Virginia senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski will meet recent Georgia graduate Austin Smith on Saturday in the men’s final of the American Collegiate Invitational while it’ll be recent Michigan graduate Ronit Yurovsky taking on the two-time NCAA singles champion and Virginia graduate Danielle Collins in the women’s final.
Thai-Son Kwiatkowski needed just 53 minutes to get past Stanford junior Tom Fawcett 6-2, 6-0. Kwiatkowski won 64% of the points on Fawcett’s serve and converted six of seven break points with Fawcett only landing 38% of his first serves. Kwiatkowski won 24 of 31 points in the 22 minute second set.
Austin Smith jumped out to a 5-1 first set lead on former NCAA Singles Champion Ryan Shane (Virginia ’16) before Shane won four straight games to even it up at 5-5. Smith cruised through the tiebreak 7-1 and then he got the lone break of the second set to win it 7-6(1), 6-4 in 1 hour and 12 minutes. Shane threw in 13 double faults which obviously didn’t help his cause. Post-Match comments from Smith via Georgia’s recap:
“I relaxed a little bit in the first set, maybe a little bit of nerves, but I was just happy I was able to keep my head and sweep that first set out in the breaker,” said Smith. “At the end, definitely a little more nerves. I tried to block out that it was the end of the match and not think about anything else but just the next point, and take it one point at a time.”
Kwiatkowski and Smith met just once in college with Kwiatkowski winning 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 in the Round of 16 at the 2014 ITA All-Americans.
Men’s Semifinals
[1] Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia Sr) def. [3] Tom Fawcett (Stanford Jr) 6-2, 6-0
[4] Austin Smith (Georgia ’16) def. Ryan Shane (Virginia ’16) 7-6(1), 6-4
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Ronit Yurovsky (Michigan ’16) booked her spot in the women’s final by coming back from a set down to defeat Julia Elbaba (Virginia ’16) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour and 51 minutes. Yurovsky won 65% of the points on her serve and 47% of the points on Elbaba’s serve while also breaking Elbaba’s serve five times.
Reigning NCAA Singles Champion Danielle Collins (Virginia ’16) needed 1 hour and 11 minutes to defeat Breaunna Addison (Texas ’16) 6-2, 6-2. Collins won 72% of the points on her serve and wasn’t broken while Addison was broken four times and won just over half (52%) the points on her serve.
Collins and Yurovsky met twice in college with Collins winning both meetings – 6-1, 6-3 in 2014 and 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 in 2015.
Women’s Semifinals
Ronit Yurovsky (Michigan ’16) def. Julia Elbaba (Virginia ’16) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
[2] Danielle Collins (Virginia ’16) def. [4] Breaunna Addison (Texas ’16) 6-2, 6-2
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Former Illini Rajeev Ram had to settle for a runner-up finish at the US Open after he and Coco Vandeweghe fell 6-4, 6-4 to Mate Pavic and Laura Siegemund in the Mixed Doubles Finals. Pavic and Siegemund earned the lone break of the first set when they broke on the no-ad point to go ahead 5-4. The teams exchanged breaks to start the second set and then Pavic and Siegemund broke to go up 4-3 and a few games later they finished it out.
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Check out Zoo Tennis for more details/quotes from today’s US Open Juniors.
Jada and Ena are all smiles, advancing to tomorrow’s @usopen junior girls doubles final #USOpenpic.twitter.com/SKPaoNwDpT— UCLA Women’s Tennis (@uclawtennis) September 9, 2016
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The ITA released the selections for the both the men’s and women’s All-American Championships. The men’s tournament takes places in Tulsa from October 1-10 while the women’s tournament is held in Pacific Palisades from October 1-9. Both have a prequalifying draw that is open to anyone that signs up while a spot in the qualifying draw is earned by going through pre-qualies, having a high enough preseason ranking, or being named in the National Newcomers/Freshmen rankings.
Several fall tournaments got underway on Friday with the results from a few listed below.
Palmas Del Mar – Puerto Rico – Georgia, Florida State, Mercer, and Illinois.
Silverado Invitational – Napa – Oklahoma St, Tulsa, Cal Poly, Buffalo, UNLV, San Francisco – Day 1
UNC Wilmington Seahawk Fall Invite – Day 1 Results – UNCW, Appalachian St, Florida Atlantic, George Washington, James Madison, Kennesaw St, NC Central
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