©Colette Lewis 2008--
Flushing Meadows, NY--
It was a four-shirt day at the U.S. Open Thursday, with the heat index approaching 100 degrees, but when it was over, seven Americans had advanced to the quarterfinals of boys and girls singles at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center.
On the boys side, it started with an crisply played contest between qualifer Devin Britton and No. 13 seed Bradley Klahn and ended with a grueling three and a half hour war of attrition between wild card Rhyne Williams and No. 9 seed Ryan Harrison, with Chase Buchanan's 6-3, 7-6(7) win over Great Britain's Daniel Cox somewhere in between.
Britton, the qualifier who had taken out No. 2 seed Bernard Tomic in the first round, played virtually flawless tennis in a 6-4, 6-3 victory. He didn't face a break point in the entire match, breaking Klahn twice, at 4-5 in the first and the next time he served in the second.
"I was serving very well, he was serving pretty well, and in the first few games, he was hitting his ground strokes unbelievable," Britton said. "I was a little worried about that. But when he was serving down 4-5, he had a few unforced errors there, gave me a little more confidence. After that I was serving much better and he was starting to go for a little bit more."
Britton conceded that Klahn's ground strokes are a "different level" than his, but his commitment to serving and volleying led to many a quick point. When you don't face a break point, the pressure is on the returner, and as the match wore on, Klahn began to go for more on his returns.
"It's always nice not to have to make that first volley," he said. It's also nice to make six first serves when serving for the match, which Britton did, ending it as he did against Tomic, with an ace.
"Devin just played too well," said Klahn, who will be starting school at Stanford later this month. "I tried everything. I played pretty well, just two sloppy games on my serve, and he got the break and just ran with it. He was serving well, hitting his serves in the corners, and even when I was hitting good returns, he was coming up with volleys that I didn't have any chance to pass him on."
Buchanan's victory over Cox was not nearly as smooth, with an overrule on match point when he was serving for it at 5-4 in the second that gave Cox new life.
"I served, got in a two-shot rally, got the forehand that I wanted, went inside-in and it sort of curved off the (base)line," Buchanan recalled. "The guy (Cox) didn't get to it, he kind of stopped, the crowd started yelling, I got pumped up, and then he (the chair) overruled. It's kind of hard to cope with something when you think you've won a match. The next game I was furious--I hit a ball to the back fence in the middle of a point. But the next game I got over it, served well. It took something out of me emotionally, when something like that happens it kind of tires you out."
Down 6-2 in the tiebreaker, Buchanan looked to be facing a third set, but he managed to raise his level, while Cox's forehand mostly deserted him. The British 18-and-under champion did manage one winner off that side to give himself another set point, but Buchanan won a long and increasingly tense point when Cox netted a forehand, and Buchanan's service winner gave him his first match point since the overrule. But this time Cox's forehand was indisputably long, and Buchanan had advanced to the quarterfinals of a junior slam for the first time.
Williams has also reached his first junior slam quarterfinal taking an often sloppy but hotly contested 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3 win over Ryan Harrison. Harrison served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but he was broken at love, and was unable to recover, dropping his serve again, and winning only one point on it, to bring Williams even. Harrison's racquet cracking reaction to those two late breaks earned him a point penalty, which carried over to the third set. Williams, who struggled with cramping and received medical attention at 3-2 in the second set, opted for the ten-minute heat break he was offered.
"If you wanted it, you could do it," said Williams, who found a way to express his frustration by kicking, tossing and bouncing his racquet numerous times without drawing a warning. "He said no, but I said why not, I'm dying."
With Harrison facing a game penalty (he had been given a ball abuse warning earlier in the match), he was much more subdued in the third set, earning the first break on the final set at 2-2. But Williams immediately broke back, and then hit what he agreed was one of the top three shots of his life--a tweener winner--on his way to breaking Harrison again to go up 5-3.
Serving for the match, Williams was down 15-40, but an ace and a drop volley winner brought him to deuce. Harrison then just missed a service return when it clipped the net and fell back on his side, and a serve up the T, which Harrison disputed to no avail after he lost the point, gave Williams his first victory over Harrison.
Standing during the post-match press conference due to his lower body discomfort, Williams attributed his win to luck on several occasions.
"Today I just fought really hard and somehow won, just found a way I guess," said Williams, who is now training with Jeff Morrison, the former NCAA champion and ATP professional. "I'm happy that I could, but I wish I would have saved my legs a little more for tomorrow."
One player who got on and off the court quickly was No. 2 seed Melanie Oudin, who avenged a recent loss to doubles partner Asia Muhammad by recording a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
"I got killed by her last time," said Oudin of her 6-2, 6-3 loss in a Pro Circuit qualifying match in April. "So out there today I was really, really focused, wanting to play really confident and not let her get ahead of me. I definitely played much better than last time."
Next up for Oudin is Madison Brengle, who defeated Christina McHale 6-4, 6-0 today. Remarkably, Brengle and Oudin have never played, despite the similar WTA rankings and junior successes.
Wild card Gail Brodsky has taken advantage of her section of the draw, which saw No. 1 seed Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands fall in the first round, defeating unseeded Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 6-1, 7-6(1). Wild card Coco Vandeweghe also advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating Katarzyna Piter of Poland 7-6(3), 6-1.
The doubles are down to the semifinals, and with the advancing Tropical Storm Hanna, the plan is to complete both remaining rounds on Friday. There are no U.S. boys doubles teams in the semifinals, with the last remaining pair, Matt Kandath and Ryan Lipman falling to No. 6 seeds Peerakit Siributwong and Kittipong Wachiramanowong 6-4, 4-6, 10-7. Mallory Burdette and Sloane Stephens are the lone U.S. girls team still in doubles. They advanced past Chanel Simmonds and Bianca Swanepoel of South Africa 7-5, 6-2.
FFor complete draws, see usopen.org.
For addtional coverage, visit Marcia Frost's collegeandjuniortennis.com.
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