Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
French teen de Oliveira overpowers top seed Shaikh
With one last scream of
Emily de Oliveira finally overcame a scary argument in the stands involving her father and her top-seeded opponent’s father to advance to the quarterfinals of the USTA Girls’ 14 National Clay Court Championships on Thursday.
At 5-5 of the opening set, de Oliveira, 14, a native of Lyon, France, questioned a line call by the top-seeded Hibah Shaikh of Teaneck, N.J. When Shaikh showed the roving umpire the wrong ball mark, de Oliveira’s father/coach Philippe erupted and loudly accused his daughter’s opponent of cheating.
That didn’t sit well with Shaikh’s father, Riyaz, and the two almost came to blows in the bleachers adjacent to Court 1 in Veltri Tennis Center. Eventually, the two calmed down, but the argument seemed to affect Shaikh, who was blanked in the tiebreaker.
Early in the second set, rain forced several maindraw matches to shift from Plantation to David Park in Hollywood, where a now confident, stronger de Oliveira began pulverizing her petite 100-pound opponent’s moonballs en route to a 7-6 (0), 6-1 victory. The fathers continued to jaw at each other.
“My dad knows how to deal with it, so I let him. Parents are like that some times,’’ said de Oliveira, who moved to Bradenton at 9 to continue her tennis education. “I was keeping positive and keeping her negative. [When we switched courts] I didn’t want another 2-hour set, so I changed a little bit and it worked.’’
The 16th-seeded de Oliveira, who won the USTA Level 3 Bobby Curtis Junior Sectional title in Altamonte Springs last month, will next play Katrina Scott, the 10th seed from Los Angeles, who dispatched a sorearmed Allura Zamarippa of Napa Valley, Calif., 7-5, 6-2.
Zamarippa’s twin sister, Mirabella, picked up her rain-delayed match at 5-7, 5-6 in the morning only to lose quickly to Nadejda Maslova, the 12th seed, who later fell to her doubles partner, the fifth-seeded Valencia Xu, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Feisty 12-year-old lefty Alexis Blokhina, the only unseeded player left in the final eight, finished off the fourth-seeded Alexandra Torre in a postponed match from Wednesday, and then clawed back from 1-4 in the first set to dispatch 14th-seeded Bridget Stammel of Dallas 6-4, 6-3.
“I’m a really good sleeper and wasn’t worried about it because worries don’t get you far,’’ Blokhina said about her overnight postponed match. “I didn’t think I’d get to this point but during the matches I’m getting more confidence on my shot and am playing really smart. When I see an opportunity I go for it.’’
In a battle of 90-pounders, Blokhina, who lives and trains in Plantation, will face Madison Sieg, the seventh seed from Grenwich, Conn., who knocked off 11th-seeded Leyden Games, 6-3, 6-2. The freckle-faced Sieg got the best of Blokhina, 7-5, 6-3 on hard courts in the Winter Nationals in Tucson last December.
“It’ll be tough, but I have to take it to her,’’ Sieg said.