USTA Capsules: Young guns battle for Championships

The first USTA Pro Circuit Brownsville Women's $10,000 Tournament will be decided by two teenag-ers.

Second-seeded Sasha Jones of New Zealand, 18, was expected to be in the finals. She is ranked as the 374th-best player in the world.

But unseeded amateur Ester Goldfeld, 15, came out of the top bracket as a major surprise. She made it to the tournament as a qualifier.

Jones and Goldfeld will meet at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Brownsville Tennis Center to decide the champi-onship. About 30 minutes after the completion of the match, the two will face each other again in the doubles' championship match.

Jones will pair up with Ashley Weinhold to face Goldfeld and Macall Harkins in the doubles' finals.

Goldfeld advanced to the finals by defeating Brittany Augustine, 6-2, 6-2, in Saturday's semifinals.

"The score didn't really mean anything, because all of the games were close," Goldfeld said. "Brittany had tougher matches to get here than I did. She had a tougher draw to get to the semfiinals and that may have played a part in the outcome."

Goldfeld, a native of Brooklyn, attends Laurel Springs School and is expected to graduate in 2011. She will be 16 years old on July 7.

Goldfeld's victory earned her an automatic special exemption to participate at the Wichita Tournament next week. She will not have to make the tournament as a qualifier like she did in Brownsville.

Sunday's match will be the first time she faces Jones in sing'es' competition. Jones had to come from behind to defeat Macall Harkins, 2-6 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, in a grueling match that lasted almost three hours.

After losing the initial set, Jones had to survive a grueling second set that featured a match point for Harkins in the second set. Jones came back to win the set, but immediately trailed Harkins in the third set, 3-0, She re-focused to tie the set at 3-3 and won the set 6-4, clinching the match victory.

In the final point, the taller left-handed swinger Harkins had Jones running numerous times along the baseline. At match point, Harkins hit the corner spot, only to see Jones recover with a strong forehand volley down the right sideline that left Harkins motionless.

"When I was down twice in the match, I managed to rally for every point," Jones said. "I just had to bring myself back into the match mentally. I was proud that I could come back and break her serve and eventually win the match."

Jones and friend Ashley Weinhold of Austin are the top-seeded doubles' team in the tournament. Gold-feld and Harkins are unseeded in doubles.

Augustine earns biggest win of career in Brownsville

Brittany Augustine has been preparing for the kind of day she had Wednesday since she was 10 years old.

The 17-year-old former junior top-ranked player came from behind to knock off Caitlin Whoriskey, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5, in a second-round match at the USTA Pro Circuit Brownsville Women's Tennis Tournament at the Brownsville Tennis Center.

The previous day, Whoriskey had taken down the top seed in the tournament, while Augustine shut down Sofia Montemayor, who attends private school in Brownsville.

Wednesday's win marked the biggest one thus far in Augustine's career.

"This was an important one for me," Augustine said. "I've been slumping a bit and this really builds my confidence for my next match."

Augustine first picked up a racket at age 10, and liked the game enough to attend summer camps and make a career out of tennis. After she picked up the racket, she attended a few summer camps and real-ized she enjoyed the game and decided to make a career out of it.

She was born in Orlando, Florida, but has lived in the Los Angeles area most of her life. The Safe Pas-sage Tennis Program in Los Angeles, which started out as the Arthur Ashe Safe Passage Foundation Tennis Program in 1975, has provided Augustine and many other inner-city youth of Los Angeles an opportunity to pick up the game.

Program director and Augustine's coach Tony Brock took over for Ashe in 1998 to help low-income children who otherwise would not have the opportunity to develop their tennis games.

"Our program is geared to develop younger players," Brock said. "The program is not geared to make players into professinoals. We just want to teach them the game."

Augustine works out of The Home Depot Center in Carson, a Los Angeles suburb. Her father was an international soccer player for Trinidad and Tobago, and she has developed strong legs for her heavy ground strokes.

Augustine showed her athleticism Wednesday with strokes that were very powerful from a woman who stands only 5-4 and weighs 110 pounds.

Augustine dropped the first set, 6-2, and won the second, 6-1, forcing the third set. She was down 5-4 and faced elimination before coming back to win three straight games in the 7-5 third-set victory.

"When I was down 5-4, I told myself to play like it was the first game of the match," Augustine said. "One thing I have learned from Coach Brock is to not let your mind get in the way. You have to play your game."

With the win, Augustine advanced to a tournament quarterfinals for the second time in her career, where she will face Maureen Diaz. The two have met twice and split victories.

Tournament play begins at 10 a.m. Friday with four quarterfinal matches and two semfiinal matches in women's doubles.

Local tennis player gain experience from Brownsville USTA Women's Tournament

In a day full of upsets, a morning match will have a lasting impression on Brownsville student Sofia Montemayor.

The 15-year-old sophomore at Livingway Family Church High School lost her opening-round match to Brittany Augustine, 6-0, 6-0, at the USTA Pro Circuit Brownsville Women's Tennis Tournament at Brownsville Tennis Center Wednesday.

But Montemayor left the tournament in good spirits, knowing that her first taste of professional tennis will be something she will remember for the rest of her life.

"I was nervous at first because I was playing against a professional player for the first time," said the 15-year-old Matamoros native. "I know now what I need to be as good as they are. My goals are to play in this tournament and at the U.S. Open someday."

Her coach for the last four years and tournament director Seferino Couoh felt that the score did not reflect the competitiveness of the match.

"Sofia handled the serves realy well," Couoh said. "But we need to work on her footwork. She knows what she has to do to be successful at this level. I think that by the time she is 18, she'll be ready to play at this level."

At Livingway, Montemayor faced competition against private schools which were not as challenging as the public schools. She has played in international tournaments in Mexico since 2006 and has reached the "super champ" level as a junior player.

She qualified for the USTA Pro Circuit by winning a wild-card tournament last week, earning a spot in the 32-player main draw.

Of the eight seeded players in the singles' main draw, four lost their opening-round matches. Top-seeded Vivian Segnini of Brazil, the 332nd-ranked player in the USTA, fell to Caitlin Whoriskey of East Sandwich, Mass., 6-1, 6-4. Whoriskey, a junior on the University of Tennessee women's tennis team, was one of eight singles players advancing out of the qualifying competition and pulled off the upset of the day.

Also knocked out in the first round were third-seeded Ashley Weinhold of Austin, who lost to Diane Hollands of New Zealand, 6-2, 6-2; fifth-seeded Johanna Konta of Australia, who lost to Courtney Dolehide, 7-6(4), 6-1; and eighth-seeded Tarakaa Bertrand, who lost to Ellen Tsay, 6-1, 6-3.

Dolehide advanced out of the qualifying competitition like Whoriskey and Tsay was a wild-card qualifier like Montemayor.

In doubles competitition Wednesday, the only upset was the fourth-seeded duo of Kaitlyn Christian and Diane Hollands, who lost to the duo of Bertrand and Whoriskey, 6-4, 6-1.

Competition continues at 9 a.m. Thursday with second-round singles matches and quarterfinal doubles matches. The feature match of the day will be played at 6:30 p.m. under the lights matching Hollands against Kim-Alice Grajdek of Germany.

USTA Women's pro circuit tournament starts today

United States Tennis Association pro men's events have graced Brownsville Tennis Center's courts for several years now, and this week, it's the women's turn.

The inaugural USTA Pro Circuit Brownsville Women's $10,000 Tennis Tournament begins at 9 a.m. today after qualifying competition Sunday and Monday at the tennis center resulted in eight players advancing into the 32-player main draw for singles. Two doubles teams also advanced out of the qualifying into today's 16-team main draw.

Singles and doubles matches continue through the week with the finals scheduled for Sunday.

Jim McNeil, Brownsville Tennis Association president and co-director of this week's pro tournament, said the tennis center is pleased to play host to another USTA pro event.

"We're hoping to create some excitement for tennis in the Rio Grande Valley, and particularly in the city of Brownsville," he said.

The eight singles players advancing out of the qualifying competition on Monday were Macall Harkins, Tristen Z. Dewar, Ester Goldfeld, Marilyn Baker, Courtney B. Dolehide, Caitlin Whoriskey, Stephanie Hoffpauir and Nicole Bartnik, all Americans.

The two doubles teams entering the main draw out of Monday's qualifying were Russian Maria Fedosyuk and American Stephanie Vidov along with the duo of Erin Liefeld of Australia and Ana-Maria Moura of Brazil.

Vivian Segnini of Brazil enters the singles bracket as the top seed, while Sacha Jones of New Zealand and Ashley Weinhold of Austin, Texas, are top-seeded in doubles.

USTA official Dessie Samuels said the players are adapting to the demanding South Texas weather conditions. In addition to Americans, Australians, Russians, New Zealanders and Brazilians, players representing other countries in the main draw are from Mexico, Colombia, Germany and Canada.

"They're drinking fluids to stay hydrated and taking the necessary precautions," she said.

Roy Hess writes for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him via e-mail at rhess@brownsvilleherald.com

USTA Pro Circuit Brownsville Women's Tennis Tournament gives local player an opportunity to improve

Sofia Montemayor's goals as a tennis player are well-defined.

The 15-year-old Matamoros native and sophomore-to-be at Livingway Family Church High School in Brownsville has reached the level of "super champ" as a juniors player and would like to eventually play tennis at Texas A&M before playing the sport professionally.

Montemayor, who has played in international juniors tournaments in Mexico for three years, considers her participation in this week's USTA Pro Circuit Brownsville Women's Tennis Tournament at Brownsville Tennis Center as an important step toward achieving her goals.

By winning a wild-card tournament last week at Brownsville Tennis Center, she gained a spot in the 32-player main draw of the pro circuit tournament beginning Tuesday and running through next Sunday. Theresa Smith of Florida won another wild-card tournament last week at the tennis center to also secure a berth in the main draw.

"I'm excited," Montemayor said. "I'm also nervous because I know these players play very good, but I'm going to do my best. This is a very good opportunity for me to get more experience."

A 128-player qualifier tournament begins today and continues Monday at the tennis center, with approximately eight players expected to earn spots in Tuesday's main draw along with Montemayor and Smith.

"To gain experience at that level is the most important thing (for Sofia)," said Seferino Couoh, Brownsville Tennis Center pro and Montemayor's coach. "Mostly it's trying to get a feeling for the level she wants to get to because she's not there yet. It'll be a valuable experience for her."

Added Montemayor, who said her forehand is the strongest part of her game, "I'm thankful for my coach and parents and for the support they're giving me. I want to be a better player."

Two other 15-year-old standout players entered in today and Monday's qualifying event are Chanelle Van Nguyen of Coconut Grove, Fla., and Ellen Tsay of Pleasanton, Calif. Tsay is ranked No. 5 in the USTA girls 18s national standings, while Van Nguyen is ranked No. 27 nationally in USTA girls 16s.

Play is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. today and Monday and possibly continue all day, particularly today, according to Jim McNeil, Brownsville Tennis Association president and tournament co-director.

For more information, call (956) 547-8326.

Roy Hess writes for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him via e-mail at rhess@brownsvilleherald.com.