Feisty, unseeded Blokhina reaches 3rd round
Plantation 12-year-old claws back from a set down
PLANTATION — All match long, Alexis Blokhina was looking up at her older, taller opponent and the daunting set score as if she were climbing a mountain without a rope.
However, the unseeded Blokhina, 12, used her oncourt problem-solving skills, indomitable spirit and and variety of strokes to overcome Nataly Kader 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the third round of the USTA Girls 14National Clay Court Championships Monday at the Veltri Tennis Center.
The 5-foot, 95-pound Blokhina trailed 1-5 in the first set only to clawback to 5-5 before the 5-foot-7, 14- year-old K ad er prevailed. Blokhina, who moved from San Francisco to Plantation three years ago to train with renowned coach Nick Saviano at Veltri, then fell behind 1-4, 30-40 in the second set as Kader’s powerful groundstrokes were finding lines.
“She’s about four times my size, but I figured out a way to come back in the first set and kind of loosened up,’’ said Blokhina, who’s ranked fifth in the 12s nationally. “I persevered in the second set to get through it by just making one more ball back than her. I tried to get in her head, not in a mean way, but just pump myself up and give myself the best chance to win.’’
Blokhina constantly talks to herself on the court with a variety of self-exhortations, like, “Come on!’’ and the Russian version of “Davai, davai!’’ that she seems to chant at the same time as her Russian-born mother, Lyana, does from the gallery.
“I get my athletic genes from my father [Oleg], who played soccer, andmy feistiness from my mother,’’ smiled Blokhina, who reached the quarterfinals of the Easter Bowl 12s and has won two Level 2 national 12s events since May.
Also, cheering Blokhina on was her grandmother, Galina Radchenko, and 10-year-old brother Nathan, a rising star in the 12s who would’ve played in the National Clay Courts in Orlando if he wasn’t nursing a sore shoulder.
Blokhina, who turns 13 in a fewweeks, could’ve opted to play in the Girls 12 National Clay Courts in Boca Raton this week, but she preferred the challenge of playing up. So far it has paid off as she rolled through the third set with hardly an unforced error, while painting the corners to frustrate Kader, the third-ranked player from Cincinnati who usually plays 16s tournaments.
“During the break before the third set I could tell how excited she was just to go into the third set,’’ said coach Marcus Fluitt, a former ATP pro who works at Saviano’s High Performance Academy. “She has a lot of heart and is a great competitor. She loves the game and has a passion for it. She has the whole package, is a very smart player who really thrives in those situations.’’
Blokhina, a native of San Mateo, Calif., said Serena Williams is her favorite player because of her ferocity on the court and that while she hopes to turn pro in six years, college is an option. Her ultimate dream is to win either the U.S. Open or Wimbledon.
For now, she awaits her third-round opponent, MiaAngelina Ruja, the 21st-seed from El Paso, Texas.
“I knew in my heart I wanted to play the 14s and have a good chance to win it,’’ Blokhina said.
In other action, third seeded Tara Malik of Sec au cus, N.J ., defeated Daniel a Porges of Plantation, 6-3, 6-0; while 14-year-old twin sisters 19th-seeded Allura and Maribella Zamarripa easily advanced with straight-set victories. The sisters, from Napa Valley, Calif., are also the top-seeds in doubles.
In another match featuring a Russian flavor, Elizabeth Kuznetsov of Hollywood shed a few tears en route to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 loss to themore powerful Nastasya Semenovski of Brookline, Mass., the 30th seed.