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©Colette Lewis 2007
Mobile, AL--

The top four seeds in both the boys and girls divisions remain alive after Monday's second round at the USTA 18s Spring Championships at the Mobile Tennis Center. It was another perfect day, with a light jacket or warmup required in the morning, but by 10 a.m., there was no longer any need for any layers.

No. 1 seed Melanie Oudin was one of the first players out at 8 a.m., and I managed see her lose her first game of the tournament, but she had little difficulty beating Chelsea Davis 6-1, 6-0. I didn't see any of No. 2 seed Claire Bartlett, probably because her match was so quick. Her win over Natalie Collins was her second straight 6-0, 6-0 victory. No. 3 seed Asia Muhammad also dominated, beating Katie Kargl 6-1, 6-1 while Lauren Embree, the No. 4 seed cruised to a 6-3, 6-0 win over Alexandria Walters.

No. 6 seed Jacqueline Wu, who took a hard-fought first round win against Jennifer Yen Sunday, is out of the tournament, but it wasn't an opponent who caused the exit. Wu aggravated a wrist injury and withdrew before taking the court Tuesday. No. 5 seed Chelsea Preeg (who also has dropped only one game in two matches), No. 7 seed Keri Wong and No. 8 seed Carolyn McVeigh all captured straight-set wins to advance to the round of 32.

The girls' 18s Winter Champion Emily Gelber, a 17 seed, won't be winning back-to-back gold balls, as she fell to fellow Eastern section player Nadja Gilchrist 6-2, 6-2. Gilchrist was pounding the ball during the few games I watched, and Gelber wasn't able to counteract the pace that Gilchrist was generating.

Gilchrist is one of eight unseeded players to reach the round of 32 on the girls side, and in her quarter of the draw, the other two unseeded players are also from the Eastern section. Ryann Cutillo was the beneficiary of the Wu withdrawal, and Lindsay Clark upset No. 17 seed Kimberly Haynes.

The boys' top four seeds-- Reid Carleton (1), Jordan Rux (2), Ryan Lipman (3) and Nick Meister--advanced in straight sets, but No. 5 seed Bryant Salcedo was no match for Marc Powers of Connecticut. I saw only the last couple of games of Powers' 6-3, 6-2 win, but in them he made no errors, while Salcedo was hard pressed to keep the ball in play. Jared Pinsky, the No. 11 seed, was upset by John Lewis of Alabama 6-3, 6-3. Powers and Lewis are just two of the ten unseeded boys in the round of 32.

Tyler Davis, the No. 7 seed, is the boys' version of Oudin and Preeg, having dropped only one game in his first two matches.

The top four seeds in both girls and boys doubles also advanced to the third round. Stacey Lee was briefly without a partner when Wu withdrew, but Christina McHale was able to replace Wu because Lee and Wu were the third seeds and had a first round bye on Sunday. The new team easily defeated Katharine Blow and Caroline Capute 6-1, 6-2 Monday afternoon.

For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

Also, the most recent Inside Junior Tennis podcast is now available here. Kevin McClure and I discuss serve-and-volley tennis, my trip to Boise and the latest college rankings.

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Top Seeds Continue to Roll in Mobile

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Surprises Few on Spring Nationals' First Day

©Colette Lewis 2007--
Mobile, AL--

With 50 courts (and 10 more under construction) there's more action than anyone can possibly follow during the first round of two 128-draw tournaments. So I'll just recap a few of the matches that caught my attention on a warm and sunny Sunday at the Mobile Tennis Center.

The girls started the schedule at 8 a.m., and I spent the first half hour or so trying to find a competitive match. There were a surprising number of lopsided results (neither No. 1 seed Melanie Oudin or No. 2 seed Claire Bartlett surrendered a game), but the match between No. 6 seed Jacqueline Wu of New Jersey and Jennifer Yen of California wasn't one of them.

With only roving umpires, it was difficult to keep track of the game score, but I do know that Wu faced several set points in the first set which she won 7-6 (4). Wu's game features much more volleying than most girls, and I was impressed when she continued to approach the net and play agressively, even when the set was on the line. In all the first set took over an hour and a half, but the second less than half that, as Wu won it 6-2.

Yen has a one-handed backhand, and I believe it's safe to say that when Aeriel Ellis took the court next to her, it was the first time I had ever seen two adjacent courts with one-handed backhands in girls' junior tennis.

Northern Californian Ellis, who won the 16s Winter Nationals, is unseeded, but she clearly outplayed one of the 17th seeds, Cameron Hubbs of Nebraska in the only upset of the day in girls singles, 6-3, 6-1. The difference was in the winner department. Although many of the games were close (the second time Ellis served the game lasted at least twenty minutes), Ellis was able to hit outright winners with regularity, while Hubbs could only manage to force errors.

The same was true on the boys side, when Wil Spencer, from the nearby Florida panhandle, a 17 seed, took on Ravi Yegya-Raman of New Jersey. Spencer has been playing Futures events since December's Orange Bowl, so his USTA ranking doesn't warrant a higher seed, but many a higher-ranked player looked at the draw to see where Spencer landed. Although Yegya-Raman is a consistently good defender, like Hubbs, he struggled to finish games when he had the opening, and Spencer, using a kick serve very effectively, did not. Serving for the first set at 5-4, Spencer stepped up his game, and played first-strike tennis, taking the game at love. The second set, which I didn't see, went to Spencer 6-2.

I wanted to see Jordan Rux, the No. 2 seed from Texas, play, but by the time I got over to his court, he was just finishing off Haig Schneiderman of New York 6-1, 6-1. So I stayed to watch the end of Alex Domijan's 6-4, 6-4 victory over Marcus Rebersak of Pennsylvania. Domijan, a 17 seed, appears taller than when I last saw him in December, but his game is still clean and simple--big serve, excellent forehand and the ability to finish a point when the opportunity is there. Rebersak stayed with him in most of the points I saw, but most was not enough.

I had meant to look in on the Jared Pinsky-Viju George match, which I thought would be one of day's best, but again, I arrived just at the end, with No. 11 seed Pinsky finishing off the tiebreak for a 6-2, 7-6 (5) win.

The boys lost four more seeds than the girls in the first round, with David Anderson, at No. 14, the highest to fall. Cameron Ahari of Arizona convincingly defeated Massachusetts' Anderson 6-2, 6-2. The other four seeds to lose--Calvin Bennett, Erik Corace, Eduardo Pavia and Connor Roth--were all No. 17 seeds.

I left before the doubles were completed (to spend an hour on the phone with Delta trying to locate our still-missing bags), but with the top eight teams having byes, no big upsets were possible.

For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

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Surprises Few on Spring Nationals' First Day

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