SAN DIEGO - San Diegan Yilin Chen moved into the semi-finals of the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 16s National Tournament with a two-set defeat over Nikol Davletshina from Boca Raton, Fla, 6-2, 6-1.
The No. 17 seeded Chen plays No. 4 Paige Wygodzki from Huntington, N.Y. at noon on Friday at Barnes Tennis Center. Wygodzki defeated unseeded local Kiana Smith today in a match that lasted almost four hours, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
In the 18s, locals Alyssa Ahn and Julieta Pareja moved into the quarterfinals. No. 2 seed Pareja handily defeated Avery Nguyen from El Dorado Hills, Calif. 6-1, 6-2.
No. 7 seed Ahn defeated JoAnna Kennedy 6-1, 7-6 (3) from Englewood, Colo. After an uncomplicated first set, Kennedy broke Ahn’s serve at love to go up 3-2 in the second. Ahn broke right back at love to get back on serve at 3-3.
Up 6-5 in the second set, Ahn had three match points but was unable to convert any of them, and the set went to a tiebreaker. Failing to convert match points can rattle even the steadiest players, but if Ahn was dwelling on them, she didn’t show it.
The players traded points to get to 3-3, when Ahn won four straight to win the tiebreaker 7-3, and the match, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
“(There’s) almost always adversity in any match, especially at this level this late in the tournament,” said Alyssa’s father Michael. “I think that Alyssa has always been pretty mentally tough so I think that she proved that in this tiebreaker as well.”
In addition to her mental toughness, Ahn’s ability to chase down balls from anywhere on the court paid off. Getting to one more ball often turned the point in her favor. Her consistently deep groundstrokes and strong serve — that included one ace and nine other unreturned serves — also played key roles in the win.
Ahn will play No. 1 seed Akasha Urhobo from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. tomorrow at 9 a.m. while Pareja plays No. 17 Janae Preston from Henderson, Nev. Check out the schedule here. The 16s final will take place on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and the 18s semis will both be played at 1:00 p.m..