January 21, 2010
One Champion and Three Finalists at Belton ZAT
The ZAT athletes of Austin Tennis Academy traveled to Belton, Texas for the Subway_BBI Tennis Central Texas ZAT. Twelve ATA junior athletes fought through the cold conditions on Jan 9-10 and earned successful results.
Chad Howland battled his way through the boys’ 16s draw to take the championship title. Winning six-straight matches, Chad finished the weekend by defeating the number 1 seed Jordan Ogletree 6-3, 6-3.
“Chad showed lots of progress in his game technically and his willingness to go for his shots,” Coach Notis said.
Tyler Wilkie worked his way to the finals of the boys’ 12s draw. Wilkie won three straight matches, taking down Casey Voss 6-3, 6-3, Zane Khan 2-6, 7-5, 10-6 and Julian Sweeney 6-4, 7-6.
“Tyler Wilkie made huge gains from last month’s ZAT tournament both in his results and his performance,” Coach Notis said.
Michael Holder also finished the weekend a finalist. He won three matches to secure his spot in the boys’ 14s draw finals. In the quarterfinals he beat Colin Boyett 6-2, 6-3, before eliminating Isaac Childs 6-3, 2-6, 10-4.
“Michael played with confidence and determination all weekend,” Coach Notis said.
With three main draw wins in the girls’ 12s, Danielle Cuteri became the third ATA athletes to reach the final round. Danielle defeated Priyal Patel 6-3, 6-3 and Alexandra Hutchinson 7-6, 6-4 to reach the final round.
“Danielle fought extremely hard and played with tremendous discipline in her shot selection as well as with her mental tools,” Coach Notis said.
In the girls’ 12s, Cierra Yudell rebounded from a first round loss to win her next four matches and claim the consolation championship. She defeated Alexandra Yeager 6-4, 6-7, 11-9 in the consolation semifinals and then Hailey Burgess in her final match.
“Cierra bounced back from a shaky first round match to get better and better throughout the weekend,” Coach Notis said.
Smrithi Mahadevan won her opening round match over Taylor Gruber 6-2, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals.
“Smrithi too a big step forward in managing her emotions and using her mental tools. She is primed for a breakthrough result soon,” Coach Notis said.
Jordyn Kanak defeated Hannah Windham 6-3, 7-5 in the consolation quarterfinals of the girls’ 12s draw.
Jay Spiers fell just short in a hard-fought match first round, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). Jimmy Thompson earned valuable experience in the boys’ 12s draw.
In the boys’ 10s, Kyler Bender beat John Marshall 8-3 to reach the semifinals.
“All of our ATA players handled the extreme cold weather amazingly well,” Coach Notis said.
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