Home Depot Center News

Wild-Card Beats Fellow Floridian and ITF World-Ranked No. 45 In Straight Sets At Rain-Delayed ITF Junior Sanctioned Event

CARSON, Calif., (Monday, April 5, 2010) - All seven seeded players who competed in the boys' 18s division at the sixth annual USTA International Spring Championships lost during the first day of play on Monday.

Delayed for three hours by morning showers, the ITF Grade 1 tournament being held at the USTA Training Center - West at the Home Depot Center finally kicked off with three Americans taking advantage of their wild cards and knocking off seeded players. The lighting was tested early on as the last match of the day didn't finish until 10:30 p.m. local time.

Wild-card Spencer Newman of Palmetto Bay, Fla., who trains out of the USTA Training Center in Boca Raton, Fla., knocked off No. 2 seeded Dennis Novikov, ITF world-ranked No. 45, of Boca Raton, Fla., 7-5, 6-3, while Dennis Mkrtchian of nearby Reseda, Calif., also took advantage of his wild card as he defeated fellow American and No. 14 seeded Michael Zhu, of Princeton, N.J., 6-1, 6-3.

Daniel Kosakowski of Downey, Calif., was the third wild-card to record an upset as he got past No. 5 seeded Alexis Carlos of Mexico, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

Fresh off his win at the last month's USTA Spring 18s Nationals in Mobile, Ala., 16-year-old Bjorn Fratangelo from Pittsburgh, Pa., did the same, beating Ecuador's Diego Acosta, the No. 7 seeded player, 6-2, 6-3.

Americans Chase Curry, Gonzales Austin, Chase Curry and Daniel McCall were also seed killers as they knocked off players placed among the top 16.

In the boys' 16s, top-seeded Tyler Gardner of Novi, Mich., won his first-round match against Brandon Clark, 6-4, 6-2, as no seeded players lost in the 32 first-round matches played.

On the girls' 18s side, only one seeded player fell during the day and that match wasn't even completed as No. 4 seeded Jessica Pegula of Boca Raton, Fla., had to retire against 13-year-old wild card Gabrielle Andrews, of Pomona, Calif., due to injury with Andrews leading 6-4, 4-3. Five girls' 18s matches were put off till Tuesday because of the rain delay.

In the 16s, top-seeded Brooke Austin of Indianapolis didn't finish her match till after 9:30 p.m. and said she struggled against Sarah Gong, winning, 6-2, 6-4. \"It must have been the delay and just waiting around all day,\" Austin said. \"I just didn't play very well tonight.\"

For more information on the tournament including scores and draws, log onto the website at www.usta.com/isc.

Contact:

USTA Press Aide
Steve Pratt; (310) 408-4555 or sprattt@aol.com