Jonah Serotta has overturned his defeat to Max Warner from the British Junior Open final, defeating his rival in straight sets at Seacourt on Saturday to reach the World Junior Championship final. Meanwhile, in the girl’s draw, first seed Katherine Carney and second seed Riya Bharwad battled through tough matches against spirited opposition in their semi-finals, with Carney securing her third straight final appearance.
The first match of the morning was the girl’s semi-final between Georgia Toosey, and first seed and defending champion, Katherine Carney. It was a nervy start for Carney, who took her time experimenting with different serves to find something that stuck. Toosey knew that she needed a strong start to be able to challenge Carney, so struck early, picking off Carney’s volley to get the lead. At 2-all, a wayward serve from Carney struck the net post, disturbing the net height and resulting in a five-minute delay as the height was restored. On the resumption, Carney improved her serving, getting the advantage in the rally early and patiently waiting for a mistake from Toosey, and going ahead 4/2. Still, the Wellingtonian did not give in, defending the service end well and almost taking the score to 4-all, with a full stretch volley in front of the tambour. But Carney beat the resultant chase, going on to take the first set moments later. Toosey had the stronger start to the second set, maintaining a small lead before Carney finally settled into the play. Carney’s service return improved and Toosey’s resistance wilted. Carney won the last five games, securing her place in the final.
The only boy’s semi-final of the day was between defending champion and first seed, Max Warner, and the American challenger and fourth seed, Jonah Serotta. Serotta took the attack to Warner immediately, throwing in some big cut-volleys to knock Warner completely off his drag serve. Warner then spent the early stages of the set exploring other serves, but Serotta had an answer to all of them. Anything hit long was routinely dispatched into a main-wall dedans, leaving Warner defenseless on his backhand side. But it was his service-end play that really pushed Serotta ahead. His serving was tight, both on the railroad and the side-wall, meaning Warner could only spoon the ball back to Serotta’s backhand. Serotta was fired up, throwing a fist in the air after every point he won, even doing a 360-degree jump in celebration after going 4/1 up. At set point at 5/1, Serotta got perhaps a little too excited, charging the hazard galleries while playing a chase even though the ball was down Warner’s forehand side. It mattered little, as a few moments later he took the first set with a ball slammed into the winning gallery.
Warner took the first game of the second set, identifying that he needed to maintain the service end as much as possible to stay in the contest. Serotta largely ignored the galleries, giving Warner the majority of the serve. Even so, Serotta pushed him from side-to-side, and punished any serve high on the back wall with dedans after dedans. He went 5/1 up but then the nerves set in. Warner dug deep, fighting hard to stay in contention and mounting a comeback. He refound the grille, having gone a set-and-a-half without hitting his favourite square target. Warner won three straight games, and it wasn’t clear where Serotta’s final game was coming from. But the Philadelphian refound his form, kept beating the short chases, and finishing the match with a railroad that stuck to the battery wall. Jubliant, he secured his place in Sunday’s final.
The second girl’s semi-final pitted Royal Tennis Court’s Martha Raitt against Cambridge’s second seed Riya Bharwad. Bharwad took immediate control of the match with her slower, shorter railroads which spun back for the first time in the week. It earned her several aces as she made her way to a 4/1 lead, but Raitt was able to adjust and battle back. Raitt’s side-walls and African hunting dog serves caught Raitt in two minds between volleying and taking off the back, generating several errors as the match devolved into a battle to lay chases and control the service end. Raitt brough the score back to 3/4, but an untimely double fault gave Bharwad the next game. Bharwad saw six set points come and go before finally converting. She took the confidence into the next set, stretching out a three game lead, but Raitt’s serving continued to cause trouble for the Cantabridgian. Raitt won the next three games, bringing the match back to equality. Bharwad had to put an extra bit of pace back into her railroad to win through the final three games and book her place in the final to play Carney.
Fifth seed, Archie Watson, received a bye through to the final, as his prospective opponent, second seed, Algernon Nottingham, was disqualified from the tournament due to an off-court incident.
The tournament concludes on Sunday with both the boy’s and girl’s finals.
Match results:
10:00 AM: Katherine Carney (1) def Georgia Toosey 6/3 6/2
12:00 PM: Max Warner (1) lost to Jonah Serotta (4) 2/6 4/6
2:00 PM: Martha Raitt lost to Riya Bharwad (2) 3/6 3/6
4:00 PM: Archie Watson (5) def Algernon Nottingham (2) D/Q
Order of play for Sunday:
12:00 PM: Katherine Carney (1) vs Riya Bharwad (2)
2:00 PM: Jonah Serotta (4) vs Archie Watson (5)