©Colette Lewis 2008--
Memphis, TN--
Four of the top five seeds are through to the semifinals at USTA Girls 18s Clay Courts at the Racquet Club of Memphis, having survived the heat and humidity that have been building, like the tension, as the tournament week nears its conclusion.
There was only one three-setter in Friday's quarterfinals, and it was short on suspense, as No. 5 seed Kristie Ahn overcame a second set hiccup to take out tenth seed Grace Min 6-0, 3-6, 6-0. As in her round of 32 victory over Ellen Tsay, a No. 17 seed, Ahn took her foot off the gas in the second set. Min got back in the match, hoping to duplicate the feat she accomplished in the round of 16, when the 14-year-old from suburban Atlanta dropped the first set at love to No. 2 seed Alexa Guarachi, but fought back to win. Ahn had gotten off to a quick start, making very few errors, although still hitting deep and going for lines. Min couldn't hang with Ahn in the beginning, but she found her form in the second set, while Ahn's concentration lagged after taking a 2-0 lead in the second set. The 16-year-old from New Jersey held her serve only once more in the set, giving Min reason to hope she could take down another favorite. But Ahn broke Min to open the third and relocated her formidable ground game to advance to a meeting with No. 3 seed and 2007 Clay Court finalist Lauren Embree.
Embree and Ahn last met in Mobile four months ago, in the finals of the USTA Spring Nationals, with Ahn winning by a deceptive 6-4, 6-3, as the match took more than two hours to complete. Since then, Embree has won one Pro Circuit event (Wichita), and Ahn has taken two (Pennsylvania and Houston), so both are playing well and confidently. This time the surface might favor Embree, who puts clay at the top of her list of favorite surfaces, but Ahn has recently spent a couple of weeks in Barcelona training on red clay, so she too looks comfortable on the surface.
Embree reached the meeting with Ahn by downing No. 11 seed Hideko Tachibana of Texas 6-4, 6-4. Tachibana showed flashes of the form that had helped her upset No. 7 seed Alexandra Cercone on Thursday, but her first serve wasn't up to the challenge in the first set and despite breaking Embree three times, she held only once. The second set saw both players protect their serve better, but Embree got the one break she needed at 3-3 and held on for the win.
The other semifinal will put top seed Beatrice Capra of Maryland against Washington's Jacqueline Cako, the fourth seed. Capra and Cako met in the first round of the Grass Courts in Philadelphia last month, with Capra taking a 6-3, 7-5 decision on her way to the final, while Cako went on to win the first round consolation tournament.
Cako had the more difficult time reaching the semifinals as No. 16 seed Kaitlyn Christian was serving for the second set before Cako captured the last four games of match in a 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Capra, 16, was no doubt happy that she once again had an 8 a.m. starting time, as the court condition was at its best and the heat and humidity were not as oppressive as they would be a few hours hence. Her opponent, No. 9 seed Rachel Saiontz, had fought back valiantly in her round of 16 match against No. 17 seed Danielle Lao, but she could not find that form Friday morning, and Capra had her fifth straight-set victory, by a 6-1, 6-1 score.
A berth in the doubles final was at stake Friday afternoon, and it was Cako and her partner Courtney Dolehide, the No. 2 seeds, who earned one of them, with a 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3 win over the eighth seeded team of Lauren Herring and Min. Herring and Min had break point opportunities galore late in the first set, but they failed to convert. Cako and Dolehide fought off one set point at 5-6 in the tiebreaker, taking advantage of their first chance to put the set away three points later. Herring and Min did capitalize on a late break of Cako in the second set, but couldn't recover from the 3-1 deficit they found themselves in when Herring suffered the only break of the final set.
Cako and Dolehide's opponents in Saturday's final are Cercone and her partner Jackie Kasler, the No. 6 seeds, who downed No. 7 seeds Alexandra Leatu and Tsay 6-3, 3-6, 6-0. Tsay was the day's iron woman, as she survived two consolation singles matches, winning both, the first of which was a three-and-a-half hour war of attrition with Monica Chow. The slightly built left-hander began playing at 8 a.m. on Friday, and with just an hour or two off between matches, didn't finish until nearly 7 this evening, showing remarkable endurance in strength-sapping conditions.
For complete draws, including the consolation results, see the TennisLink site.
For coverage of the Florida Clay Court Nationals, see collegeandjuniortennis.com.
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