©Colette Lewis 2009--
Mobile, AL--
The sun made an appearance in Mobile Sunday afternoon, drying the courts at the tennis center and allowing the first round of girls singles to be completed before it began to rain again, just after the lights were switched on.
The 60 courts and four-plus rain-free hours kept disaster at bay, and I was faced with a tennis buffet of cruise ship proportions. As I reported on Twitter, I spent some time watching unseeded Mary Clayton down No. 6 seed Ellen Tsay 6-2, 6-3. Tsay, who wins with guile and placement, not power, made many more unforced errors than usual, and Clayton kept blistering her two-handed forehand and backhand into the corners. Of the two, Clayton showed more consistency and Tsay is unlikely to post a win when that happens.
It wasn't a good day for No. 6 seeds, as Lawrence Formentera, who, like Tsay, can claim an Easter Bowl 16s title, also lost, falling to Gonzales Austin of Miami, Fla. 6-2, 7-5. I didn't see any of that match, nor did pick up any buzz when top seed Ian Chadwell dropped the first set to Omar Aly before finding his way to a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory. Chadwell, who will join Alabama in the fall, was the only top eight seeded winner, boy or girl, to drop a set Sunday afternoon. Beatrice Capra, the girls No. 1 seed, didn't lose a game, and Hanna Mar, the No. 2 seed, had too much variety for Madison Cohen in a 6-2, 6-2 win. The same was true of boys No. 2 seed Connor Smith, who defeated Roger Anderson 6-2, 6-1.
I had hoped to see more of the Chichi Scholl - Emina Bektas contest, but it was played on a far court on the "old" part of the complex, where the viewing is not good. As I had expected, it was a tough match, with Scholl taking out Bektas, a 17 seed, 7-5, 6-4. No. 8 seed Ester Goldfeld and Elizabeth Epstein also played on that side, and I did see Goldfeld begin her comeback in the second set, where she trailed 4-1, two breaks, before recording a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory. In addition to Bektas, several other 17 seeds bowed out--Maria Belaya, who was eventually subdued by wild card Liz Begley 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Marivick Mamiit, who lost to Nicole Melichar 6-4, 7-5 and Brittany Dubins, who fell to Erin Vierra 6-1, 7-6(3).
The boys first round was not completed before the evening rain began, but a couple of double-digit seeds were put out, with No. 14 Chris Cha losing to Dennis Novikov 6-4, 6-3 and Ben Chen, a No. 17 seed, going out to Shaun Bernstein 6-3, 6-1.
Please see the TennisLink site for all the scores of the matches that were completed on Sunday.
And for those of you interested in college tennis, there is a blog devoted to Texas college tennis called, what else? texascollegetennis.com. He is also on Twitter, so I was able to follow Viriginia's 4-3 win over Texas today in Austin while I was out covering the Spring Nationals. He also is the bearer of sad news, as Texas A & M, a 4-3 winner over Illinois today, played without Wil Spencer, due to the death of his father.
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