EDWARDSVILLE – Eight became four and four became two as the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals of the USTA Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament, presented by the EGHM Foundation, took place at the Edwardsville High School tennis complex Friday.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
The semifinals took place at 9 a.m. Saturday on two courts at the complex, while both singles and doubles finals are scheduled for Sunday morning; the doubles final will take place prior to the singles championship match.
The big upset of the day took place in the second doubles semifinal of the day as Alan Kohen of Buenos Aries, Argentina, and John Lamble of Saratoga, Calif., overcame a one-set deficit to eliminate the third-seeded team of Gonzalo Escobar of Ecuador and Pavel Krainik of Canada 1-6, 6-3, 10-6 to advance to the final, where they will take on Britons Scott Clayton and Richard Gabb, who defeated Gerado Lopez Villasenor of Mexico and Kaichi Uchida of Japan 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.
“The other team came out on fire, and it took us a bit to get untracked,” Lamble said. “Once we got into the second set, we got a few breaks and it really helped us get back in it. Alan and I talked about a few things as well and it helped settle us both down a bit.”
“We did pretty well once we got going,” said Kohen. “Playing in the sun today was difficult, but we managed to overcome it. Once we got to the tiebreak, we did make a couple of mistakes but we overcame them.”
Escobar-Krainik managed to get off to a 3-0 lead before Lamble-Kohen won a game, but Escobar-Krainik had no trouble finishing off the opening set. In the second set, Lamble-Kohen bounced back and managed to take a lead, winning three of the first four games. Escobar-Krainik rallied to cut the lead to 4-3, but Lamble-Kohen won the final two games to even the match.
In the tiebreaker, in which the winner is the first to reach 10 points while winning by at least two, Escobar-Krainik got off to a 4-0 lead and seemingly had Lamble-Kohen on the ropes, but the Argentine-American duo rallied to grab the lead and put the Canadian-Ecuadoran duo away quickly to advance to the final.
In Friday's singles quarterfinals, Australia's Harry Bourchier, the fifth seed, eliminated American Mico Santiago 6-4, 6-4; American Evan King defeated Escobar 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3; American Clay Thompson ousted American Felix Corwin 6-3, 6-4; and Croatia's Ante Pavic defeated Nick Meister of the USA 3-2 (retired).
Saturday's singles semifinals begin at 9:30 a.m. and will feature Thompson taking on Pavic on Court 3 while King meets up with Bourchier on Court 2. The finals in both doubles and singles are set for Sunday morning; the time has yet to be determined, but the doubles final will be played first, followed by the singles final.
For more information, visit www.edwardsvillefutures.com
More like this:
