Austin Tennis Academy News

September 25, 2008

A Successful Weekend at the Spenco

The Austin Tennis Academy served as host to the Spenco ATA Fall Open this past weekend, with 57 athletes representing ATA and Coach Brian Notis serving as director. The tournament was played at ATA as well as St. Stephen’s High School, Dripping Springs High School and Westlake High School.

Part of the ATA mission is to create a local junior tennis community, dedicated to developing students to their fullest potential. The continued growth, participation and success of the Spenco tournaments marks one way in which our Academy is accomplishing this goal.

In the boys and girls 18's Qualified draws this weekend, the final rounds each paired two ATA players competing for the championship, with all four passing the option of competing in younger divisions. Taylor Shamshiri won the 18's Qualified draw by defeating teammate Charlie Shin in the final round 6-3,6-3 in a high-level tennis match. Shin racked up three wins on his way to the finals on Sunday. Claire Cahill defeated her friend and teammate Morgan Barnhill in the final round of the girls 18's draw 6-3,6-4.

“Both girls displayed great sportsmanship and effort,” Coach Jack Newman said.

Remi Immler won two matches, each three hours long that ended in 3rd set tie-breaks to win the G12's NQ on Sunday. She defeated teammate Aarti Bhat in the final and teammate Haarika Somarothu in the semi's. Bhat defeated the four seed Jerlecia Thompson 6-3,6-3 to earn a spot in the final round, while Somarothu beat Katherine Spencer 6-0,6-2 before her battle with Immler.

Competing in the girls 12's Qualified draw, Ali Burak backed up her number one seed by racking up three victories while winning the tournament.

Like the girls 12's NQ, ATA players dominated the boys 12's NQ draw, placing three athletes in the semifinal.

“Rahul Gorti pulled out a nearly three-hour marathon over Zach Knezevich in the semi's only to run into a very confident and determined Michael Holder in the final,” Coach Brian Notis said.

Gorti won three matches before falling to Holder, 6-1, 7-5.

In the girls 14's Qualified draw, Maggie O’Meara won three matches to reach the final round, meeting her teammate and friend Sydney Young in the semi’s. Sydney, who won two matches on her way to the semi’s, came in as the number one seed.

“Maggie Omeara and Sydney Young had an outstanding match against each other, pulling each other up in level,” Coach Newman said.

Courtney Shulte won two matches to earn a spot in the quarter finals where she met and fell to Sydney Young. Lauren Schulte defeated Paige Johnson 6-2,6-2 before going down to the number seven seed Krizia Buck. Allie Carlisle also competed in the girls 14's Qualified division.

“Carlisle had an almost flawless match mentally, which is her big goal right now. She will win lots of matches if she continues to master herself as well as I saw this weekend,” Coach Newman said.

Carli Knezevich worked hard to defeat Jessica Clouse 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. By beating Ashley Ford 6-1, 6-4, Smrithi Hariharan advanced to the round of 16 where she lost to the number six seed. Mikeala Pope took down Tatiana Bujnoch 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi’s of the NQ draw.

In the girls 16's, Kate Cahill went down in her second match to Christine Fryer in a hard-fought three set match, 6-3, 5-7, 10-7.

After a 6-3,6-3 first round victory, Payton Holden matched up against the number one seed of the boys 12's Qualified draw.

I was very impressed by Payton, Coach Newman said. “He played the number one seed Joshua Minor in a very close match.”

Ben Smith, also in the boys 12's Qualified draw, won four straight matches knocking off three seeded players on his way to the final, where he too went down to Minor 6-3, 6-4. Minor also defeated ATA’s Rohan Makhija who won two matches to earn a spot in the quarter-finals. Sanjit Kumar earned a spot in the round of 16 of the boys 12's Qualified draw with a hard-fought victory over Thomas Guerrero 6-4, 7-6(4).

In the boys 12's Qualified draw, Conor O’Meara rallied to win two matches before going down in a marathon match to Kennan Dishman 7-5,0-6,12-10. The number five seeded Jake Berber beat Austin Vo 6-4, 6-0 before going down to the three seed in a hard-fought three set match, 4-6,6-4,4-6. Matthew Milliken went down in a highly contested three set match to Dishman, 2-6, 6-3, 11-9.

In the Boys’ 14's Qualified, Daniel Howell faced B.G. Slay in the round of 32, where he fell 6-3, 6-2. After going down first round, Breck Spencer next faced Austin Priess. The two battled in a long three set match, with Priess taking the third set tie breaker 10-4. Also in the 14's draw, Greyson Brilliant defeated Ricardo Longoria 6-2,6-0 to earn a spot in the round of 16. Sreyas Mahadevan went down in his second round match to Liam Woolley-MacMeth, the number one seed. Neel Kumar fought for a win over Casey Shaw 6-2, 7-5 in his first round match.

The number one seed of the boys 14's NQ draw, Jaxon Immler, won two matches to earn a spot in the final round.

After dropping his first match in the boys 16's draw, Garrett Callen rebounded to earn an impressive win in his next match 4-6,6-2,11-9. After defeating Brian Ong 6-3,6-1, Ryan Burak faced the two seed and teammate Eliot Blatt who came away with the win 6-1, 6-2. Raymond Traweek beat Krishna Venkataraman 6-2,6-2 to earn a spot in the round of 16, before falling to the number four seed. Austin Mayo defeated Edward Yu 6-2,6-1 before battling the three seed Kevin Vo in a highly competitive three set loss, 2-6,6-1,6-3.

James Seward earned a spot in the semifinal round of the boys 16's NQ draw by defeating Devin Broaddus 6-0, 6-1.

In the boys 18's, Aaron Chaffee fell 6-3,3-6,6-3 to Omar De Jesus Palacios in a hard-fought match. Matthew Sparks went down to Dylan Randazzo 6-2, 6-4, also in the boys 18's. Donny Hackett beat Daniel Wang 6-1,6-1, before meeting the number two seed Kyle Grandin second round. Jonathan Stockdale defeated Trey Garrison 6-4, 6-2 before falling to teammate and eventual finalist Charlie Shin, 6-2, 6-4.

While the ATA junior athletes earned much success on the singles court, doubles was also a large part of their weekend.

In the boys 12's doubles draw, Jake Berber and Conor O’Meara teamed up to earn an impressive record of 3-0 on the weekend. In the girls 12's draw Smrithi Mahadevan and Kathryn Rogers beat Cuteri and Young 3-6, 6-4, 10-8.

Greyson Brilliant and Andrew Levitan paired up to compete in the boys 14's draw, where they beat the number 2 seeded team 8-4 to earn a spot in the finals. The girls 14's draw unfolded to have the top two seeded teams facing off in the final, where Krizia Buck and Courtney Shulte outlasted Nicole Karaklis and Sydney Young 9-7.

The top seeded duo of Shamshiri and Rizvi won two matches on their way to winning the boys 16/18's draw. In the girls 16/18's draw, Morgan Barnhill and Claire Cahill teamed up to earn two victories over the only other two teams in their division.

This past weekends Spenco ATA Fall Open offered 23 competitive draws across five different age divisions. This impressive range is a convincing sign that ATA’s goal of creating a local junior tennis community capable of developing students to their fullest potential is now becoming a reality.

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