Tournament Summary
Davis, Thiem Capture Eddie Herr 18s Titles; Crawford and Lederman Give U.S. Sweep of 16s
by
Colette Lewis, 10 December 2010
| Share: |  |
|  | |
|
|
With over a thousand tennis matches played at the 2010 Eddie Herr, there were bound to be plenty of surprises when the eight singles champions were crowned. With the exception of the boys 12s, none of the winners were a top seed, with three unseeded players earning titles.
But in the 18s division, although neither were top seeds, American
Lauren Davis and Austrian
Dominic Thiem had established themselves as favorites coming into the tournament with titles at the Yucatan Cup the previous week, and they lived up to expectations.
Davis, the No. 5 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Yulia Putintseva of Russia 6-3, 7-5 and Thiem, the No. 3 seed, cruised past No. 5 seed Oliver Golding of Great Britain 6-2, 6-1 to collect their second consecutive ITF Grade 1 titles.
The girls final was interrupted by a brief rain shower after only one game had been completed, but neither Davis nor Putintseva seemed affected by the one-hour delay.
Putintseva is, like Davis, short, but extremely strong and always capable of hitting a great shot on an important point. Down 5-1 in the opening set, the 15-year-old Russian got it back to 5-3, only to be broken in a very long ninth game. The several hundred fans were generous with their applause to both players' winners, but the American began to hear the majority of the cheers as the match wore on. In the second set, Davis took a 3-1 lead, but Putintseva roared back to go up 5-4, and serving for the second set, had two set points, but converted neither. Davis seized the momentum, taking the next two games and claiming the title in a grueling two hours and forty-two minutes.
Asked about keeping her very demonstrative and often argumentative opponent from distracting her, Davis said she was prepared for the disruptions.
"I think I was too focused to even notice, really," the Ohio native said.
