lahey netted a forehand to make it 30-40, and a good serve by Graham sent the match to its final deciding point, which Lahey won with a forehand winner.

Lahey, who won the ITA Oracle Masters in late September and an invitational event last weekend and is undefeated this fall, now has her first major collegiate title and she is the first woman from Pepperdine to earn an All-American singles title.

Ito took a 4-1, two-break lead over Riffice in the opening set, but Riffice, a sophomore, got one back back to keep the set close. Ito, the Most Outstanding Player at this year's NCAA Team Championships, was able to close out the set with a hold, but Riffice began to find his range in the last four games, and he took a 3-0 in the second set, winning two deciding points. Then Ito won two deciding points to get it back to 3-all, and in the crucial eighth game, won another. Riffice was broken in the next game, with Ito playing some world class defense and he closed out the championship on his second match point after going up 40-0.

Ito, who is from Japan, is the first Texas man to win an All-American singles title since Chad Clark accomplished that in 1993.

Both doubles titles went to Ivy League teams, and both came through after dropping the first set to take the championships. Yale's Samantha Martinelli and Jessie Gong became the first players from Yale to win an All-American titles in singles or doubles with their 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 win over Tennessee's Tenika McGiffin and Kaitlin Staines. Neither team was seeded.


Columbia's Jackie Tang and Jack Lin, a No. 5 seed, won the men's doubles title, beating the unseeded Central Florida team of Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Mazzuchi, who qualified into the main draw, 3-6, 6-2, 10-6.

Coco Gauff defeated 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 today to claim her first WTA singles title at the International-level tournament in Linz Austria. The 15-year-old from Florida, who lost in the final round of qualifying but got into the main draw as a lucky loser and beat top seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, is the youngest WTA champion since Nicole Vaidisova won two events in 2004.  For more on Gauff's title, see this article from the WTA website. Gauff and Caty McNally also reached the doubles semifinal in Linz.

There were no American singles champion this week in the four USTA Pro Circuit events, with the two US players that reached the finals falling short of the titles.

At the ATP 100 Challenger in Fairfield California, No. 12 seed Chris O'Connell of Australia defeated top seed Steve Johnson(USC) 6-4, 6-4 in today's final. Johnson had ended the run of wild card Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) in the semifinals with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory.  In the doubles final, unseeded Peter Polansky of Canada and Darian King of Barbados defeated No. 4 seeds Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the Netherlands and Andre Goransson(Cal) of Sweden 6-4, 3-6, 12-10.

Ellie Halbauer reached the final of the $25,000 women's tournament in Hilton Head SC, with the No. 7 seed falling to No. 2 seed Marina Melnikova of Russia 6-3, 6-4.  Former Florida teammates Ingrid Neel and Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan won their second straight USTA Pro Circuit doubles title, with last week's Charleston $60K champions and top seeds beating the unseeded team of Halbauer and Kate Fahey(Michigan) 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

Neither of the $25,000 Oracle Pro Series tournaments in Claremont California, both men's and women's, had Americans in the singles finals. Former Arizona State star Michael Geerts of Belgium, who lost in the final last week in Norman Oklahoma, won the men's title, with the No. 4 seed beating top seed Liam Broady of Great Britain 6-3, 6-2 in the championship match.  Former San Diego State Aztecs Milen Ianakiev and Hendrik Jebens of Germany won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair taking down top seeds and former Illinois standouts Ruben Gonzales of the Philippines and Ruan Roelofse of South Africa in an impressively long match tiebreaker 6-4, 3-6, 17-15.

No. 5 seed Katie Swan of Great Britain won the Claremont women's title, beating unseeded Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil 6-1, 6-3 in the final. No. 3 seeds Jacqueline Cako(Arizona State) and Angelina Gabueva of Russia won the doubles title, beating unseeded Hind Abdelouahid(St. Mary's) and Alyssa Tobita(Oregon) 6-3, 6-7(4), 10-4 in the final.

Montgomery Sweeps Girls Titles, Unseeded Hotard Claims Boys Singles Championship at ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Nicholasville KY--

No. 3 seed Robin Montgomery and unseeded Welsh Hotard captured their first ITF Grade 1 titles Saturday morning at the Pan American Closed, and although both came through in straight sets, Montgomery needed only an hour to defeat unseeded wild card Isabelle Kouzmanov 6-2, 6-0, while Hotard battled No. 8 seed Cash Hanzlik for two hours before taking a 6-4, 6-4 decision on the indoor courts of the Top Seed Tennis Club.

Montgomery and Kouzmanov had several close games to start the match, with Montgomery needing six deuces before consolidating her break to go up 3-1. But holding serve proved to be a problem for Kouzmanov, with her hold in the next game the last game she would win.

"I think it was just all the matches," said Kouzmanov, who admitted she didn't play as well as she would have liked in her first Grade 1 final. "I had a lot of three-setters and that just kind of builds up and makes you more tired. I think my energy level just wasn't at 100 percent today. My forehand wasn't going in and my footwork was making my shots go out. And she had a good day and I had a bad day."

Montgomery was prepared for her doubles partner's big groundstrokes and was determined not to let Kouzmanov's winners bother her.

"I knew in the beginning she was definitely going to come out swinging," said Montgomery, a 15-year-old left-hander from Washington DC, who was playing in her second Grade B1 final. "I knew I had to hang in there and not give her any chances. I did a pretty good job staying calm, trusting myself and not getting too concerned when she hit a really hard, amazing shot."

Although Montgomery was on court for nearly three hours in her semifinal win over top seed Alexandra Yepifanova, she said she felt fine physically.

"I was kind of lucky, because I had only one really long three-setter," said Montgomery, who noted the kinesio tape on Kouzmanov's shoulder. "I feel pretty good. My back's a bit tight, but that's what we work hard for, that we can last this long."

Montgomery did not play this tournament last year, as she was in Asia, where she made the quarterfinals of the Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup and the finals of a Grade 2 in Japan. A title at this event means she doesn't have to worry about dropping in the rankings, but she is looking forward to some time off before the Grade A in Mexico next month.

"I'm definitely glad I played this tournament now," Montgomery said. "My mom and coach made me come, but it definitely takes a load off  [the Grade A] in Merida, Orange Bowl and Aussie, when I go and play, knowing I have this to help support me. The rest of this month is going to be free because this year has been a lot of traveling. I usually like a month for my training and I haven't gotten that month yet, so I think after I go back home I'll focus mainly on fitness and getting ahead in school."

Kouzmanov is heading to a Grade 3 in Canada next month, and will then play the Eddie Herr ITF and the Grade A Orange Bowl.

"My next tournament I want to win even more," said the 14-year-old from Michigan. "I'm hungry for more. I had that in the past, but not as much."

In the boys final, Hotard was up a set and serving at 4-3, when he got a sudden case of the service yips, double faulting three times, including on game point.  The 18-year-old left-hander from Louisiana could have experienced some doubts, but he refused to let it bother him.

"I was just trying to mentally stay focused," said Hotard, who has verbally committed to Oklahoma for 2020. "I knew if I could get into that next game, I had a chance to go back up. It was in my mind for a second, but I knew I had to get it out for me to even have a chance in the next game."

Having already broken the big-serving Hanzlik three times, Hotard's positive outlook had substance, and, with Hanzlik's forehand proving unreliable, Hotard finally broke through on his third break point to take a 5-4 lead. He then took advantage of the ITF rule allowing coaching on changeovers, with former Oklahoma star Dane Webb, who was traveling with Hotard and several other players from the Lakes Tennis Academy in Dallas, providing advice from another sport as Hotard prepared to serve out the match.

"I got my coach at 4-5 and he said serve like a pitcher," Hotard said. "He said you have to mix it up, throw in different spins, I didn't need to rely on the bomb of my serve. So I went up 15-0, then I served that double and then I just tried to throw in different spins to get my serve in and it ended up working out."

Hotard hit an ace out wide to get to match point, and another first serve resulted in Hanzlik's return going well long. As the ball moved past the baseline, Hotard flung his racquet high in the air and let out a lengthy yell of "yeah" in celebration of the B1 title.

"It means a lot," said Hotard, who didn't drop a set all week. "This is like my third [Grade 1] I've played, and to play well this week and be able to win it is awesome. I thought I had a chance before the tournament; I've been training hard, practicing well, so I knew if I could keep my head straight and keep everything in check that I had a chance."

Hanzlik had said after Friday's semifinals that serving was likely to be the key to the match, and he didn't believe his held up.

"The serve just wasn't there like the other matches," said the 17-year-old from Oregon, who hadn't lost a set prior to the final. "I lost my serve four times, which is completely unacceptable. You don't deserve to win if you lose serve four times."

Although he put most of the blame on his own play, Hanzlik credited Hotard for his level.

"He played really well, and I wasn't feeling the ball like the other matches," said Hanzlik, who was also playing in his first Grade 1 final. "He controlled the angles of the court a bit better than me, but it all starts with the serve and mine wasn't there. I played a lot of good matches this week, so one match doesn't change that, and I'll take confidence from this week going into the next tournaments."

Hotard is not certain whether he will play the USTA National Indoors or the Eddie Herr late next month, while Hanzlik's next tournament is a $25,000 Futures in Orlando in November.

In doubles, two teams that got together at the last minute and had never played together before claimed the titles.

Although they looked a little weary after the day was over, Montgomery and Kouzmanov finished the tournament with the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Reese Brantmeier and Carson Tanguilig 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-8 in the final.  The unseeded Montgomery and Kouzmanov got together just prior to the closing time of the doubles sign in, and were not expecting much from their partnership.

"To be honest, I thought we were going to lose first round," Montgomery said. "The goal for me in doubles was just to get past the first round and get a couple of points and we just kept on winning, decently easy in the first couple of rounds, and then I was like, oh crap, we might actually have a chance to win it."

"I was just going to slap," Kouzmanov said. "That worked most of the tournament and it worked again today here."

The boys doubles title went to No. 2 seeds Lorenzo Claverie of Venezuela and Aidan Mayo, who defeated No. 5 seeds Andrew Dale and JJ Tracy 6-1, 6-2.  Mayo said he was late in arranging a partner but he knew Claverie from other ITF Junior Circuit events and was glad to hear that he was also looking for a doubles partner for this event.

The pair were not taken to a match tiebreaker all week and lost only eight games combined in the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, but it did take them some time to find that form.

"The first match, it wasn't bad, but it was definitely not at the level that we played at the end of the tournament," Mayo said. "It maybe took us a match and a half, two matches, but at the end of the week, we started feeling really good, playing well. We've had some good matches, for sure."

Montgomery Comes Back to Beat Top Seed Yepifanova, Kouzmanov Saves Match Points to Advance to ITF GB1 Pan Am Closed Final; Hotard and Hanzlik Face Off in Boys Final; My Article on USTA's Alex Cercone; Gauff Reaches WTA Linz Semifinal; Top Seed Perez-Somarriba Out in Tulsa

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Nicholasville KY--

Robin Montgomery stayed calm when match point after match point slipped away against top seed Alexandra Yepifanova in the semifinals of the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed Friday, and that composure paid off in a third set tiebreaker, with the No. 3 seed earning a 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) victory and a place in the final.

After a well played first set ended with Montgomery broken at 4-all and Yepifanova converting her third set point in the next game, the second set started much differently with six consecutive breaks of serve after Montgomery had held for 1-0. With Yepifanova serving at 4-5, Montgomery failed to convert two set points and with Yepifanova serving at 5-6 30-40, another set point came and went, leading to the tiebreaker. Montgomery couldn't afford to let her chances slip away in that game, and she came up with a great forehand volley with Yepifanova serving at 4-5 to earn two more set points. Montgomery missed a forehand on the next point, but finally converted set point No. 5 when Yepifanova's backhand clipped the net and landed wide.

Although many of the points were high quality, both girls continued to struggled to hold serve in the third set, and Yepifanova began to battle her emotions when she went down a break at 1-2 and 2-3. She broke back both times, but was distraught to the point of tears on several occasions, and Montgomery began to realize that she had the edge mentally.

"She knows me very well and knows it's going to be a tough match, but I wasn't expecting the breakdowns she had, or whatever," Montgomery said of the 16-year-old from Florida. "Granted, I did hit a lot of lucky shots, so that probably got under her skin as well, but yeah, it was definitely an emotional roller coaster for her, and I did a pretty good job just staying calm and just focusing on the next point."

Montgomery got her break at 4-all, although Yepifanova saved two break points before Yepifanova double faulted on the third.

Serving for the match, Montgomery went down 15-40, but recovered for deuce and earned five match points by winning that and the next four deuce points. Montgomery made errors on three of those occasions but Yepifanova hit winners on the other two and finally got a game point when another Montgomery forehand went long. Yepifanova then brought it back to 5-all with a Montgomery backhand error, and after two holds, a second tiebreaker would decide who would advance to the final.

Despite the disappointment of losing the 5-4 game, Montgomery showed no frustration.

"A younger me would have definitely lost my mind," said Montgomery, who turned 15 last month. "I've definitely matured over the course of the past few months. Once I lose a point, I can't go back and change it and I think I've definitely learned from past matches. After seeing what Sasha looked like, kind of crying, I didn't want to look like that, so I decided to stay more composed."

Montgomery took a 4-0 lead in the final set tiebreaker and earned her sixth match point when her backhand forced an error from Yepifanova for a 6-2 lead. Montgomery didn't convert that one either, shanking a forehand, but she closed out the nearly three-hour match with a flourish, crushing a backhand winner after a good first serve.

In the final, Montgomery will face 14-year-old wild card Isabelle Kouzmanov, who participated in some drama of her own, saving three match points in her 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory over unseeded India Houghton. Kouzmanov, who trailed 4-0 in the second set, brought it all the way back to 4-all, but she was broken in the ninth game and Houghton went up 40-0 serving for the match at 5-4. But she couldn't convert and Kouzmanov won five straight points for 5-all, then held for 6-5. Houghton had a game point for a tiebreaker, but Kouzmanov earned the last three points of the game to earn a third set, where she took control with an early break and finished with another break and a hold.

"Even though I love to take risks, I told myself not to try to go for every shot, but be as consistent as possible and let her make the errors," said the 14-year-old from Michigan. "I was trying to hit with more topspin and more to corners and that ended up working."

Kouzmanov said unforced errors led to the 4-0 deficit in the second set, and once she eliminated those, she was able to control more points.

"I tried to move her around as much as possible and have her on the run, finish off the point," Kouzmanov said. "She's a good player and she has a lot of different strategies that she uses and she mixes them up so it makes a little bit more difficult to play against her. But at the end, I just tried to return as many balls as possible, and with her serve, I stopped trying to go for return winners and just try to make the first ball."

Kouzmanov, who beat No. 2 seed Savannah Broadus in the second round, said she was energized after finishing off the second set and she was able to maintain that in the third.

"My adrenaline and my confidence kind of went up, I had the momentum and somehow I felt a little stronger on the inside," Kouzmanov said. "I told myself, you've worked hard, whatever happens happens, just play your game."

Kouzmanov's best result on the ITF Junior Circuit has been a semifinal at a Grade 3 this spring, and she admits she did not see this result coming.

"To be honest, I was not expecting this at all," said Kouzmanov, who lost to Montgomery in the first round at the College Park Grade 1 in August 6-1, 7-5. "I am still like, someone pinch me. I feel like I'm actually in a dream, but to get to the finals of a B1, the hard work paid off and I'm extremely happy about that."

After their encounter on Montgomery's home courts at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Montgomery knows how dangerous Kouzmanov can be.

"I think indoor courts definitely suit her game style pretty well," Montgomery said. "I understand she's definitely playing well. I do know she hits the ball very hard...and I do also like hitting the ball hard, but I'm not going to be able to outhit her, so I'm going to have to come up with something different."

In Thursday's quarterfinals, the boys provided the drama with the only three-set matches, but the semifinal results were straightforward Friday, with Welsh Hotard defeating No. 4 seed Alex Bernard 6-0, 6-3 and No. 8 seed Cash Hanzlik downing No. 15 seed Victor Lilov 6-1, 6-1.

The semifinals usher in a new method of officiating, with a chair umpire calling all the lines, whereas players called their own lines in the first four rounds. A dispute with the chair early in the match seemed to linger for Lilov, who lost 11 straight games before finally holding at 6-1, 5-0.

"He started the match super well, four straight winners," said Hanzlik, 17. "And then it was close. Then he hit the ball up the line and I thought the ball was out and I asked the ref--he didn't call it--and the ref went with the call and then I won the next 11 games in like 30 minutes. Clearly, he didn't really get over it, and it definitely affected him, yeah."

Hanzlik, who has lost only 14 games in five matches this week, hadn't been past the third round in a grade 1 before this week, but his results this year at Kalamazoo, where he beat French Open finalist Toby Kodat before falling to eventual champion Zachary Svajda in the quarterfinals, gave him confidence that he could contend at that level.

"Kalamazoo was huge for me," Hanzlik said. "After Kalamazoo I started training at USTA and I've improved there a ton."

Hanzlik also says he has improved his mental game significantly in the past several months.

"I'm trying to be much more professional on the court," Hanzlik said. "I think I'm doing a much better job of staying level-headed. It's kind of fake it til you make it. But that's the only way really, to play tennis. Watching pros, high level, you have to mentally be in it for sure. It's easier when you're winning, but it also makes winning easier. So it goes both ways."

Hanzlik, who is from Oregon, has played a lot of indoor tennis and feels comfortable on the courts at the Top Seed Tennis Club.

"I'm definitely not complaining about it," Hanzlik said. "The ball doesn't move as much, so it's easier to slap for sure. Serve and forehand are huge for me and these courts are a bit fast, so it works well for my game."

Hanzlik will face Hotard for the first time, after Hotard blitzed through the 2019 Kalamazoo 16s champion, avenging a three-set loss on clay back in May.

"I've been playing well and I knew if I played my game I thought he would have trouble," said Hotard, an 18-year-old left-hander who has not played any ITF Junior Circuit events outside the United States. "I was expecting to come out and have a battle, and I feel like I played well, and we did battle, but I took over by the end."

Bernard was also distracted by several of the chair umpire calls that he disagreed with, but Hotard was determined not to let an error from the chair derail him.

"I feel like you have to move through it," said Hotard, who has verbally committed to Oklahoma. "If the ref sees it in or out, it's his call. I tried to stay focused and that helped me at the end. It can change a match, but I tried to move to the next point."

Hotard, who hasn't dropped a set all week and has beaten three seeds, is expecting a tough match Saturday.

"I think we both like coming to net and we both like attacking," Hotard said. "We both have big serves, big forehands so it's all what happens on that day: who's going to play better, who wants it more."

"I think it will be a fun match," Hanzlik said. "We both serve and look to play with the forehand, and we're both aggressive. I think it'll come down to who is serving better. I'm really confident in my serving and hitting my forehand right now, and I'm excited about it."

The doubles semifinals were also played this afternoon, and girls singles finalists Montgomery and Kouzmanov will contend for that title as well on Saturday. After agreeing to play together just 15 minutes before sign-in time, the unseeded pair advanced to the finals with a 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 win over unseeded Ava Hrastar and Ruth Marsh. They will face unseeded Reese Brantmeier and Carson Tanguilig who beat top seeds Yepifanova and Puerto Rico's Lauren Anzalotta 6-1, 6-1.

Two seeded teams will meet for the boys final, with No. 5 seeds Andrew Dale and JJ Tracy facing No. 2 seeds Aidan Mayo and Lorenzo Claverie of Venzuela. Mayo and Claverie defeated unseeded Murphy Cassone and Hugo Hashimoto 6-2, 6-0, while Dale and Tracy took out the unseeded team of Ozan Colak and Maxwell Smith 6-4, 6-4.

The USTA is responsible for the ITF junior circuit events held in the United States, including this one in Kentucky, and while I was in Florida for the Junior Davis and Junior Fed Cup competition two weeks ago, I had an opportunity to talk with Alex Cercone about her role as an administrator of the Junior Competitive Pathway. Cercone, a former All-American at Florida, told me how she made the transition from player to administrator in this "Where Are They Now?" article for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Fifteen-year-old Coco Gauff earned her first WTA Top 10 win today in Linz Austria, beating top seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 7-6(1), 6-4 to advance to the semifinals. Gauff is the youngest player to reach a WTA semifinal since Nicole Vaidisova won the Tashkent event in 2004. Next up for Gauff is unseeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany.  For more from Gauff on today's win, see this article from the WTA website.

The ITA hasn't updated the results from today's round of 16 and quarterfinal matches at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, but Miami has posted an article regarding the loss of top seed and 2019 NCAA champion Estela Perez-Somarriba to Anna Turati of Texas 6-0, 6-1 in the round of 16.  I will try to provide an update later this evening when all the scores have been posted.

Men's All-American singles semifinals:
Unseeded Valentin Vacherot of Texas A&M vs. Sam Riffice[6] of Florida
Yuya Ito[3] of Texas vs. unseeded Alex Rotsaert of Stanford

Women's All-American singles semifinals:
Anna Turati[15] of Texas vs. Alexa Graham[3] of North Carolina
Ashley Lahey[12] of Pepperdine vs qualifier Chloe Beck of Duke

Top Seed Yepifanova Reaches Girls Semifinals, No. 4 Seed Alex Bernard Survives Test to Reach Boys Final Four at ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed; Nakashima Advances to Another Challenger Quarterfinal; Top Seed Sigsgaard Ousted at ITA All-American Championships

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Nicholasville KY--

Top seed Alexandra Yepifanova made a meteoric rise in the ITF junior rankings last month after qualifying for the US Open Junior Championships and making it all the way to the final. One of the key New York wins for the 16-year-old from Florida was a come-from-behind quarterfinal victory over National 16s champion Reese Brantmeier, and today they met again, with Yepifanova taking the rematch 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed.

"I know that Reese is a good player, and since I played her just a few weeks ago, I kind of know her strengths and weaknesses," Yepifanova said. "I changed my game plan a little bit coming in; the first time I wasn't as aggressive, didn't really go for my shots as much and my first serve percentage was low, and that serve percentage was crucial."

Yepifanova said picking up that part of her game today was the determining factor in getting a less dramatic win.

"Today, my serve was great," said Yepifanova, a high school junior who is beginning to explore her options for college tennis. "My first serve gave me a lot of easy points and quick games even."

Yepifanova said her coach at the IMG Academy, Jorge Gonzalez, thought playing as the top seed among her peers was a challenge she needed to meet before moving into Women's Pro Circuit events.

"He really wanted me to experience playing as the first seed, with pressure with high expectations, to see how girls my age look at me, since I finaled at the Open," said Yepifanova, who began training at IMG this spring. "For me to handle that pressure and still win matches against my peers, he wanted me to overcome that fear of regressing. I've had so many good results, and now I'm playing a little bit lower ranked girls and he didn't want me to fear playing them."

Yepifanova will take on No. 3 seed Robin Montgomery, who has dominated her opponents this week on indoor hard courts after helping the USA win the Junior Fed Cup two weeks ago on outdoor clay.  The 15-year-old from Washington DC defeated No. 7 seed Ellie Coleman 6-0, 6-2 and has now lost just 11 games in her first four victories.

Yepifanova, who beat Montgomery last year in the second round of the USTA 18s Clay Court Championships, is expecting aggressive play from Montgomery.

"She hits big and flat," said Yepifanova, who agreed that her own game style is similar to Montgomery's. "But I feel like I sometimes enjoy playing defense, and I don't see Robin often doing that."

The other girls semifinal will feature two unseeded players, with India Houghton taking on wild card Kouzmanov. Houghton defeated No. 4 seed Jada Bui of Canada, the last international player still in the draw, 6-1, 6-1 although the match was over 90 minutes long. Kouzmanov took out No. 11 seed Ava Catanzarite 6-1, 6-4.

With all the girls matches completed in straight sets, it was up to the boys to provide the drama, and two of their quarterfinals went the distance. No. 15 seed Victor Lilov defeated wild card William Cooksey 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, and No. 4 seed Alex Bernard survived a tough test from unseeded JJ Tracy 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Bernard earned the only break of the third set in the fifth game then held on to it, barely, by consolidating for 4-2 after saving four break points.

"First set I didn't get broken once, but in the second set I struggled to hold serve, got broken three times, and I wasn't going to win the set like that," said the 16-year-old from Florida. "I knew in that 3-2 game, I really needed to hold, and I think my second serve got a little tight. He gave him me some freebies, he really got passive on some of those points; we were both very passive in that game."

After two holds, Tracy had to hold serve to stay in the match, but he was broken at love, ending the two-and-half-hour contest and putting Bernard into the semifinals against unseeded Welsh Hotard.

Hotard, who defeated wild card Ben Shelton 6-2, 6-2, lost to Bernard in their previous meeting this spring in the semifinals of the ITF Grade 4 in Plantation Florida 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

"It was a good match and I think we both know how we are going to play," Bernard said. "That was on clay; it's different, but I think roughly we know what to expect from each other."

Lilov will take on No. 8 seed Cash Hanzlik, who beat No. 16 seed Daniel Milavsky 6-3, 6-1. Hanzlik has dropped only 12 games in his four wins this week.

The doubles semifinals are set for Friday, with three unseeded teams and the top seeds getting through today's girls quarterfinals, while the top-seeded boys team fell in a match tiebreaker.

No. 1 seeds Yepifanova and Lauren Anzalotta of Puerto Rico defeated No. 7 seeds Houghton and Gianna Pielet 7-6(4), 6-2 and will play Reese Brantmeier and Carson Tanguilig, who beat unseeded Carrie Beckman and Emma Charney 7-5, 6-2.  Kouzmanov and Montgomery advanced when Maryam Ahmad, partnering with Catanzarite, had to retire due to an injury after dropping the first set 6-2. Kozmanova and Montgomery will take on Ava Hrastar and Ruth Marsh, who beat No. 2 seeds Bui and Kailey Evans 7-5, 6-1.

Top boys seeds Hunter Heck and Stefan Leustian fell to unseeded Ozan Colak and Maxwell Smith 6-3, 4-6, 11-9, with Colak and Smith seeing their 6-2 lead in the tiebreaker dissolve into an 8-7 lead for Heck and Leustian, but Smith's volleying proved the difference as they closed it out on their second match point. Colak and Smith will play No. 5 seeds Tracy and Andrew Dale, who beat No. 3 seeds Joshua Lapadat and Ilya Tiraspolsky of Canada 1-6, 6-2, 10-7.  No. 2 seeds Aidan Mayo and Venezuela's Lorenzo Claverie beat No. 6 seeds Leighton Allen and Jack Anthrop 6-2, 6-1. They will play unseeded Murphy Cassone and Hugo Hashimoto, who defeated No. 4 seeds Bernard and Hanzlik 3-6, 6-3, 10-5.

At the ATP 100 Challenger in Fairfield California, 18-year-old wild card Brandon Nakashima defeated No. 6 seed James Duckworth of Australia 7-6(5), 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals at a 100-level Challenger for the second straight tournament. Duckworth, with a ATP ranking of 143, is the highest ranked player the Virginia Cavalier has beaten. Nakashima said that his results this fall would determine if he would return to Charlottesville in January; that is looking increasingly unlikely given his results the last two months.

Top seed Christian Sigsgaard of Texas lost today in second round singles action at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa. Senior Gui Osorio of San Diego defeated Sigsgaard 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to Friday's round of 16. Georgia freshman Philip Henning, a qualifier, beat No. 7 seed John McNally of Ohio State 6-3, 6-1 and Alex Rotsaert of Stanford took out No. 5 seed Jack Lin of Columbia 6-3, 7-5.

Top women's seed Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami, the 2019 NCAA champion, advanced to the round of 16, although all the women's second round singles results are not yet posted. No. 7 seed Jada Hart of UCLA lost to North Carolina State's Alana Smith 6-1, 6-3 and qualifier Iuliia Bryzgalova of Penn defeated No. 4 seed Kelly Chen of Duke 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (2).

Up-to-date results can be found here.

Top Three Boys Seeds Fall in Third Round of ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed; Gauff Makes WTA Linz Quarterfinal; Texas's Sigsgaard, Miami's Perez-Somarriba Top Seeds as ITA All-American Championships Begin in Tulsa

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Nicholasville KY--

Top seed Andrew Dale, No. 2 seed Joshua Lapadat and No. 3 seed Aidan Mayo all saw their dreams of a ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed title end Wednesday morning at the Top Seed Tennis Club, with unseeded Ben Shelton, No. 15 seed Victor Lilov and No. 16 seed Daniel Milavsky keeping their hopes alive by advancing to the quarterfinals.

Shelton received a wild card into this event, his first ITF Junior Circuit tournament, and he was able to overcome a slight stumble in the second set to take out Dale 6-3, 7-5.  Dale had needed three sets and three hours to win his first round match and had another close win in the second round, so Shelton could see his path to a victory today.

"I saw in some of his earlier matches some of the things he was struggling with indoors, and I tried to expose them a little bit today," said Shelton, who celebrated his 17th birthday today. "I felt pretty comfortable, because he was pretty predictable with his shots and I felt like I was a step ahead of him in rallies. I felt comfortable extending the rallies and making him work."

Shelton lives in Gainesville Florida, where his father Bryan is the men's coach at the University of Florida, so he has access to the rare indoor courts in that state.

"UF has indoor courts so I was able to hit on those the last week or two," said Shelton, who has not been able to travel the ITF Circuit due to being enrolled in regular school.

Shelton, who like Dale is left-handed, went up a break in the second set and had a chance to serve out the match at 5-4, but Dale got even, only to drop serve again.

"I was a little tight," Shelton admitted of his first attempt to end the match. "But I was pretty much in control of the match. All the pressure was on him, he was the 1 seed, and I was up a set and the score was even."

With his second opportunity, Shelton took advantage, hitting three aces in the game, with the last two coming at 30-15 and 40-15.

"I just wanted to make him uncomfortable with my serve," Shelton said. "I've been serving pretty well the whole tournament and I thought if I could get a few free points with the last game, it would be tough for him to break me and I did that."

Shelton will face unseeded Welsh Hotard in Thursday's quarterfinals, after Hotard defeated No. 6 seed Hunter Heck 6-1, 6-0.

Lilov had lost to No. 2 seed Lapadat 6-2, 6-3 just two weeks ago at the Grade 2 in Montreal, but today he turned the tables for a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

"The first today was one of my better sets that I've played all year," said the 15-year-old, who is from Raleigh North Carolina, but is now training in Florida. "I honestly think I've improved the last two weeks, and I focused on my serve, being aggressive and taking his time away. I came out aggressive and I don't think he was expecting it, because last time he was the one who was coming out really aggressive. I don't think he played as well this time, especially in the second set. I think in the second set, the level dropped, from me and him, but he's a really good player, and it was a good win."

After cruising through the first set, Lilov got an early break in the second, but gave it back in the sixth game, and shouted an obscenity that the officials monitoring the courts either didn't hear or didn't understand, as he did not receive a code violation.

"I should have said it in Bulgarian," Lilov said. "I don't think the refs heard it, but I need to watch my mouth."

The frustration that prompted that outburst didn't last long, as Lilov broke back at love and made the second break stand up.

"It was a good game to bounce back on, because if he had held serve, it would have been much more difficult," Lilov said.

Although he doesn't love indoor tennis, Lilov has experience, and success, in his past to draw on this week.

"I used to practice a lot indoors, not anymore unfortunately, since I'm in Florida now," said Lilov, who won both Bolton and Les Petits As indoors in 2018. "I've won some tournaments indoors too and I think my game suits it. I like to come in and I'm pretty aggressive."

Lilov will play wild card William Cooksey who defeated unseeded Adit Sinha 7-5, 6-4.

No. 4 seed Alex Bernard is the highest seed remaining now, and he advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded Ozan Colak. He will face his fourth straight unseeded player in JJ Tracy, who beat unseeded Zachery Foster 6-2, 6-4.

Milavsky won the only three-setter of the day in the boys third round, after Mayo had served for the first set at 5-3, coming back for a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 victory. Milavsky, a Harvard recruit, will face No. 8 seed Cash Hanzlik, who beat No. 11 seed Bruno Kuzuhara 6-0, 6-4.

Top seed Alexandra Yepifanova dropped her first set of the tournament to No. 14 seed Gianna Pielet, but recovered for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory to set up a rematch with unseeded Reese Brantmeier, who beat unseeded Zoe Hitt 6-0, 6-0. Brantmeier led Yepifanova 6-4, 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the US Open Junior Championships last month, before Yepifanova reeled off eight straight games and rolled to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win.

The other quarterfinal in the top half will also feature a recent rematch, with No. 3 seed Robin Montgomery taking on No. 7 seed Ellie Coleman. The pair met in the second round of the Grade 1 in College Park in August, with Montgomery winning that one 6-3, 7-6(1).  Montgomery defeated No. 15 seed Annabelle Xu of Canada 6-0, 6-1 today, while Coleman got by wild card Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-3.

No. 4 seed Jada Bui of Canada is the only non-US player in the quarterfinals of the boys or girls draws. She defeated qualifier Eleana Yu 6-3, 6-3 and will take on unseeded India Houghton, who beat No. 10 seed Elaine Chervinsky 6-3, 6-0. No. 11 seed Ava Catanzarite took out No. 6 seed Kailey Evans 6-2, 6-3 and will face 14-year-old wild card Isabelle Kouzmanov, who got by Elise Wagle 7-6(4), 1-6, 7-5.  Wagle served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but Kouzmanov stepped up her game to get the break, then hit seven consecutive winners to go up 6-5, 40-0 with Wagle serving to force a third set tiebreaker. The streak of Kouzmanov winners ended on the first match point, when Wagle netted a backhand.

The second round of doubles concluded today, with the top two seeds in both boys and girls draws advancing. After a bye in Tuesday's first round, top girls seeds Yepifanova and Lauren Anzalotta of Puerto Rico were down 6-1, 5-1 to Elaine Chervinsky and Makayla Mills before claiming a 1-6, 7-6(5), 10-8 win. Chervinsky and Mills served for the match at 5-2, 5-4 and 6-5 and had two match points at 5-4, but they were unable to close it out. No. 2 seeds Bui and Evans beat Ariana Arseneault and Allie Gretkowski 6-4, 7-6(8).

Boys top seeds Heck and Stefan Leustian defeated the Canadian team of Samuel Paquette and Marko Stakusic 6-1, 6-1 and No. 2 seeds Mayo and Lorenzo Claverie of Venezuela beat Foster and Billy Suarez 6-3, 6-4.

Coco Gauff lost in the final round of qualifying at the WTA event in Austria, but made the main draw as a lucky loser and has now advanced to the quarterfinals. She defeated Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland in the first round and made the quarterfinals when Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine retired with an injury trailing 4-6, 6-4, 2-0. Gauff is the youngest quarterfinalist in a WTA event since Sesil Karatantcheva in 2005 and she will make her WTA Top 100 debut next Monday. For more, see the WTA's article.

The main draw of the ITA All-American Championships began today in Tulsa, but rain has disrupted play with first round women's singles matches not yet complete and women's doubles cancelled.

Men's top seed Christian Sigsgaard of Texas has advanced to the second round, as has No. 2 seed Oliver Crawford of Florida. No. 2 women's seed Makenna Jones of North Carolina is through, while 2019 NCAA champion Estela Perez-Somarriba, the top seed, has yet to finish.

The singles scores update (as of 7:40 pm Central Time) is available here.

Kouzmanov Defeats No. 2 Seed Broadus, Cooksey Survives Roller Coaster to Beat No. 5 Seed Leustian in ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed Second Round Action

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Nicholasville KY--

Southeastern Michigan came up big Tuesday during second round action at the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed, with wild cards Isabelle Kouzmanov and William Cooksey taking out seeded players in dramatic fashion on the indoor courts of the Top Seed Tennis Club.

Kouzmanov defeated No. 2 seed and 2018 finalist Savannah Broadus 7-5, 7-6(4), using her underdog status to play fearlessly in the late stages of the match.

“Before the match I just told myself to go out there and play how you can, and whatever happens, happens,” said the 14-year-old from Novi, “Just have confidence in yourself, and I’m happy with the result. I played really well, although sometimes my level would go down. But she’s obviously a very good player.”

Aware that Broadus was one of the top-ranked US juniors on the ITF Circuit, Kouzmanov didn’t dwell on the difference in their rankings: 28 for Broadus versus 712 for Kouzmanov.

“I put that aside; it depends on if someone is having a good day or a bad day, who is mentally tougher out there,” said Kouzmanov.

Kouzmanov lost a break in the second set, but true to her word, she did not get discouraged and kept going for the lines in the tiebreaker. At 4-4, she swung for the backhand corner and her forehand whizzed past Broadus and a point later, on her first match point, she hit another laser-like forehand to the same spot and again hit the target.

“In general, I’m a big risk taker,” Kouzmanov, who trains with her father at the Sports Club of Novi, but is hoping to find a warmer location so she can get more court time in the winter. “But playing the No. 2 seed definitely helped. Since she’s a flat hitter, I can swing through my shots, take risks, and in the end, those risks were a good idea.”

Kouzmanov will play unseeded Elise Wagle in Wednesday's third round after Wagle defeated lucky loser Elisabeth Jones 6-1, 6-2.

Gross Pointe Shores resident Cooksey was able to recover from squandering two big leads in the second and third sets, then mount a comeback of his own in the third set tiebreaker to defeat No. 5 seed Stefan Leustian 6-4, 6-7(8), 7-6(6).

“I was up 6-4, 5-1 serving and was serving my best ever and you know, I just think I got a little tight, let it slip a little bit,” said the 16-year-old, who had match points in the second set tiebreaker.

"I was very disappointed, but at the end of the day, it's a third set," said Cooksey, who has been focusing on improving his mental game, and needed to draw on all that work when he saw a 4-0 lead disappear in the second set, and then went down 5-1 in the third set tiebreaker.

"I was just thinking every point I can win is important," Cooksey said. "It was an unbelievable match. I came to the net a lot and I think that helped me too."

Leustian had a match point serving at 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but missed a backhand wide, and Cooksey's net play made the difference in the final two points, when he knocked off two tough volley winners to earn the win, over three hours and 15 minutes after the match began.

Another player who looked exceptionally comfortable indoors was unseeded Adit Sinha, who beat No. 10 Leighton Allen 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. Sinha said he knew he had to stick to his aggressive play to beat Allen, who made him pay for getting more tentative in the second set.

"Clearly he was an outdoor player," said the 16-year-old from New Jersey, who trains indoors at the Garden State Tennis Center. "He was playing the outdoor style indoors, so I had to come in, finish the points early, not grind with him. In the middle, I kind of went back to playing an outdoor game style and he was beating me, so I had to go back to coming in and serving big."

In addition to Leustian and Allen, one additional seed lost in the second round, with qualifier Ozan Colak beating No. 13 seed Murphy Cassone 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Top seed Andrew Dale had another tight match, but managed to close out Nedim Suko 7-5, 6-4.

No. 11 seed Bruno Kuzuhara was facing his friend Evan Wen in the second round, and Kuzuhara was the one with a disadvantage indoors, but he managed to overcome Wen 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in a three-hour marathon.

"I live in Florida and there's almost no indoor courts there," the 15-year-old said. "I train on clay, so I feel his game is more suited to indoors than mine. The return is really important, because if I don't return well, he starts off the point attacking and he loves to rip the forehand and come to the net and finish the point off, so it's important to keep it deep."

Although Kuzuhara doesn't consider himself an indoor player, there's one aspect to playing inside that he really likes.

"I love playing indoors because of the sound," said Kuzuhara, who was on the USA's ITF World Junior Tennis championship team with Wen last year. "When you hit a great shot it just sounds ten times better."

After four girls seeds lost in Monday's first round, three more went out in the second round. In addition to Broadus, No. 13 seed Valencia Zu was beaten by qualifier Eleana Yu 6-4, 0-6, 6-4, and unseeded Reese Brantmeier took out No. 8 seed Jenna DeFalco 6-4, 6-4.

Brantmeier, who reached the quarterfinals of the US Open Junior Championships after receiving a wild card for winning the National 16s title in San Diego, has had a busy few weeks since her success in New York.

"I had a couple days off and I stayed at home," Brantmeier said of her post-US Open schedule. "Then I went to Orlando to train and I was there about two weeks. And then I went up to Charleston and played a $60K, then went back to Orlando, then came straight here."

Brantmeier, who lives and trains, mostly indoors, in Wisconsin, was happy to see an indoor tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit schedule.

"I grew up playing indoors and this is nice, because there's never any indoor tournaments inside and it's fun to get to play indoors," Brantmeier said.

As for her goal in playing this event, Brantmeier doesn't want to focus on a specific ranking, but knows doing well here could boost her prospects for playing junior slams next year.

"The Open was the first ITF tournament that I got a significant amount of points at," Brantmeier said. "So hopefully, if I get a lot of points here, I could play the other slams. It would be amazing to play junior slams, that's a no-brainer."

Brantmeier will face unseeded Zoe Hitt in Wednesday's third round. Hitt defeated Malaika Rapolu 6-2, 6-3 in today's second round.

Top seed Alexandra Yepifanova advanced to a meeting with No. 14 seed Gianna Pielet with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Corina Spasojevic of Canada. Pielet defeated Allie Gretkowski 6-3, 6-2.

The first round of doubles was played today, with boys top seeds Hunter Heck and Leustian and No. 2 seeds Lorenzo Claverie of Venezuela and Aidan Mayo advancing. Top girls seeds Lauren Anazalotta of Puerto Rico and Yepifanova had a bye; No. 2 seeds Jada Bui of Canada and Kailey Evans advanced with a straight-sets win.