In First Round; Simmonds, Min, Scholl Pull Off Shockers
By Jim Durham, Lexington Challenger Media Director
Lexington, KY (July 20) – Both top seeds were on show simultaneously
Wednesday evening at UK’s Boone Tennis Center, but only one advanced into the
Lexington Challenger second round – Great Britain’s James Ward over the
Tennessee Vol just-turned-pro Rhyne Williams, 6-4, 7-5.
Unseeded Chanel Simmonds of South Africa shocked Melanie
Oudin, who at No. 100 had returned to the site where she won her first
tournament (’08) in hopes of starting the climb back to her career high of No.
31(’09). Oudin looked nothing like the American hope who went to the
quarterfinals of the U.S. Open two years ago – losing the last four games of
the match and appearing panicky as she dropped the final nine points of the
match.
“No one expected me to win, so I could play freely,” said
Simmonds with a huge smile afterwards. “It’s nice to play with no pressure.”
At 5-foot-6, Oudin has to depend on foot speed and striking
balls early for the equalizer against the many lanky women in the sport. But,
against Simmonds – who’s only 5-foot-5 – she was often slow to the ball and hit
many shots that barely cleared the service line.
“No excuses,” said Oudin, denying that a sore shoulder that
took her off the tour two weeks for rest affected her shaky serve or caused the
short balls. “(Chanel’s) lefty swing bothered me, though.”
Oudin hoped to raise her ranking enough this week to get
closer to that No. 90 mark – the probable cut-off for U.S. Open entry. At No.
241, Simmonds had another confidence-builder like her win last year over then
No. 85 Klara Zakopalova (now No. 38). “This over Melanie is my second best
win,” she said.
Thursday afternoon, Simmonds faces a collegian who knows
pressure – qualifier Laureen Embree, who recently won the clinching match for
Florida against Stanford in the NCAA team tournament.
Ward seemed headed for a rubber set, but came back from 2-5
in the second set against the 2011 NCAA singles runner-up. “I was a little
upset with the officiating, but that gave me more motivation,” the British
Davis Cupper said. “I was just down a break, so I told myself to hold serve and
since he’s a little inexperienced maybe he’d lose focus…which is exactly what
happened. That was the time to push.”
He next faces Canada’s Erik Chvojka, who advanced in
straight sets over Nicholas Monroe a day after upsetting No. 8 seed Amer Delic.
Just last month, Ward had the experience of sidelining Stanislas Warinka and
Sam Querrey en route to a semifinal finish at the Wimbledon tune-up Queen’s
Club event in London.
Other seeds to move on were No. 2 Wayne Odesnik and No. 6
Michael Yani on the men’s side. And on the women’s, No. 4 Tetiana Luzhanska of Ukraine, No. 7
Heidi El Tabakh of Canada 7-6 in the third, and No. 8 Ling Zhang of Hong Kong.
Earlier, two women’s seeds gave way to teenage girls in the
heat of the day – No. 6 Melinda Czink of Hungary to 19 year-old Chichi Scholl
of Pompano Beach, FL, 6-4, 2-6-6-4 and No. 5 Julia Cohen to 17-year-old Grace
Min of Lawrenceville, GA, 6-4, 6-2. And, both veterans had beaten their younger
opponents the last time they met.
“(Czink) killed me
at Indian Harbour (FL) two months ago – 1 & 2,” said the German-born Scholl,
who decided to just focus on her game and not Czink’s, trailing 4-2 first set.
“I just said ‘next ball, next ball’.”
At age 14, Min defeated Cohen, then lost to her the next
year at 15. Wednesday, the diminutive Min said “I’ve improved a lot since then.
Today I was patient, but I wouldn’t let her dictate with her changing the
height of the ball.”
At No. 617 in the world, Min is 452 spots below Cohen (165)
– but she said she is striving for a Top Ten ranking eventually. Although she’s
not playing doubles in Lexington, Min claimed the Wimbledon Junior doubles
title with Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard.
