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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Zheng, Uchiyama win Osaka Mayor's Cup; Riske Wins Again; Cox Falls in Mansfield Final, Falconi Loses in Rock Hill Final

There has been a lot of college regional action going on this weekend, with most of the finals in the 12 regions set for Monday. Watch the twitter feed for some re-tweeted updates; I'll have a complete review of all of the results tomorrow or Tuesday. Several of the finals are teammate vs. teammate, and depending on the status of the players as candidates for an at-large bids to the National Indoor, some of these matches may not be played. Michael Shabaz of Virginia will advance based on his preseason ranking, since he reached the regional quarterfinals, so, for the second year in a row, Jarmere Jenkins wins the regional final by walkover/retirement from a teammate (Singh in 2009).

Today in Japan, the home country claimed three championships, with Yasutaka Uchiyama taking the ITF Grade A Osaka Mayors Cup boys singles title, and Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato taking the girls doubles title. Uchiyama won the boys doubles title with Croatia's Mate Pavic. Uchiyama, the No. 2 seed, beat the top seed Pavic in the singles final 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. The girls singles final was even closer, with the second-seeded Saisai Zheng of China defeating Japan's Miho Kowase 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(3). Kowase, the No. 7 seed, had upset top seed Monica Puig of Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals.

Whether it was due to a stronger field or simply junior players not in form, it is interesting to note that neither Uchiyama nor Zheng had notable results at last month's U.S. Open junior championships. Zheng lost in the first round to Sachia Vickery of the U.S., while Uchiyama fell in the third round to American Dennis Novikov. Both are likely to make big jumps in the junior rankings when they are released tomorrow. For more, see the ITF junior site.

This week the ITF junior circuit in the United States is in Atlanta for a Grade 4.

Twenty-year-old Alison Riske is making a late season push to reach the main draw of the Australian Open on her own ranking, which is now 130, by winning her third straight challenger this month, a $50,000 ITF Women's Circuit event in France. Since losing to Canada's Rebecca Marino last month in a third set tiebreaker that decided the title in a $50K event, Riske has won 15 consecutive matches. The seventh seed this week, Riske defeated unseeded Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-2 in the final. For complete results, see the ITF Women's Circuit site.

In Pro Circuit action today, Jordan Cox, seeded 4th, won his semifinal match, which was rained out on Saturday, but fell in the final of the $15,000 Mansfield Futures to No. 3 seed Fritz Wolmarans of South Africa 6-1, 6-2. Two former University of Texas Longhorns won the doubles title, with Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala downing Denis Kudla and Andrea Collarini 6-3, 6-2. Neither of the teams in the finals were seeded.

Former collegians were not as successful in the women's $25,000 tournament in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Eighth seed Camila Georgi of Italy defeated former Georgia Tech All-American Irina Falconi, the sixth seed, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Caitlin Whoriskey, formerly at Tennessee, and Sanaz Marand, a recent North Carolina grad, fell in the doubles final to No. 3 seeds Maria-Fernanda Alves of Brazil and Marian Duque Marino of Colombia 6-1, 4-6, 10-4. Whoriskey and Marand were not seeded.

In the Calabasas Challenger, Ryan Harrison and Travis Rettenmaier, seeded third, won the doubles title with a 6-3, 6-3 over fourth seeds Bobby Reynolds and Rik DeVoest. I believe it is Harrison's first doubles title at the Challenger level. Harrison and Rettenmaier did not need a match tiebreaker in any of their four wins. Ryan Sweeting and Marinko Matosevic of Australia are in the singles final, which is still in progress.

The two Pro Circuit events this week are a women's $25,000 Challenger in Puerto Rico and a men's $10,000 Futures in Birmingham, Alabama. Qualifying is underway in both tournaments.

Results can be found at the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

3 comments:

casual_observer said...

Cox said he did play well in the final. Interesting that Cox has never lost a match when he is playing well, dah... and always has a hard time giving his opponent credit for the win. Fritz’s score, 1,2, told the story

casual_observer said...

meant to say Cox said he did "not" play well- please correct-

Great event... said...

Congrats to Ryan Harrison and Travis Rettenmaier on a great doubles win. They both spent their day off on Saturday at the Malibu Racquet Club participating in the Bryan Brothers Grand Slam Jam ProAm event benefiting the Bryan Bros. Foundation and Bogart Cancer Research Fund. It was a great day, fun being able to watch some up and coming pros witch included a single match between Querry and Harrison and doubles with the Bryan Bros.and Querry/Gimblestob. Also saw Marty Fish, Pam Shriver and Slone Seephens, it was a great day for all.. to see these pros out having fun and raising money for some worthy foundations.