Noah Rubin Into Easter Bowl Quarters With Win Over Six Seed
In action on Thursday at the 46th Annual ASICS Easter Bowl at the Sunrise Country Club, top-seeded in the Boys 18s Division Noah Rubin of Rockville Centre, N.Y. advanced to the quarterfinals of the event after a 7-5, 7-5 win over Logan Smith of Carlsbad, Calif. Awaiting Noah in the quarters is the 14th-seeded Alexandru Gozun of Sarasota, Fla., a 6-2, 7-6(4) winner over the number nine seed, Francis Tiafoe of College Park, Md.
Future UCLA teammates and fellow Californians Mackenzie McDonald and Gage Brymer recorded convincing straight-set victories on Thursday in the Boys’ 18s division on Day 5 of the event. The second-seeded McDonald of Piedmont, Calif. defeated the 15th-seeded Dennis Uspensky of Atlantic Beach, N.Y., 6-3, 6-1, while the unseeded Brymer of Irvine, Calif., defeated Henrik Wiersholm, the number 14-seed from Kirkland, Wash., 6-2, 7-5.
The defending champion and former Boys 14s champion McDonald is looking to become the first back-to-back Boys 18s winner at the ASICS Easter since 1971-1972.
In the upset of the day, 13-year-old Ryan Peus of Carpinteria, Calif., beat 12-year-old and top-seeded Claire Liu of Thousand Oaks, Calif., in the Girls 14s quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-3. The two are training partners at the USTA Training Center-West in Carson, Calif. Peus was elated after the match, advancing to her first 14s semifinal of a USTA National event.
“It was a good win for me,” Peus said. “We’ve played like eight times and it always goes three sets. I was just a lot more aggressive and I felt like I had nothing to lose today. She was tight the entire match and the she had all the pressure on her.”
Peus wore her sweat-stained Roger Federer hat with three signatures on the bill of the cap belonging to R-Fed, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
“It’s my lucky hat,” she said, adding she got all the signatures at the nearby BNP Paribas Open just down the road in Indian Wells.
Other area locals of note in singles action at the 2013 Easter Bowl:
Girls 18s Singles (Quarterfinals)
â–ºLouisa Chirico (14) Harrison, N.Y. def. Monica Robinson Valley Center, Calif. 6-3, 6-1
Boys 16s Singles (Round of 16)
â–ºJake DeVine (17) Boca Raton, Fla. def. Artemie Amari New York, N.Y. 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(4)
Girls 14s Singles (Quarterfinals)
â–ºAlexa Graham (17) Garden City, N.Y. def. Janice Shin (17) Houston, Texas 6-2, 6-0
Girls 14 Singles (Silver Draw 4th Round Losers, Quarterfinal Round)
â–ºLoren Haukova Elmsford, N.Y. def. Christie Wan Rowland Heights, Calif. 6-3, 6-1
â–ºRiley McQuaid Tustin, Calif. def. Rachel Lim Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. 6-3, 6-2
Girls’ 14 Singles (Silver Draw 4th Round Losers, Semifinal Round)
â–ºAbigail Desiatnikov Gates Mills, Ohio def. Loren Haukova Elmsford, N.Y. 6-3, 6-0
