Hey Tennis Friends!
I went to the LA Tennis Open Men’s and Women’s $50,000 USTA Challengers at the USTA Training Center – West, at Home Depot Center, in Carson, California.
2010 Easter Bowl 18s winner Krista Hardebeck, who is only 15 years old, made it through qualifying here by taking out the #1 seed in the first round of her first USTA Pro Circuit tournament. In this report, among other featured matches, she tries to make it to the quarterfinal round:
There was a total of 20 matches on five courts on this day. That’s a lot of tennis to see! It’s always great to come to events like this to check out, and support, not only the current touring professionals, but the next generation of top players, as well!
Here are the results of the matches that I mentioned:
Men’s Doubles Quarterfinal
(Lucky Loser) Brian Battistone & Nicholas Monroe
def. (Wild Card) Greg Ouelette & Donald Young 6-3, 6-0
Talk about researching your opponent’s game, . . . Monroe had previously partnered with Young in June of 2009, and Ouelette in February of 2010.
Women’s Singles Round of 16
(Qualifier) Krista Hardebeck def. Nicole Gibbs (ranked #463) 2-6, 6-1, 6-1
Hardebeck had upset the #1 seed, Sasha Jones (ranked #158), the day before today’s match. That was after getting a wild card entry into qualifying, and making it through three rounds of qualifying!
Men’s Singles Quarterfinal
(Unseeded) Marinko Matosevic def. (#1 seed) Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-4
Levine ended last year ranked at #115, and has been hovering around #110 for the first half of this year. This was a great win for #269 Matosevic.
Women’s Doubles Quarterfinal
Ivana Lisak & Asia Muhammed
def. Kristie Ahn & Nicole Gibbs 6-4, 6-1
Ivana Lisak must have been the most rested player on court as earlier in the day, in singles play, Asia Muhammed had defeated Brittany Augustine 6-3, 6-4, Kristie Ahn defeated Olga Puchkova 6-2, 6-0, and Nicole Gibbs had lost to Krista Hardebeck.
For final results, go to: http://www.usta.com/carsonchallenger
I’ll see you next time, with more tennis, . . . outside the lines!
– Marcus Tennis
